Theodore Winthrop

“ Every Director, from President Brummage down, drew a long face at this condition.
It was one of their great privileges to potter in the Dunderbunk affairs and propose ludicrous impossibilities.
“Just as you please,” Churm continued. “I name a competent man, a gentleman and fine fellow. I back him with all the cash he wants. But he must have his own way. Now take him, or leave him!”
Such despotic talk had never been heard before in that Directors’ Room. They relucted a moment. But they thought of their togas of advertisements in danger. The blank check shook its blandishments before their eyes. ”

“ There were ten Directors of the Dunderbunk Foundry.
Now, not seldom, of a Board of ten Directors, five are wise and five are foolish: five wise, who bag all the Company’s funds in salaries and commissions for indorsing its paper; five foolish, who get no salaries, no commissions, no dividends, — nothing, indeed, but abuse from the stock-holders, and the reputation of thieves. ”

“ Churm says, with authority. “He knows Iron by heart. He can handle Men. I will back him with my blank check, to any amount, to his order.”
Here a murmur of applause, swelling to a cheer, burst from the Directors.
Everybody knew that the Geological Bank deemed Churm’s deposits the fundamental stratum of its wealth. They lay there in the vaults, like underlying granite. When hot times came, they boiled up in a mountain to buttress the world.
Churm’s blank check seemed to wave in the air like an oriflamme of victory. ”