WHEREIN BOBBY ATTENDS A STOCK-HOLDERS' MEETING AND CUTS A WISDOM-TOOTH
Within a very few days was completed the complicated legal machinery
which threw the John Burnit Store and Trimmer and Company into the
hands of "The Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation" as a holding and
operating concern. The John Burnit Store went into that consolidation
at an invoice value of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars, Trimmer
and Company at two hundred and forty thousand; and Bobby was duly
pleased. He had the majority of stock! On the later suggestion of Mr.
Trimmer, however, sixty thousand dollars of additional capital was
taken into the concern.
"The alterations, expansions, new departments and publicity will
compel the command of about that much money," Mr. Trimmer patiently
explained; "and while we could appropriate that amount from our
respective concerns, we ought not to weaken our capital, particularly
as financial affairs throughout the country are so unsettled. This is
not a brisk commercial year, nor can it be."
"Yes," admitted Bobby, "I've heard something of all this hard-times
talk. I know Nick Allstyne sold his French racer, and Nick's supposed
to be worth no end of money."
"Exactly," agreed Mr. Trimmer dryly. "This sixty thousand dollars'
worth of stock, Mr. Burnit, I am quite sure that I can place with
immediate purchasers, and if you will leave the matter to me I can
have it all represented in our next meeting without any bother at all
to you."
"Very kind of you, I am sure," agreed Bobby, thankful that this
trifling detail was not to bore him.
And so it was that the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation was
incorporated at five hundred and sixty thousand dollars. It was
considerably later when Bobby realized the significance of the fact
that the subscribers to the additional capitalization consisted of Mr.
Trimmer's son, his son-in-law, his head bookkeeper, his confidential
secretary and his cousin, all of whom had also been minor
stock-holders in the concern of Trimmer and Company.
It was upon the day preceding the first stock-holders' meeting of the
reorganized company that Bobby, quite proud of the fact that he had
acted independently of them, made the formal announcement to Johnson
and Applerod that the great consolidation had been effected.
"Beginning with to-morrow morning, Mr. Johnson," said he to that
worthy, "the John Burnit Store will be merged into the Burnit-Trimmer
Merchandise Corporation, and Mr. Trimmer will doubtless send his
secretary to confer with you about an adjustment of the clerical
work."
"Yes, sir," said Mr. Johnson dismally, and rose to open the filing
case behind him. With his hand in the case he paused and turned a most
woebegone countenance to the junior Burnit. "We shall be very
regretful, Mr. Applerod and myself, to lose our positions, sir," he
stated. "We have grown up with the business from boyhood."
"Nonsense!" exploded Applerod. "We would be regretful if that were to
occur, but there is nothing of the sort possible. Why, Mr. Burnit, I
think this consolidation is the greatest thing that ever happened.
I've been in favor of it for years; and as for its losing me my
position--Pooh!" and he snapped his fingers.
"Applerod is quite right, Mr. Johnson," said Bobby severely. "Nothing
of the sort is contemplated. Yourself and Mr. Applerod are to remain
with me as long as fair treatment and liberal pay and personal
attachment can induce you to do so."
"Thank you, sir," said Mr. Johnson dryly, but he shook his head, and
from the file produced one of the familiar gray envelopes.
Bobby eyed it askance as it came toward him, and winced as he saw the
inscription. He was beginning to dread these missives. They seemed to
follow him about, to menace him, to give him a constant feeling of
guilt. Nevertheless, he took this one quite calmly and walked into his
own room. It was addressed:
_To My Son,
Upon the Occasion of His Completing a Consolidation
with Silas Trimmer_
and it read:
"When a man devils you for years to enter a business deal with
him, you may rest assured that man has more to gain by it than
you have. Aside from his wormwood business jealousy of me,
Silas Trimmer has wanted this Grand Street entrance to his
store for more than the third of a century; now he has it.
He'll have your store next."
"Look here, Governor," protested Bobby aloud, to his lively
remembrance of his father as he might have stood in that very room, "I
call this rather rubbing it in. It's a bit unsportsmanlike. It's
almost like laying a trap for a chap who doesn't know the game," and,
rankling with a sense of injustice, he went out to Johnson.
"I say, Johnson," he complained, "it's rather my fault for being too
stubborn to ask about it, but if you knew that Mr. Trimmer was trying
to work a game on me that was dangerous to the business, why didn't
you volunteer to explain it to me; to forewarn me and give me a chance
for judgment with all the pros and cons in front of me?"
"From the bottom of my heart, Mr. Burnit," said Johnson with feeling,
"I should like to have done it; but it was forbidden."
He already had lying before him another of the gray envelopes, and
this he solemnly handed over. It was addressed:
_To My Son,
Upon His Complaining that Johnson Gave Him No Warning
Concerning Silas Trimmer_
The message it contained was:
"It takes hard chiseling to make a man, but if the material is
the right grain the tool-marks won't show. If I had wanted you
merely to make money, I would have left the business entirely
in the hands of Johnson and Applerod. But there is no use to
put off pulling a tooth. It only hurts worse in the end."
When Bobby left the office he felt like walking in the middle of the
street to avoid alley corners, since he was unable to divine from what
direction the next brick might come. He had taken the business to
heart more than he had imagined that he would, and the very fact of
his father's having foreseen that he would succumb to this
consolidation made him give grave heed to the implied suggestion that
he would be a heavy loser by it. He had an engagement with Allstyne
and Starlett at the Idlers' that afternoon, but they found him most
preoccupied, and openly voted him a bore. He called on Agnes Elliston,
but learned that she was out driving, and he savagely assured himself
that he knew who was handling the reins. He dined at the Traders',
and, for the first time since he had begun to frequent that place, the
creases in his brow were real.
Later in the evening he dropped around to see Biff Bates. In the very
center of the gymnasium he found that gentleman engaged in giving a
preliminary boxing lesson to a spider-like new pupil, who was none
other than Silas Trimmer. Responding to Biff's cheerful grin and Mr.
Trimmer's sheepish one with what politeness he could muster, Bobby
glumly went home.
On the next morning occurred the first stock-holders' meeting of the
Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation, which Bobby attended with some
feeling of importance, for, with his twenty-six hundred shares, he was
the largest individual stock-holder present. That was what had
reassured him overnight: the magic "majority of stock!" Mr. Trimmer
only had twenty-four hundred, and Bobby could swing things as he
pleased. His father, omniscient as he was, must certainly have failed
to foresee this fact. In his simplicity of such matters and his
general unsuspiciousness, Bobby had not calculated that if the
additional six hundred shares were to vote solidly with Mr. Trimmer
against him, his twenty-six hundred shares would be confronted by
three thousand, and so rendered paltry.
Mr. Trimmer was delighted to see young Mr. Burnit. This was a great
occasion indeed, both for the John Burnit Store and for Trimmer and
Company, and, in the opinion of Mr. Trimmer, his circular smile very
much in evidence, John Burnit himself would have been proud to see
this day! Mr. Smythe, Mr. Trimmer's son-in-law, also thought it a
great day; Mr. Weldon, Mr. Trimmer's head bookkeeper, thought it a
great day; Mr. Harvey, Mr. Trimmer's confidential secretary, and Mr.
U. G. Trimmer, Mr. Silas Trimmer's cousin, shared this pleasant
impression.
In the beginning the organization was without form or void, as all
such organizations are, but Mr. Trimmer, having an extremely clear
idea of what was to be accomplished, proposed that Mr. Burnit accept
the chair _pro tem._--where he would be out of the way. The unanimous
support which this motion received was quite gratifying to the
feelings of Mr. Burnit, proving at once that his fears had been not
only groundless but ungenerous, and, in accepting the chair, he made
them what he considered a very neat little speech indeed, striving the
while to escape that circular smile with its diameter of yellow teeth
and its intersecting crescent of stiff mustache; for he disliked
meanly to imagine that smile to have a sarcastic turn to-day. At the
suggestion of Mr. Trimmer, Mr. Weldon accepted the post of secretary
_pro tem._ Mr. Trimmer then, with a nicely bound black book in his
hand, rose to propose the adoption of the stock constitution and
by-laws which were neatly printed in the opening pages of this
minute-book, and in the articles of which he had made some trifling
amendments. Mr. Weldon, by request, read these most carefully and
conscientiously, making quite plain that the entire working management
of the consolidated stores was to be under the direct charge of a
general manager and an assistant general manager, who were to be
appointed and have their salaries fixed by the board of directors, as
was meet and proper. Gravely the stock-holders voted upon the adoption
of the constitution and by-laws, and, with a feeling of pride, as the
secretary called his name, Bobby cast his first vote in the following
conventional form:
"Aye--twenty-six hundred shares."
Mr. Trimmer followed, voting twenty-four hundred shares; then Mr.
Smythe, three hundred; Mr. Weldon, fifty; Mr. Harvey, fifty; Mr. U. G.
Trimmer, fifty; Mr. Thomas Trimmer, whose proxy was held by his
father, one hundred and fifty; making in all a total of fifty-six
hundred shares unanimously cast in favor of the motion; and Bobby,
after having roundly announced the result, felt that he was conducting
himself with vast parliamentary credit and lit a cigarette with much
satisfaction.
Mr. Trimmer, twirling his thumbs, displayed no surprise, nor even
gratification, when Mr. Smythe almost immediately put him in
nomination for president. Mr. Weldon promptly seconded that
nomination. Mr. Harvey moved that the nominations for the presidency
be closed. Mr. U. G. Trimmer seconded that motion, which was carried
unanimously; and with no ado whatever Mr. Silas Trimmer was made
president of the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation, Mr. Burnit
having most courteously cast twenty-six hundred votes for him; for was
not Mr. Trimmer entitled to this honor by right of seniority? In
similar manner Mr. Burnit, quite pleased, and not realizing that the
vice-president of a corporation has a much less active and influential
position than the night watchman, was elected to the second highest
office, while Mr. Weldon was made secretary and Mr. Smythe treasurer.
Mr. Harvey, Mr. U. G. Trimmer and Mr. Thomas Trimmer were, as a matter
of course, elected members of the board of directors, the four
officers already elected constituting the remaining members of the
board. There seemed but very little business remaining for the
stock-holders to do, so they adjourned; then, the members of the board
being all present and having waived in writing all formal
notification, the directors went into immediate session, with Mr.
Trimmer in the chair and Mr. Weldon in charge of the bright and
shining new book of minutes.
The first move of that body, after opening the meeting in due form,
was made by Mr. Harvey, who proposed that Mr. Silas Trimmer be
constituted general manager of the consolidated stores at a salary of
fifty thousand dollars per year, a motion which was immediately
seconded by Mr. U. G. Trimmer.
Bobby was instantly upon his feet. Even with his total lack of
experience in such matters there was something about this that struck
him as overdrawn, and he protested that fancy salaries should have no
place in the reorganized business until experience had proved that the
business would stand it. He was very much in earnest about it, and
wanted the subject discussed thoroughly before any such rash step was
taken. The balance of the discussion consisted in one word from Mr.
Smythe, echoed by all his fellow-members.
"Question!" said that gentleman.
"You have all heard the question," said Mr. Trimmer calmly. "Those in
favor will please signify by saying 'Aye.'"
"Aye!" voted four members of the board as with one scarcely interested
voice.
"No!" cried Bobby angrily, and sprang to his feet, his anger confused,
moreover, by the shock of finding unsuspected wolves tearing at his
vitals. "Gentlemen, I protest against this action! I----"
Mr. Trimmer pounded on the table with his pencil in lieu of a gavel.
"The motion is carried. Any other business?"
It seemed that there was. Mr. Harvey proposed that Mr. Smythe be made
assistant general manager at a salary of twenty-five thousand dollars
per year. Again the farce of a ballot and the farce of a protest was
enacted. Where now was the voting power of Bobby's twenty-six hundred
shares? In the directors' meeting they voted as individuals, and they
were six against one. Rather indifferently, as if the thing did not
amount to much, Mr. Smythe proposed that the selection of a firm name
for advertising and publicity purposes be left to the manager, and
though Bobby voted no as to this proposition on general principles, it
seemed of minor importance, in his then bewildered state of mind.
After all, the thing which grieved him most just then was to find that
people _could_ do these things!