Vera, The Medium

by Richard Harding Davis



Part I

Happy in the hope that the news was "exclusive", the Despatch
had thrown the name of Stephen Hallowell, his portrait, a
picture of his house, and the words, "At Point of Death!" across
three columns. The announcement was heavy, lachrymose, bristling
with the melancholy self-importance of the man who "saw the
deceased, just two minutes before the train hit him."

But the effect of the news fell short of the effort. Save that
city editors were irritated that the presidents of certain
railroads figured hastily on slips of paper, the fact that an
old man and his millions would soon be parted, left New York
undisturbed.

In the early 80's this would not have been so. Then, in the
uplifting of the far West, Stephen Hallowell was a national
figure, in the manoeuvres of the Eastern stock market an active,
alert power. In those days, when a man with a few millions was
still listed as rich, his fortune was considered colossal.

A patent coupling-pin, the invention of his brother-in-law, had
given him his start, and, in introducing it, and in his efforts
to force it upon the new railroads of the West, he had obtained