possibly missing something worth while. The outcome was that Mr. Payne
was only able to secure his pro rata as the entire issue was promptly
over subscribed by the stockholders, it being understood that the right
of subscription should be confined rigidly to stockholders of record.
Never in my business career have I seen the value or virtue of a leader
expressed in so forceful a manner as in the effect of Mr. Payne's offer
upon that meeting. It was the greatest evidence of applied psychology
that ever it has been my good fortune to experience.



Recapitulation



These memoranda I have written years after the happenings which they
sketch. They are drawn from the records of the company and from the
tablets of my memory. Those upon which I have touched were amongst the
higher lights, they are vivid in recollection and as well remembered as
if they had taken place at a recent date.

Those were strenuous times. Times that not alone tested the dignity and
honor of men, but rocked them to their very foundations. Only the
admittedly honest and honorable men survived the experiences of those
days without blotch upon their escutcheons. It is naturally to be
presumed that the minds of those who passed through those days of
reconstruction recall many deeds of heroism, of sacrifices made upon the
altar of duty. Each has the surmounting of his individual trials to
remember, but amongst all that was done as the result of the San
Francisco conflagration there is, in my opinion, nothing carrying