As soon as we walked out of the room Mr. Frank and Abe Harris of the Chicago House Wrecking Company went in.

We left the fair grounds immediately and went to the Lindell Hotel, where we prepared a new bid.  About 7.30 p. m. we decided to put in our bid by telephone.  Mr. Dunphy called up Mr. Taylor’s office and was informed by the party who answered the telephone that the salvage committee had adjourned at 7 o’clock p.m.  Mr. Dunphy told me that the salvage committee had adjourned, and I supposed they had adjourned to get something to eat and would be back shortly.  I told him to call up again.  About 8.30 p. in.  Mr. Dunphy called up Mr. Taylor’s office and was told that the salvage committee had adjourned at 7 p. m. and would not be back that night.  About 10 p.m. he called up President Francis’s residence and was inform that President Francis was not at home, and also received the same reply when he called up Mr. Taylor’s house, and when he called up Mr. Holmes’s residence he was informed that Mr. Holmes had gone to bed.  We were unable to reach any of the salvage committee. were not called up that evening, nor did we hear anything from the salvage committee that evening, although we waited in the corridor of the Lindell Hotel until after 12 o’clock midnight.

During our conversation with the committee nothing was said about fire engines, office furniture and furnishings, hose carriages, fire hose, horses, buggies, wagons, steam rollers, roadmaking machinery, three steel greenhouses, with plants of every description, surveying instruments, engineering tools, two hospitals complete, 2,000 folding cots, 2,500 opera chairs, 400 revolving chairs, 25,000 kitchen chairs, 200 roller-top desks, 300 flat-top desks, 200 typewriter desks, the brick in the roadways, and the various buildings, or numerous other valuable articles and pieces of property.

About 8.30 a. m.  Thursday, December 1, Mr. Dunphy, my agent, called up Mr. Holmes’s residence to find out what Mr. Holmes knew about the disposition of the bids.  He was told by some lady who answered the telephone that Mr. Holmes was on his way to his office.  He came and told me that Mr. Holmes was on his way to his office.  I requested Mr. Dunphy to go to Mr. Holmes’s office and try and ascertain what the committee had done about the bids.  Later in the day Mr. Dunphy came to me and told me that Mr. Holmes had told him that the contract had been awarded to the Chicago House Wrecking Company between the hours of 6 and 7 p. m. of November 30.

On December 3, 1904, I addressed a letter to President Francis in which I offered him $199,000 for all railroad iron and ties and all wire in and about the exposition grounds.  I also, in the same letter, offered to pay him $101,000 for the buildings, fences, bridges, and intramural stations on the exposition grounds, which would total $300,000.

On December 5 I addressed a letter to President Francis as follows: