The night before the negotiations were to begin, Bismarck innocently engaged Blome in a game of quinze. The Prussian would later write, "That was the very last time I ever played quinze. I played so recklessly that everyone was astonished. I lost several thousand talers [the currency of the time], but I succeeded in fooling [Blome], for he believed me to be more venturesome than I am and I gave way." Besides appearing reckless, Bismarck also played the witless fool, saying ridiculous things and bumbling about with a surplus of nervous energy.
In 1865 the Prussian councilor Otto von Bismarck wanted Austria to sign a certain treaty. The treaty was totally in the interests of Prussia and against the interests of Austria, and Bismarck would have to strategize to get the Austrians to agree to it. But the Austrian negotiator, Count Blome, was an avid cardplayer. His particular game was quinze, and he often said that he could judge a man's character by the way he played quinze. Bismarck knew of this saying of Blome's.
Given how important the idea of intelligence is to most people's vanity, it is critical never inadvertently to insult or impugn a person's brain power. That is an unforgivable sin. But if you can make this iron rule work for you, it opens up all sorts of avenues of deception. Subliminally reassure people that they are more intelligent than you are, or even that you are a bit of a moron, and you can run rings around them. The feeling of intellectual superiority you give them will disarm their suspicion-muscles.
Keys To Power
The feeling that someone else is more intelligent than we are is almost intolerable. We usually try to justify it in different ways: "He only has book knowledge, whereas I have real knowledge." "Her parent paid for her to get a good education. If my parents had had as much money, if I had been as privileged...." "He's not as smart as he thinks." Last but not least: "She may know her narrow little field better than I do, but beyond that she's really not smart at all. Even Einstein was a boob outside physics."
i know you are somewhere out there somewhere far away i want you back i want you back my neighbors think I'm crazy, but they don't understand you are all i had you are all i had at night when the stars light up my room i sit by myself talking to the moon tryna get to you in hopes you're on the other side talking to me too or am I a fool who sits alone talking to the moon
A flame, exploded from within Calida's right hand. Causing the attacker to be pushed back by 5 miles. Then Calida Amani, dashes towards the attacker with an elbow strike in the head.
While there eyes were blinded by the high concentration of light.
Now, she continues with her assault by swerving around the attacker and getting behind there back. Calida grins, before placing her arm on there back.
Now, a high magical energy blows out from there hand, causing Calida's flames to rip out onto the attacker's body. Taking over the attacker's body with her own flames.
In the end, Harpending's reputation was ruined and he never recovered; Rothschild learned his lesson and never fell for another con; Slack took his money and disappeared from view, never to be found. Arnold simply went home to Kentucky. After all, his sale of his mining rights had been legitimate; the buyers had taken the best advice, and if the mine had run out of diamonds, that was their problem. Arnold used the money to greatly enlarge his farm and open up a bank of his own.
The effectiveness of the scheme, however, rested not on tricks like these but on the fact that Arnold and Slack played their parts to perfection. On their trip to New York, where they mingled with millionaires and tycoons, they played up their clodhopper image, wearing pants and coats a size or two too small and acting incredulous at everything they saw in the big city. No one believed that these country simpletons could possibly be conning the most devious, unscrupulous financiers of the time. And once Harpending, Ralston, and even Rothschild accepted the mine's existence, anyone who doubted it was questioning the intelligence of the world's most successful businessmen.
The logistics of the con were quite simple. Months before Arnold and Slack announced the "discovery" of the diamond mine; they traveled to Europe, where they purchased some real gems for around $12,000 (part of the money they had saved from their days as gold miners). They then salted the "mine" with these gems, which the first expert dug up and brought to San Francisco. The jewelers who had appraised these stones, including Tiffany himself, had gotten caught up in the fever and had grossly overestimated their value. Then Ralston gave the prospectors $100,000 as security, and immediately after their trip to New York they simply went to Amsterdam, where they bought sacks of uncut gems, before returning to San Francisco. The second time they salted the mine, there were many more jewels to be found.
Interpretation
Arnold and Slack pulled off their stupendous con not by using a fake engineer or bribing Tiffany: All of the experts had been real. All of them honestly believed in the existence of the mine and in the value of the gems. What had fooled them all was nothing else than Arnold and Slack themselves. The two men seemed to be such rubes, such hayseeds, so naive, that no one for an instant had believed them capable of an audacious scam. The prospectors had simply observed the law of appearing more stupid than the mark the deceiver's First Commandment.
A few weeks later, on their first trip back to the site, they learned the hard truth: Not a single diamond or ruby was to be found. It was all a fake. They were ruined. Harpending had unwittingly lured the richest men in the world into the biggest scam of the century.
News of the mine spread like wildfire. Prospectors fanned out across Wyoming. Meanwhile Harpending and group began spending the millions they had collected from their investors, buying equipment, hiring the best men in the business, and furnishing luxurious offices in New York and San Francisco.
Returning to San Francisco a few days later, Ralston, Harpending, and company acted fast to form a $10 million corporation of private investors. First, however, they had to get rid of Arnold and Slack. That meant hiding their excitement they certainly did not want to reveal the field's real value. So they played possum. Who knows if Janin is right, they told the prospectors, the mine may not be as rich as we think. This just made the prospectors angry. Trying a different tactic, the financiers told the two men that if they insisted on having shares in the mine, they would end up being fleeced by the unscrupulous tycoons and investors who would run the corporation; better, they said, to take the $700,000 already offered an enormous sum at the time and put their greed aside. This the prospectors seemed to understand, and they finally agreed to take the money, in return signing the rights to the site over to the financiers, and leaving maps to it.
Several weeks later, a man named Louis Janin, the best mining expert in the country, met the prospectors in San Francisco. Janin was a born skeptic who was determined to make sure that the mine was not a fraud. Accompanying Janin were Harpending, and several other interested financiers. As with the previous expert, the prospectors led the team through a complex series of canyons, completely confusing them as to their where-abouts. Arriving at the site, the financiers watched in amazement as Janin dug the area up, leveling anthills, turning over boulders, and finding emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and most of all diamonds. The dig lasted eight days, and by the end, Janin was convinced: He told the investors that they now possessed the richest field in mining history. "With a hundred men and proper machinery," he told them, "I would guarantee to send out one million dollars in diamonds every thirty days."
When Tiffany announced that the gems were real and worth a fortune, the financiers could barely control their excitement. They wired Rothschild and other tycoons to tell them about the diamond mine and inviting them to share in the investment. At the same time, they also told the prospectors that they wanted one more test: They insisted that a mining expert of their choosing accomapany Slack and Arnold to the site to verify its wealth. The prospectors reluctantly agreed. In the meantime, they said, they had to return to San Francisco. The jewels that Tiffany had examined they left with Harpending for safekeeping.
When Brienne reaches Duskendale, she finds the gates barred for the night. The area surrounding it is littered with corpses of both northmen and men from the Reach.
The gates open at morning, and the captain tells Brienne that his sister can paint over the black bat of Lothston on her shield. After finding and telling the sister what sigil she wants, Brienne heads to the Dun Fort to speak to the lord. Since Lord Rykker is in the field, she meets with the castellan, Ser Rufus Leek, and a maester, who tells her that many came before her asking if Dontos Hollard and Sansa Stark had come to Duskendale. The Dun Fort's maester tells the story of the Defiance of Duskendale, which seems to have been the incident that finally sent King Aerys II over the edge.
Either of his own initiative, or from the urgings of his wife Serala, Denys Darklyn took Aerys hostage. When Tywin Lannister (who was Hand at the time) surrounded the Dun Fort, Lord Darklyn threatened to kill Aerys. When Aerys was captured, Symon Hollard killed one of his Kingsguard, Ser Gwayne Gaunt.
After Barristan the Bold slipped into the Dun Fort and rescued the king, Aerys had nearly every member of the Darklyn and Hollard families killed or attainted. Dontos, who was young at the time, survived because Barristan asked Aerys to stay his hand.
The castellan tells Brienne that Duskendale would have been the last place Dontos would have fled to. Despairing that she will never find Sansa, Brienne bumps into a skinny boy whom she also saw back at Rosby on a piebald rounsey, but he runs away.
Visiting the Seven Swords inn for dinner, Brienne meets a dwarf brother, who tells her that he overheard a man called Nimble Dick in Maidenpool bragging that he had "fooled a fool" seeking passage for three across the narrow sea. That night, Brienne dreams of Renly's death, but when he topples after the shadow killed him, the body is that of Jaime.
The next day, Brienne picks up her shield, painted with the sigil that Tanselle had painted for Ser Duncan the Tall. Proceeding past fishing villages on the way to Maidenpool, Brienne camps by the ruins of the Hollard castle, and hears a rider.
Fearing it may be Ser Shadrich and that a battle might ensue, she discovers the boy who seems to be stalking her. It turns out to be Podrick Payne, who asks to stay with her, hoping that if she finds Sansa, it may lead the boy back to Tyrion.
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2. Swadeshi and Boycott Movements (1905–1911)
The Swadeshi and Boycott movements emerged as a reaction to the partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905. It marked a shift in modern Indian history, as Indians started to focus on economic self-reliance and boycotted British goods.
Key Leaders: Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, and Bipin Chandra Pal.
Significance: It laid the foundation for India’s industrial development and fostered unity among Indians across regions.
The little group traveled to New York, where a meeting was held at the mansion of Samuel L. Barlow. The cream of the city's aristocracy was in attendance General George Brinton McClellan, commander of the Union forces in the Civil War; General Benjamin Butler; Horace Greeley, editor of the newspaper the New York Tribune; Harpending; Ralston; and Tiffany. Only Slack and Arnold were missing as tourists in the city, they had decided to go sight-seeing.
Harpending and Ralston now asked Arnold and Slack to accompany them back to New York, where the jeweler Charles Tiffany would verify the original estimates. The prospectors responded uneasily they smelled a trap: How could they trust these city slickers? What if Tiffany and the financiers managed to steal the whole mine out from under them? Ralston tried to allay their fears by giving them $100,000 and placing another $300,000 in escrow for them. If the deal went through, they would be paid an additional $300,000. The miners agreed.
