I wrote the Barings from Queenstown that I had for sale a security
which even their house might unhesitatingly consider. On my arrival in
London I found at the hotel a note from them requesting me to call. I
did so the next morning, and before I had left their banking house I
had closed an agreement by which they were to bring out this loan, and
that until they sold the bonds at par, less their two and a half per
cent commission, they would advance the Pennsylvania Railroad Company
four millions of dollars at five per cent interest. The sale left me a
clear profit of more than half a million dollars.
The papers were ordered to be drawn up, but as I was leaving Mr.
Russell Sturgis said they had just heard that Mr. Baring himself was
coming up to town in the morning. They had arranged to hold a
"court," and as it would be fitting to lay the transaction before him
as a matter of courtesy they would postpone the signing of the papers
until the morrow. If I would call at two o'clock the transaction would
be closed.
Never shall I forget the oppressed feeling which overcame me as I
stepped out and proceeded to the telegraph office to wire President
Thomson. Something told me that I ought not to do so. I would wait
till to-morrow when I had the contract in my pocket.
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