Reborn in America, I am a legendary short seller on Wall Street.

Chapter 160 Ridicule
Monday, October 3.

Larry returned to Hartford alone, while Mr. Wallace took the train straight to Boston.

Larry returned to Hartford so that he could go back with Mr. Dunbar and Matthew Browning.

Yesterday, Larry wrote his first check for $4.7 and handed it to Mr. Wallace. This was the money Mr. Wallace had advanced to help Larry recover 20% of his Ford stock.

Mr. Wallace held the check with great emotion, saying that if it weren't for Larry's management, Colt and his team wouldn't have been able to make so much money this time.

Mr. Wallace received a bonus of over $7 from the company, and he also made a profit of $20 from buying 1500 more shares of Colt. Now he has $27, making him a well-off man in America at this time.

Larry could tell that Mr. Wallace was genuinely happy.

So Larry never told Mr. Wallace that he actually bought 6500 shares, not 1500, and that he earned $135 million, not $20, so as not to upset him.

Mr. Wallace needed to get back to Boston for work, so he went straight back to Boston on Monday.

But Larry had to go to Hartford first, as he needed to pick up his two companions before returning together.

Upon arriving in Hartford, Larry took a carriage directly to the location agreed upon by the three of them, which was a large house in a wealthy suburb on the outskirts of the city. This was the house that Matthew Browning was renting.

As soon as Larry arrived, he saw a group of workers gathered around the house, carrying out a lot of furniture and placing it in the yard.

Larry frowned as he walked in and saw not only a bed and bookshelves, but also a piano, dressing table, cupboard, and other items.

Larry was a little puzzled. He knew Matthew was here to deal with his belongings in Hartford, but he didn't expect there to be so much.

Larry thought to himself, "Matthew, how many properties have you acquired in Hartford?"
But when Larry actually met Matthew and Mr. Dunbar, he realized he was wrong. These weren't Matthew's personal belongings; the landlord had sold his house and was moving.

“My brother, I thought you had bought a lot of furniture here,” Larry said to Matthew with a smile.

Matthew glanced at Mr. Dunbar and said to Larry, “I’ve already sold off all my odds and ends cheaply, leaving only a stack of blueprints and my personal belongings. Yesterday, Mr. Dunbar and I mailed that box containing my things to Concord, Boston.”

Mr. Dunbar, wearing a top hat, hands on his hips revealing a pistol at his waist, nodded with a smile and said, “Matthew and his crew are quite strange. They sell perfectly good old furniture for half price, but they spend $35 a year to send those useless and heavy blueprints from here to Concord. That's enough to buy half an acre of land there.”

Matthew smiled slightly but didn't speak. Larry, however, smiled and answered for Matthew, "That's their most precious treasure!"

The three of them got together and decided to take the train back to Boston the next morning. After they finished discussing it, Matthew went to say goodbye to the landlord, while Larry and Mr. Dunbar chatted and smoked cigars under the oak tree.

To everyone's surprise, Matthew arrived with his landlord a while later.

Matthew's landlord was an elderly man nearing sixty, with thick white curly hair, striking white eyebrows, and a walrus-like upturned beard, a style favored by middle-aged and elderly people at the time.

“Oh, young man, are you going to Boston?” the landlord asked Larry in a shrill voice.

Larry paused for a moment, then smiled and replied, "Yes, we're all from Boston, and we're going back there now. Matthew's coming with us too."

The landlord nodded, a sly glint in his eyes, then pulled $50 from his pocket and handed it to Larry without a word, saying in a shrill voice,
"Alright then, young man. Do me a favor and buy me six train tickets too. My family and I are going to Boston tomorrow."

Larry looked at Matthew and asked curiously, "Aren't you a local from Hartford? Why are you going to Boston? I see you just sold this house. Aren't you leaving before you even move all this furniture to your new home?"

The landlord sniffed, a hint of dejection in his eyes. After a few seconds, he said, "I'm bankrupt. This house and all the furniture have to be mortgaged. I'm planning to take my whole family to Europe to try my luck. If I can come with you tomorrow, I'll take a ship from Boston to Europe... So, please, I need six train tickets to Boston!"

Larry nodded, knowing that the landlord also had his own difficulties, and didn't ask anything more. He then turned and called Mr. Dunbar to go buy train tickets together.

The next morning, Larry had already booked two carriages to pick them up.

Larry returned the money left over from buying the train tickets, along with the six train tickets, to the landlord and invited them to ride together in a horse-drawn carriage to the train station.

The landlord thanked Larry and turned back to call his family. Soon after, the landlord's elderly wife and three daughters who did not look very healthy boarded the carriage together, along with a man in his thirties who appeared to be the husband of one of the daughters.

The six people were a bit cramped in one carriage, so the landlord moved them into Larry's and his two companions' carriage.

On the way, the landlord chatted with the three of them incessantly, and Larry discovered that this little old man named Samuel Langhorn Clement was particularly talkative, intelligent, and humorous.

Once on the train, by sheer coincidence, Larry and Mr. Clement were seated in the same row, and opposite them by the window sat Mr. Dunbar and a burly gentleman wearing round metal-framed glasses.

The landlord, a small, elderly man, was as talkative as ever. After chatting with Larry for a while, he turned to the burly gentleman and asked,

“Oh, sir, where are you from? Are you also going to Boston?” The burly gentleman pushed up his round-framed glasses and nodded, saying, “I’m from Washington, stopping in Hartford to visit an old friend, and then heading to Boston to take care of some business.”

The landlord, an elderly man, nodded and smiled at the burly man, saying, "You must be a federal official. You have a kind of aura that's completely different from ordinary people."

Upon hearing this, Larry and Dunbar turned to look at the burly man.

This burly gentleman was none other than Theodore Roosevelt. After receiving an invitation from the Boston Police Department, he traveled to Boston alone, only to encounter these three men on the train. One of the old men was clearly a federal officer.

Theodore Roosevelt nodded and said, "You have a keen eye. I work for the Civil Service Commission of the United States."

The old man nodded and casually remarked, "His demeanor is different; he's clearly not an ordinary person." As he spoke, he glanced at Larry.

After the train started moving, the four people sitting together maintained the reserve of strangers. But at this moment, there were no cell phones, magazines, beer, soft drinks, mineral water, peanuts, melon seeds, or sausages on the train.

After sitting for a while, the four of them slowly started chatting again.

The conversation somehow drifted to this year's general election...

Roosevelt casually remarked, "Based on current polls and statistics, President Harrison, a Republican, should be re-elected next term!"

The old landlord suddenly gave a disdainful snort and muttered, "There are three kinds of lies: small lies, big lies, and the third is statistics..."

Roosevelt was speechless for a moment.

The old man continued, "I bet Republican President Harrison will definitely be ousted; that guy's driving Americans crazy..."

Larry wasn't very interested in politics and simply nodded politely as the old man spoke, but Roosevelt, standing to the side, objected. He frowned and said...

"The president still has many merits, especially his tough stance on foreign policy, and he has also expanded the size of the U.S. Navy fleet!"

The old man shook his head and said dismissively,

"Please let the President come out of Washington and see for himself what kind of life ordinary Americans are living. Agricultural product prices keep falling, farmers have no money to spend, and they have huge debts; the wages of workers and clerks are simply not enough to keep up with soaring prices and high tariffs! Hmph, high tariffs protect big capitalists, but when it comes to trade wars with foreign countries, it is the Americans at the bottom who suffer!"

Roosevelt was speechless again. After all, he was an official who cared about the common people. Now, facing this outspoken old man, he couldn't very well lie and say that the common people were living very happily.

The old man spoke slowly to the three of them.

"But actually, it would be the same even if the Democrats took over. These days, politicians are all looking to the stars. They only put on a populist act when they're begging for votes. Once they're in power, they're still the same. Everyone hates hypocrites, but everyone is an actor. The difference is that some actors want your votes when you're watching, but the actors in Washington don't want your votes, they want your life..."

Larry almost laughed, thinking that Matthew, the landlord, was really insightful and had a good sense of humor.

Dunbar pushed up his hat with one finger, a smile spreading across his face as he looked at the old man.

But only Roosevelt felt offended, so he exclaimed, "But they were elected democratically, which is fair, isn't it? At least it's much fairer than any other system on earth."

The old man glanced sideways at Roosevelt, a mocking smile on his face.
"You say democratic elections are fair? Good heavens, then how come my old friend 'city politician' Jackson is still counting lice in jail? In my opinion, there's no difference between a president and a king. If there is, it's that a king sometimes tells foolish truths, but a president tells carefully crafted lies..."

Roosevelt was momentarily speechless, but after a few seconds he said defiantly, "Anyway, I won't be like that..."

The old man glanced at him. "I'm going to Europe soon, and I'll probably miss the economic crisis that's about to hit America. What a pity!"

Larry was taken aback by this and quickly asked, "Mr. Clement, why do you think an economic crisis is imminent? What's the reason?"

The old man looked out the window, and after a few seconds, he spoke.
"...The situation over the past year has reminded me of my youth, when a large silver mine was discovered in the United States. People were initially shocked by the wealth of the silver deposits, and then there was a frenzy of speculation in silver mine stocks. I also bought a lot of silver mine stocks back then, but what was the result? Cheap silver flooded the market, the dollar depreciated wildly, and silver prices plummeted due to oversupply. My silver mine stocks also hit rock bottom. This was my first bankruptcy... Unfortunately, it won't be the last."

Larry's eyes gleamed strangely, and he then asked, "What were the signs before the last Silver Collapse?"

"A sign..." The old man looked confused and reminiscing, and after a while, he said...
"The sign is that Wall Street has gone mad. Nobody wants to hold silver, or even dollars. Everyone wants to hold gold. Interbank short-term lending rates are soaring. People are panicking and only recognize gold."

“…Things are different now than before!” Roosevelt couldn’t help but say again.

The old man stared at him and said again, "What's the difference? No matter if it's sunny or rainy during the day, it will always get dark at night. Day and night will repeat themselves, and that's what makes a day!"

(End of this chapter)