The morning of August eighteenth, 190-, was a memorable one to me. For
two months I had had a run of bad luck. During that time I had failed to
score in at least three affairs of unusual importance, and the result
was a decided loss in repute as well as great financial embarrassment.
As I had a mother and two sisters to support and knew but one way to do
it, I was in a state of profound discouragement. This was before I took
up the morning papers. After I had opened and read them, not a man in
New York could boast of higher hopes or greater confidence in his power
to rise by one bold stroke from threatened bankruptcy to immediate
independence.
The paragraph which had occasioned this amazing change must have passed
under the eyes of many of you. It created a wide-spread excitement at
the time and raised in more than one breast the hope of speedy fortune.
It was attached to, or rather introduced, the most startling feature of
the week, and it ran thus: