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A FORGOTTEN DRAMA OF WALL STREET.1 BY H. GERALD CHAPÍN, Editor of " The American Lawyer." THIS tells how the asp, unmindful of Aesopian moral, endeavored to exercise his natural propensities upon the file. Also what came of the attempt. Mention the year '72 to any veteran of Wall Street and it will recall to him the "Sickles Coup. Press him further and he may incidentally refer to "Lord Gordon Abercrombie." Still the chances are that he will not, for the affair, while at the time, something more than a nine days' wonder, has now generally faded from recollection. As one of the greatest, if not indeed the most stupendous of criminal operations on record, the matter well deserves a chronicler. In the drama, some of the best known men of the time played leading roles. Only through the good sense of the then Secre tary of State, did the government escape be ing drawn into serious international com plications.
ACT I. MINNEAPOLIS. In the early summer of 1870, there ap peared in St. Louis, where he remained but a short time, and from whence he after wards moved to Minneapolis, a gentleman of distinguished appearance and of suave and courteous demeanor. Apparently possessed of ample wealth, he took up quarters in one of the finest of the hotels, registering sim ply as "G. Gordon." His unostentatious life invited no inquiry. Soon crested letters be gan to arrive, addressed to "Lord Gordon Gordon." The rumor that a member of the aristocracy of Scotland was honoring the city 1 Those who may be desirous of investigating further this mysterious affair are referred to contemporaneous reports in the New York newspapers and to Mr. Edward Harold Mott's interesting work, Between the. Ocean and the Lakes— The Story of £rie.
with his presence was circulated by the news papers, and the supposed Lord became the lion of the hour. When taxed with his no bility, a direct answer was evaded. "Since all men are equal in this country," he said, "it makes very little difference what I am. As long as I am in America I prefer to be plain Mr. Gordon." Quite needless to state, after that, nothing further was necessary to establish his title in popular estimation. "Lord Gordon Gordon" soon became "Lord Gordon, Earl of Aber crombie." With absolutely no letters of in troduction, this modern Cagliostro had se cured an entrée to the most exclusive circles of the city. A half formed intention of purchasing a large tract of Western land, casually ex pressed to the individual who could be firmly relied upon to carry immediate report to those interested, bore expected fruit. North ern Pacific Railway officials eagerly swal lowed the unbaited hook. "My mind is not fully made up as yet," Lord Gordon said, in answer to their ques tions. "Still I have often thought of buying, say fifty thousand acres, in your beautiful country. Not for myself, for I have more than suffices for my own simple needs, but that my beloved sister may have an opportu nity for the gratification of her benevolence. We have often talked of establishing a colony of our old tenants here." "Princely magnificent," that phrase so dear to children of the stylus, was not alto gether misapplied when St. Paul journals un dertook to describe the expedition which started from that city in the latter part of August, 1870. Six teams, omnibuses, a priv,ate carriage for his lordship and an ambu
