It was some time before it reached the commercial and manufacturing world.

But the situation grew worse and worse and finally led to the crash which involved my friends in the Texas Pacific enterprise, of which I have already spoken.

This was to me the severest blow of all.

People could, with difficulty, believe that occupying such intimate relations as I did with the Texas group, I could by any possibility have kept myself clear of their financial obligations.
Mr.Schoenberger, president of the Exchange Bank at Pittsburgh, with which we conducted a large business, was in New York when the news reached him of the embarrassment of Mr.Scott and Mr.Thomson.

He hastened to Pittsburgh, and at a meeting of his board next morning said it was simply impossible that I was not involved with them.