Daily Kennebec Journal

A Good Story
The Tribune tells the following good story about our townsman:
The experiences of wealthy men are sometimes novel and striking. O. D. Lambard, the Maine capitalist, who spends much of his time in New York, told me recently of an occurrence at Newport, which is an excellent illustration of the ups and downs if rich men.
A subscription paper was being handed around for the erection of some building for charitable purposes. Mr Lambard had just met with severe losses which had crippled him financially and left him without resources. This was several years ago. He was at his wits'end to conceal his condition from the public, knowing pretty well that if it should be ascertained that he was a "lame duck" he would soon be a "dead duck." He could not very well refuse his signature to the paper, because that would reveal his position, and to sign the paper and then not to pay, would only be to postpone the agony for a few weeks. While still in distress over the matter, he dropped into one of the well known cafes of Newport where he discovered two or three old friends from Maine and they sat down to dine together. The society reporter of a Newport paper coming along about this time discovered Mr. Lambard and his friends, with the result that in the society columns the next morning there appeared an item relating how Mr. Lambard, the prosperous millionaire, had just made a great "scoop" whereby he had netted half a million of dollars in a single week's transactions and had given a dinner to some of his friends to celebrate his success. This is how Mr. Lambard related the sequel: "There never was anything happened to me quite so opportunely. Of course after that paragraph, no one would base my refusal to contribute to lack of funds. When the subscription paper came to me I was able to put on a bold front, and objected greatly to the object of the charity, courteously but kindly refused my contribution, and was thus saved the humiliation of disclosing my financial disability. Three months later I could have paid the entire contribution easier than I could have paid a dollar at that time.. I have always had a kind feeling for the newspaper men since that one saved me."