advance of what their requirements would be for certain periods.
If the large city dealers were manipulating the market it was done
through our office and we knew their plans.

Information of this character must be of value to the London firm
and we knew it was not getting it.

That was my keynote.

I wrote the firm a newsy, chatty market letter, saying nothing of
doing business together. After that first letter I never let a mail
steamer leave New York that did not carry a letter to the firm from
our office.

While those letters gave enough information to show the recipient
our position in the trade, I wish to emphasize the fact that not
one word was written that in the remotest degree was a violation
of any confidence reposed in us by our New York friends.

The weeks went by and we received from the London firm--nothing.
Finally came a brief communication acknowledging with thanks our
various letters and requesting their continuance, ending with an
offer, if at any time they could be of service to us in the way of
giving information on their market, to reciprocate.

To this I replied with a request that the monthly European statistics,
which the firm published, should be cabled us at the end of each
month that we might publish them with ours.

This request was complied with, and thereafter we kept up our letters,