WRONG WITHOUT REMEDY: A LEGAL SATIRE.
II. BY WALLACE MCCAMANT. HAVING met with reasonable success as a money-maker at St. Louis, Anderson de termined to escape the heat of a Missouri summer by an extended trip. He went first to Minneapolis; there he spent a few weeks most pleasantly in the beautiful lake country, im proving every opportunity to enlarge his ac quaintance with the business and business men of Minnesota's great city. While there he purchased for a small sum a few shares of stock in the Provident Fire Insurance Company. He then went westward over the Canadian Pacific, stopping leisurely at Banff, the Glacier House, Vancouver and Victoria, and then went to Seattle. He tarried in Seattle several weeks and had no difficulty in making the acquaintance of the leading men among Seattle's citizens. While there Ander son picked up ten shares of the stock of the Puget Sound Electric Company. He then visited Portland, Ore., and amused himself with side trips to the trout streams in the Cascades, to the seashore and up the Colum bia to The Dalles. Incidentally he purchased a few shares of stock in the Banks-Elverson Company, a wholesale dry goods company, whose stock was held almost entirely by Banks and Elverson; they had, however, per mitted some of their employes to acquire small blocks of stock, thinking thereby to in crease the efficiency of their service to the business. Anderson had found one of these stockholders hard up, and had had no diffi culty in purchasing his stock for a small sum of money. Finally as the summer was wear ing away, Anderson turned his face toward St. Louis, Vhen he reached there he found the following letter with his mail: Hamilton Anderson, Esq., St. Louis, Mo. Dear Sir:—You are hereby notified that on
the loth day of September, at the hour of 2 P. M., a meeting of the stockholders of the Puget Sound Electric Company will be held at the company's office, at Seattle, Wash., to authorize the trustees of the corporation to purchase a block of the stock of the Seattle and Suburban Street Railway Company. The board is advised that under the law this pur chase might be made without specific author ity from the stockholders, but inasmuch as the purchase involves the expenditure of a large sum of money, the board prefers to secure authority from the stockholders before consummating the deal. It is hoped that all the stock will be represented at the meeting either in person or by proxy. JOSEPH WILSON, Secretary. Accompanying this notice was a letter from Mr. Williams, one of the trustees whom An derson had met in Seattle, enclosing a blank proxy, and asking that Anderson sign and forward it. Instead of so doing Anderson took the train for Seattle. He reached there the day before that set for the stockholders' meeting, and had no difficulty in learning the details of the proposed deal. Jacob Kauffmann, the owner of a large block of the stock of the Seattle and Suburban Street Railway, had recently died, bequeath ing the stock to his wife. She had decided to make her home in Germany, the country of her birth, and in her desire to close up her business in Seattle she had given an option on the stock to the Puget Sound Electric Company ait a price at least $40,000 less than the stock was worth. The stock had a special value to the electric company in that this street car company was the largest consumer of power in the entire Puget Sound country. 'It controlled nearly all the lines in .Seattle, and had besides a line thirty-seven miles long
