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Manhattan sketch

BY ELGIN E. GROSECLOSE, '20

THE STREET

New York, September, 1930

O n the Street - that magicdistrict of Manhattan where fortunes aremade and lost with the ease of a baccaratgame and the respectability of a fourthrow pew-victory belongs to the possessornot of the largest bank account but ofthe shrewdest wit. There is, for instance,the story I heard the other day of nearlya million lost by an important bankingfirm through the sharp practice of oneof the Street's minor traders .

This house, which to avoid any em-barrassment I shall call Brown, Hutchinsand Company, is one of that select coterieknown as international bankers. Thesehouses are the daimio and samurai of thefinancial world, whose lineage, high ethicsand undisputed prestige have given thempositions as arbiters of destinies in theStreet and even governments have beenknown to fall because of inability to courttheir favor. Powerful as an emperor'schamberlin, dignified as a pope's legate,they are extremely proud of their privi-leges, but careful of each others' positionsas they are jealous of upstarts .

The story, as I overheard it in thepleasantly comfortable atmosphere of theSavarin, begins when a suave and polish-ed gentleman with a distinctly foreign airarrived at the door of Brown, Hutchinsand Company and sent in his card toMr Joseph Boutille, one of the junior part-ners of the firm . Boutille, a young manin his early thirties who has already de-veloped a nervous habit of pulling at hiswatch, has made a name for himself inthe Street because of his negotiating fin-esse, his punctility and a reputation ofhaving never been caught in a trade. Heglanced at the card which his secretarylaid before him, frowned when he didnot recognize the name, but after finger-ing for a moment the finely engravedscript and noting again the address it bore

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-one of the smaller European capitals-directed that the gentleman be admitted .After the usual amenities, his visitor

was soon outlining, in precise but accentedEnglish, the purpose of his call . PerhapsMr Boutille was familiar with the greatpublic works program in which the Re-public of R-was engaged-a vast task,not the least item of which was the proj-ect for the drainage of the Moder valley .This important piece of work would giveemployment to thousands, provide culti-vable land for the great influx of popula-tion resulting from the war, allay unrestand assure the stability of the Republic .It was vital to the government that it becarried out, but much money would berequired .

Boutille was familiar with the project,but Meyer and Company had been thegovernment's bankers here for manyyears, and, if he could be pardoned, hedid not understand the purpose of thisvisit or what interest Brown, Hutchins andCompany could have under the circum-stances.Ah, that was just the point. Perhaps

Mr Boutille was aware that there had re-cently been a change of government andthat Vironescu wasnowpremier. Virones-cu, Mr Boutille might recall, had violentlyattacked the fiscal policies of his predeces-sor, and had pledged a new financial re-gime . Vironescu was not pleased withthe way the government's loans had beenhandled, and among his first acts was tocommission his visitor to come to NewYork and privately arrange new bankingconnections .This was very interesting, Boutille ad-

mitted, but he was not clear as to whyhis visitor had chosen to come to Brown,Hutchins and Company-the house hadheretofore shown no interest in this coun-try and had never sought a position inits financing. Not being closely familiar

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with affairs there, it would require con-siderable study to determine whetherthere was sufficient basis for additionalloans.

Quite true, his visitor explained, butthe other leading houses capable of hand-ling these requirements were either mem-bers of the Meyer and Company groupor so committed to it that they were un-available . That had been carefully can-vassed before his departure for New York,and Vironescu had specifically mentionedBrown, Hutchins and Company, whosereputation was very high in R- throughits excellent management of the greatBurgheiter Iron Works consolidation.

Boutille explained the difficulty of mak-ing an immediate decision . It wouldtake time to bring together another group,and as he had already explained, somestudy of the figures would be necessary .He assumed his visitor had brought allthe necessary data with him . His visitorhad not, he said . He had left in suchhaste that it had not been possible . More-over, it was a matter of great urgency.Parliament would convene within a week,and it was necessary to present a fait ac-compli at its sitting . Would it be possiblefor him to come in the following dayfor the decision?

Boutille considered . He agreed . Ofcourse, it would be a somewhat tentativedecision, depending on a more detailedstudy later. His visitor understood per-fectly . Naturally no reputable bankerwould commit himself irrevocably to any-thing. That was banking. However, ifhe could cable to Vironescu that Brown,Hutchins and Company had indicated aninterest in principle, that would suffice .He would then present his credentials,and they could at once enter into the de-tails of the negotiation . But, en passant,Mr Boutille should understand that therewas one other firm whom his visitor hadconsidered approaching in case Brown,Hutchins and Company were not interest-ed . He had met one of the partners onthe boat, and had mentioned it most casu-ally and guardedly to him. He had shownkeen interest and had asked that his housebe given an opportunity to consider thematter . In fact, he had an appointmentthere the following day. Of course, Brown,Hutchins and Company had first call onthe business, and he hoped its decisionwould be favorable .

Boutille glanced at his onyx desk clock,set a time with his visitor, made a no-tation on his memorandum pad, and thennervously pulled out his watch. He notedwith irritation that it had stopped, andwhen his visitor had gone, called his sec-

TURN TO PACE 28 PLEASE

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Paul Kennedy, '30 journ., is reporting for theOklahoma City Times. In the issue of August 26appeared a signed feature story by him dealingwith his experiences hunting a job.

Virginia Hackett, '30 art, of Norman, willteach this year in the Wainea, Hawaii, juniorhigh school . She sailed for Honolulu the earlypart of August for a visit there.

Miss Anna Hopkins, ex '30, of Blanchard,Oklahoma, and Miss Beth Green, ex '28, of Al-buquerque, New Mexico, sailed August 16 fromSeattle, Washington, to Fairbanks, Alaska, wherethey will teach.

Miss Anna Lewis, Ph . D. '30, head of the his-tory department of Oklahoma College for Wo-men, represented her school at the national con-ference for colleges for women held at Monte-vallo, Alabama.

1931Paul Miller, ex '31, of Oklahoma City, is a

member of the publicity department of OklahomaAgricultural and Mechanical college this year .

1932Alvan Muldrow, '32 law, of Norman, suffered

a cracked vertebrae in his spine in making a diveJuly 27 in Pledger park of Norman . He isforced to wear a brace on his neck for severalmonths as a result of the accident .

1933Homer Blake, jr., '33, of Eufaula, Oklahoma,

was appointed late in August to be principal toAnnapolis academy by Congressman W. W.Hastings .

THE GUILLOTINEFOR CROSSCOUNTRY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16)

the six-mile crosscountry championship ofthe Intercollegiate Association of Ama-teur Athletics of America in 1910, 1911and 1912 . T. S. Berna, also of Cornell,who holds the world's intercollegiate two-mile record (9:17.8 in 1912) set it onlyafter he had won the eastern crosscountrygrind in 1909 .Now let's canvas the nation by sections .James Reid, of Harvard, holds the 1 . A .

A. A. A. two-mile run record (9:22 setin 1929) and he was the association cross-country champion the preceding fall witha mark of 30:14 for six miles. The one-mile record-holder is Jones, of Cornell,whose crosscountry activities we have al-ready treated .The Big Ten two-mile record is held

by David Abbott, of Illinois (9:23.7 in1928) and Abbott was also the Big Tencrosscountry champion the same year .The mile mark is held by E. H. Fall, ofOberlin (4:15.8 in 1907) . His mark wasset so long ago I could not find accessto any Oberlin crosscountry records.Galen Elliott, of North Carolina, the

one-mile record holder of the Southern

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conference (4 :21 .1 in 1926) was cross-country champion of that loop whilePritchett, of North Carolina, holder ofthe two-mile record (9:47.6 in 1928) wasalso a crosscountry devotee.

The fastest miler ever developed in ourown Big Six conference was Ray Conger,of Iowa State (4:17.6 while at Ames and4:13 on the boards in New York) and hewas the conference crosscountry championin 1926 with a mark of 25:52 for fivemiles, set on the Sooner course . Putnam,of Iowa State, holder of the conferencetwo-mile record (9 :30.2 set in 1930) lostto Glenn Dawson by only four yards inthe conference crosscountry gallop lastautumn .

Crosscountry as a sport has not flour-ished in the Southwest and Pacific Coastconferences as it has elsewhere and con-sequently those areas have produced fewgood distance runners. Take out JimReese and Esquival of Texas, Brunson ofRice, and Sampson, Denton, Tex. Teach-ers from the former loop and Gillette, ofMontana; Cleaver, of Idaho; Kiser ofWashington and Clayton and Hill of Ore-gon from the far west league and theyhave produced no outstanding intercol-legiate distance runners the past thirtyyears.Nurmi, of Finland, who ran the fastest

mile and two-mile in which any humanbeing has ever been clocked (4 :10.4 in1923 and 8:58.6 in 1925) preceded theseperformances by winning the 10,000 me-ters crosscountry race in the Olympicgames of 1920 . Even as a paper-hangerin Helsingfors he jogged from seven tofifteen miles to work and after wieldinghis brush vigorously all day, returnedhome via another crosscountry gallop .

As a crosscountry runner for the uni-versity in '26 and '27 I found the sportvery exhilarating . There was pure joyin drawing on clean white running at-tire and swinging along a country road,your spikes biting comfortably into thesoft turf and the stinging autumn airurging you to get up on your toes andsprint .There was positive ecstasy in the little

feeling of fatigue one experienced in at-tacking a hill and also in descending it .We used to race from our classes to thelocker room those afternoons, so keenwere we for the running.

That's the big reason I dislike seeingcrosscountry go . It was so darned muchfun. A two-mile race isn't . If they re-move crosscountry permanently, Big Sixconference directors will be destroyingone of the few sports left now days fromwhich an athlete gets genuine enjoyment.

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And since no University of Oklahomasport except football pays its own way,which would eliminate finance as a con-sideration, why not judge a sport partlyby its popularity with the individual ath-lete?

MANHATTAN SKETCH(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18)

retary and directed her to have it repair-ed .

Conferences followed that afternoonand late that night. The senior partnersagreed that the business sounded good,that it was worth the candle, that in factit sounded too good to be true . Theremust be a joker somewhere. They finallyagreed to an indication of interest in prin-ciple, but advised Boutille to hedge hisstatement with every possible reservation,and to make haste slowly .

Boutille spent most of the followingmorning considering the matter further.In spite of the clearance given by his part-ners, he was not satisfied. There werecertain nuances in the interview whichit was impossible to transmit and whichmight have affected their views. The de-cision and . the responsibility were, afterall, his, and he went over the matterfrom every angle to test his conclusions .Like many other men of similar temper-ament, the composure of his thoughts wasnot increased by his discovery, every timehe reached nervously in his pocket forhis timepiece, that a familiar object wasmissing.On his way to his club for lunch,

Boutilletille foundhiswayblocked atNassaubya crowd surrounding one of those streethawkers with which this narrow thor-oughfare is infested . With the enthusi-astic curiosity of a New Yorker he cranedforward to see what was going on . Theman was digging into his satchel andpulling out objects with both hands whichhe sold as rapidly as he could hand themout to his customers, at the same timeshouting with a loud voice,

"Dollar watches for fifty cents. Stepright up."The watches resembled those ordinary

contraptions which everywhere retail fora dollar, and without considering by whathook or crook the peddler was able to sellthem for half price, but reflecting that itwould at least serve him until his ownwatch was returned, Boutille shoved acoin into the peddler's hand, set the watchby a nearby clock, and thrust it into hispocket .

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Boutille's undoing, and incidentally thatof Brown, Hutchins and Company, beganfrom that moment . With a watch in hispocket, which he could pull out thoughnever look at, his thoughts became clear .The whole thing stood out in relief . Thevisitor's credentials, which he had notseen . His visitor had made some excusethat they were still in his traveling trunk,which his secretary was at that momentputting through the customs, but whichhe would show after he had receivedBoutille's decision . That seemed quitenatural at the time, but the answer nodoubt hung on that point. He would seethe credentials first . Pleased with himselfthat he had resolved the matter, Boutilleate a hearty lunch, and then rememberedsome theater tickets he had promised hiswife for that evening, but which untilthen he had forgotten . Noting that hestill had a quarter of an hour before hisappointment, he made his way to a nearbyticket agency where he made his purchase,and then hurried to his office .On reaching his desk, his secretary

looked perturbed."There was a gentleman here to see

you, but after waiting a while, he said histime was pressed and regretted that hewould have to leave."

Boutille glanced at his desk clock . Itstood at three. He pulled out his watch.It read half past two. He gave the steman angry turn . The hands whirled aim-lessly . Leaning over his desk he openedthe case . It was empty.

When the story was retailed to me, Iremembered having seen only recently theprospectus of a loan to the Republic ofR-, and recalled that it had been spon-sored by Meyer and Company. In thesedays of stagnant markets, when the Streetrelaxes over its coffee and cigars, manytales may be heard of fortunes made andlost, but of course one may never believethem all . In this incident the only thingfor which I can vouch is the peddler. Heis one of that countless number, includ-ing the exclusive jewelers and tailors, wholie in wait among the skyscrapers likecorsairs behind the capes of Tarifa readyto take their toll from every plunder la-den galleon. I remember well the timeI bought a gold tipped fountain penfrom him for a quarter. I thought whenI tried to use it that it would not be longbefore he could retire in ease to his nativeItaly. Probably he has by now.

THREE BROTHERS

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12)

as assistant professor of economics. Hewas on leave of absence from 1927 to

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1929, spending those years at the Uni-versity of Wisconsin, from which insti-tution he obtained his doctorate. Hisrank was advanced to that of associateprofessor on his return to Norman .

Doctor Logan was married in 1922 toMiss Floy-Elise Duke of Muskogee . TheLogans have a son, Leonard Marion Lo-gan III.

Dave entered the university in 1913,obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1916 .For two years he was a student assistantin mechanical drawing. Like Leonard,he was president of the senior class, amember of Sigma Chi, of D. D. M. C.and of the Senate Literary society . Hewas also a member of Checkmate.

Dave was elected business manager ofthe University of Oklahoma Magazine .He had another job, too. PresidentBrooks called for him. When he ap-peared in !the president's office, PrexyBrooks smiled . "Dave, you've been elect-ed business manager of the magazine .But you've got a job as student assistant.You can't have both, because there aretoo many boys here needing jobs ."

Seeing the justice of the president's ob-servation, Dave resigned the businessmanagership. After leaving the univer-sity, Dave spent a year in postgraduatework at the University of Wisconsin(1916) and returned to the university atNorman as an instructor in mechanicaldrawing. At the opening of the war,Dave was commissioned a second lieu-tenant in the artillery after intensive train-ing at the second officer's training campat Leon Springs, Texas, and at San Fran-cisco, California . He was transferred tothe air service as an aerial observer andinstructor in the observations schools atLangley Field, Virginia and Post Field,Oklahoma . After his discharge from thearmy in 1919, Dave became a geologist forthe Marland Oil Co . After two yearswith the Marland company, Dave estab-lished an office in Okmulgee as a con-sulting geologist, and he has resided inOkmulgee since . He is president, also, ofthe Dave Oil Co.

While Leonard's sole excursion intopolitics was via the League of YoungDemocrats, Dave was a candidate for thestate legislature in 1924, being elected forthat term, and re-elected in 1926 and in1928 . He was re-nominated on the Demo-cratic ticket this summer . As a legisla-tor, he fought successfully for a half-mil-lion dollar library, on which PresidentBizzell had builded his conception of thenew university . He was the author ofthe statute creating a non-political, non-

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removable board of regents for the uni-versity, so to remove the university frompolitics and political pressure ; he is alsothe author of the resolutions for two con-stitutional amendments (to be voted onthis November), one making constitu-tional the university board of regents, theother creating a separate board of regentsfor Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechani-cal college. He has been chairman ofthe oil and gas committee of the house,and his chief legislative interests havebeen education and conservation . MrLogan was married to Miss Lucile Coleof Lawrence, Kansas, in June, 1924 . TheLogans have a daughter, Mary Lucile .

Dave made a trip around the world in1923 and revisited Europe in 1928 . Lastyear he built the largest apartment housein Norman, the Logan apartments, whichhe owns.

The third brother, Clifford, entered themedical profession . He matriculated inthe university after graduation fromNortheastern in the fall of 1915 . He ob-tained his B. A. degree in 1917 and hisB. S. in medicine degree in 1918 . Hisdoctorate was conferred in 1920 .

Like his brothers, Clifford was a lead-er in campus affairs . He was a memberof Sigma Chi, of D. D . M. C.,°of the Sen-ate Literary society, the Ruff Neks, To-basco and Chemistry clubs. He was thebusiness manager of the Sooner in 1918and was active in student politics and inthe League of Young Democrats. Hewas one of the four students chosen fromthe senior class in 1919 and 1920 . Later,he took postgraduate courses in New Or-leans, St . Louis, Chicago and Mayo clin-ics . He has written and presented severalmedical papers before the Osage countyand Oklahoma State Medical societies .

Clifford began his medical practice inHominy in 1920 . In 1925, he was chosenpresident of the Osage county medicalsociety and was chairman of the medicalsection of the Oklahoma State Medicalassociation in 1929 . In that same year hewas president of the Hominy countryclub and the Osage county League ofYoung Democrats in 1930 . Three timeshe has been a delegate to the state Demo-cratic convention . In the last primarycampaign, he was the Osage county man-ager for William H. Murray .

Doctor Logan has served as city healthofficer of Hominy at different times andis on the staff of the Hominy city hospital .He was married to Miss Ruth Griffith,of Dallas, Texas, in 1920 . The Loganshave three children, Ruth Frances, MaryMartha and Clifford Kuykendall, jr .