The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 25, 1903, Page 14

14 THE SUNDAY CALL. ) ine Golden Gate This Is 1e Sixth of These Clever Articles. land railroad was ter fired Comstock mines was was alert, feverish absence of n, or of mail, three s were exag- and press m were re- The ( then been the wharf to see you off— you need not buy any liquors s, you will find a few necessaries of that sort in your stateroom.” rie gained fame and r with the double ral on his shoulders e en horse Y, s on the turf he yman’s funeral was f the leading men was a professional nevertheless, a t-hearted man. and he are both in the other coun- nd ho shail say what is their ioneer, capitalist and was one of the best in early Frisco. A jes walked up and down set bawling, “Here's y candies. Everybody buys the s them.” Sam he: emerging from office ndy man in the middle of and d, “What do you g In this way that I ‘All right, Mr. Bran- RECOLLECTIONS ane REIFLE . [ONIS OF THOMAS PITCR. e, COPYRIGHT 1903 BY THOMAS FITCH o, S 5% s or Briggs the Alta office; Californian of to the century served led out two rolls of twen- ed. *“Here a thousand, s take it and go. 1 sh I could go with you, but I am not wi ivate and they s commission No, I don’t want any little for me to do w go home and go to-morrow get ready. The safl the day after. I will -xpressed his satis: to his office. s Jater the volce of the candy man your fine, e Judge Delos Lake was the wit of the F sco bar. In beginning an ar- 1t in the Supreme Court on an ap- peal from a judgment rendered by a Dis- trict Jud k had been al- most he said, “This s gment of the But there are ier points in the case. SR Judge Lake ran for Assemblyman at a 1 election t- fill a vacancy, and to stonishment of everybody was de- d by an opponent who had been only w months in San Francisco. “I ac- unt for it in this w: said the Judge; “those who knew my opponent and did not know me voted for me. Those who knew me and did not know my opponent voted for him. Those who knew us both kept away from the polls. My opponent bad been here only a few months, and I had bcen here for years. As a result I was defeated.” ool e “This woman,” sald Judge Bullyrag of a lady lawyer who had worsted him in a legal contest, “ought to be in better busi- ness than pursuing a man’s vocation in court. She had better be at home raising bables” *“A woman,” replled the lady assaulted, “had better be in any business t raising babies to become such men as you.” Somebody once published an essay on the total depravity of inanimate things, and it really seems at times as if there were an imp of the perverse who guard- ed the movements of axes that fly off the bandle and of sidewalk planks that arise and smite you in the face. I never see a roller-top desk that I do not yearn to be left alone with it for five minutes with a good ax and the right to make kindling wood of ity for it was a roller-top desk whose faulty construction and ravenous THEES GNAWED RIS FET TERS KILLED SEVEN SHEEP AND FLEDTHE REALM.. maw prevented me from becoming a mil- lonaire. It was in the middle 'W's, when Comstock mines were yielding their treasures at the rate of several mil- lions in silver and gold cach month, and the San ¥ :0 stock market was booming with a mighty boom. I was at Virginia City on a business visit, when there came a tap at my room door about 10 o’clock at night, and there entered a miner m the Yellow Jacket mine, whom I had successfully defended some vears before from a homicide charge and who was grateful for the service. He in- formed me that he had charge of the drilling machine in the mine, that he had kept and assayed a handful of the bor- ings and that there was a large body of rich ore that would soon be uncovered. Jacket was then quoted at $8 per share on the San Francisco board. I had no telégraphic cipher and was afrald to send an open dispatch, so I wrote a note to the head of the firm of brokers in San Fran- cisco who had my account directing them to sell all my holdings at market rates and buy Jacket, and keep buying it to the margin limits. This note I sent by the midnight train, kn@¥ng that it would reach San Francisco before the close of the stock market next day. A sale of my stocks would have realized $2000 or $3000— enough to secure the purchase of a thou- sand shares of Jacket, The next day Jacket stood at $8 per share until just before the close of the board, when it advanced to $10. The suc- ceeding morning it opened at $12 and ad- IN A MASQUERADE by T. C. McClure. SLIE WOLCOTT threw himself on the green bench near the stone wall; It was shady there, under the blg maple. He had been in the flelds all day, directing his men h them. After nine dingy offices of Grant & od to be in the country He pulled his straw hat over made overtures to the “sand little nap,” he sald drowsily, at bolt upright. Some one on her side of the wall was speaking a woman—a young e was angry. tt, indeed!” she was saying. father had no idea he lived next he rented this little place for Father isn't like you, Aunt tsn’t always trying to marry the lady addressed replied, soothingly. ressed my r's unusual foresight r. “x pleasure at your in renting a Wolcott's—& young man, only wealthy, but well bred well educated.” the girlish voice cried not sight!” Wol- an ve mever met Mr. cott, and I've no desire to meet him. The very fact that he is rich is enough to prejudice me against him! What can there possibly be to foresee?" hat will do, Elizabeth! I had sup- posed & Carter incapable of such ingrati- T By H. G. Canfield i 3 4 tude as you have expressed!” There was the soft swish of skirts cver the grass, and then Leslle Wolcott awoke to the fact that he had been eavesdrop- ping. Well, like other listeners, he had lLieard liftle good of himself. He lay star- ing up into the leaves, trying lo imagine what Flhizabeth Carter was like—this girl wno was “prejudiced against nim.” He was interested and slightly piqued; the more he recalled the conversation the more interested he became. Mis sister was away—would not return for a month; must he walt until Edith came home to begin the acquaintance? No; he doubted if Miss Carter would return her call. A sudden inspiration came to him: The farm hands called him “Mr. Leslie—most of them hed been on the place since he was & boy—and it was as “Mr. Leslle” that he would make the acquaintance of his new neighbors. The father seemed old and feeble. Les- lie saw him in the evening wandering among the rose bushes on the lawn. A girl of thirteen or fourteen was with him, but “Elizabeth” did not appear. In the morning he was starting for the fields, when her voice came to him over the high stone wall. “Madge,” she called, “‘come here and help meccarry this rug; it's so heavy!” Madge was slow in com- ing, but Leslie vaulted over the wall, and ran up the steps of the little cottage. A shapely head, covered with braids of soft, brown hair, and two great, dark ey looked at him inquiringly. *Pardon me,” he said, “but you called.” “Yes,” she replied; “I called my sister, Is there anything I can do for you?” “N—no,” he stammered came to ask you that question. I was on the other side of the wall, and—"" She looked at him quickly—suspiciously, he thought—and seemed relieved at the sight of his blue overalls and old straw hat. ' “I'm Leslle, the overseer,” he sald re- assuringly. “May I lift the rug for you now, Miss Carter?” “Thank you,” she sald, and she thanked him again when he carried it to the porch ands spread it carefully on the floor. Madge and her father came up, and she introduced him to them. “Mr. Leslle, father,” she sald; “Mr. Wolcott's over- seer.” The old gentleman extended his hand cordially. “Comie over the wall, did you?” he asked laughingly. **Well, come over again—come often. I envy you the abllity to do so, young man.” In the days that followed Leslis made the most of Mr. Carter's invitation, to the evident delight of Madge and the dis- gust of Aunt Hetty, who complained that she seldom found them alone now, when she came out for the day—‘that forward overseer was always there!” Leslle knew her opinion of him. Madge —child fashion—had repeated her aunt's language. “My!” she sald, “I wish you had seen Beth's eyes flash! She stood up so straight and tall—like this—and she saldy ‘Please be careful how you speak of my friends! " @eslie’s face flushed with pleasure. “It was kind of Miss Elizabeth to say that,” be murmured.® “Oh, she likes you! But Aunt Hetty is worried because Mr. Wolcott isn't at home. You see she would like to have vanced to $20, at which figure it closed. If my brokers had purchased a thousand shares at $10 the advance would have se- cured the purchase of another thousand shares or more and I telegraphed them, asking, “How much Jacket did you buy for me?” The answer was, ‘Do mot un- derstand you. Have bought no Jacket for you.” I took the train that night and found on arrival that news of the discovery of bonanza was out and Jacket was selling at $40 per share. The stock brokers disclaimed the receipt of any let- ter from me. I helieved that they had really received it and had kept for their own account the purchases made for me. The next morning Jacket opened at $80 per share. The proceeds of sales of all my other stocks would not have served to margin more than a hundred shares and I did not invest at all, but watched Jacket advance $10 at a time, until within a week It reached $250 a share. If my letter had been recejved and its Instruc- tions followed, I would within fifteen days have realized over $2,000,000. These figures are not conjectural for those who, like myself, were in the secret, made five times that sum out of the strike in Yel- low Jacket, Several years afterward, on my return from Arizona, I met on Montgomery street the head of the firm who I sup- posed had availed himself of -the secret that the miner confided to me and so robbed me of fortune. I greeted him coldly. He took me by the arm, “Come with me to my office,”” sald he, “I have something to show you.” Arrived at his _— him fall in love with Beth and marry her. ‘Elizabeth,’ she said, ‘what will Mr. ‘Wolcott and his sister think when they come home and find that you have been %0 Intimate with their hired man? And Beth sald, ‘They will think that I recog- nize a gentlemfin when I meet one.’ I'm sorry Aunt Hetty says such horrid things about you.” “I'm glad,” Leslle cried, to the amaze- ment of his little friend. At the end of the month Edith Wolcott came home, and was immediately taken into her brother's confidence. ‘Don't give me away when you call there,” he cautioned her. “Not if I can help it,” she sald laugh- ingly. Elizabeth recelved her politely, but Aupt Hetty, who was present, was more than cordial. “I'm so glad that you and your brother have returned, Miss Wol- cott,” she sald. “There has been no one for my nleces to assoclate with in your absence.” “You forget our friend, Mr. Leslle,” Elizabeth sald quietly, and Edith Wol- cott’s heart went out to her then and there. . “Speak to her. Leslie,” she urged that evening, “before she returns my call. I can’t keep your secret much longer.” “I will now,” he sald determinedly. *“I caught a glimpse of her white dress out there in the moonlight. Wish me good luck, little sister!” An hour later Edith heard his step on the walk: she met him at the door, a question In her eyes. “Congratulations?” she asked. “Yes, for ‘Mr. Leslie’ TI'm jealous of that overseer!” he sald, smiling ruefully. “Beth was willing to take him for bet- ter or worse, but Leslie Wolcott she—" “Oh, Edith crled. “She dldn't reject you, Leslie?"* “No; but L need your sympathy; she put me on three months’ probation!” . private office, he pointed to a roller top desk, .which had stood there for years. “This morning,” sald he, “I threw back the top of this desk hurriedly and it car- ried with it a contract which my clerk had placed there. In order to recover the document I had the back of the desk taken off, and found lying there this let- ter addressed in your handwriting, not to the firm, but to me individually. The en- velope is creased and dusty, but as you see it has never been opened, for I knew that you were in town and waited until I should see you. If it had been directed to the firm, your orders would have been carried out and you would have been a milliondire. Being addressed to me, &~ clerk probably placed it in the crack of the desk and I, not noticing it, must have opened the desk hurriedly and thrown it into the receptacle where it rested until this morning.” There was no more to be said, except to express ardent wishes for the futurs welfare and happiness of the inventor of roller top desks. I related this incident to a friend, who sald, “Don’t you know I was in that Jacket deal? I had a tip from one of the Nevada Bank crowd and I ran a thousand dollars up to a hundred and fifty thousand.” “What did you do with 1t?” said I *“Oh, I bought a raisin vine- yard for my wife down Fresno way with twelve thousand of it, and as for the rest —he hunimed softly from a popular tune —*There was a young ass who came from Jerusalem, festive and gay, there was an old ass returned to Jerusalem, foundered AVENDER OF CANDIES KED UP \D%QE/-N MONTGOMERY AND A new mining stock board was organ- 1zed in San Francisco and “Lucky” Bald- win was elected president. A grand ban- quet was given at the Palace Hotel to members and invited guests. I was not on the list of speakers and was at liberty to enjoy the dinner without being pos- sessed by the awful apprehension that I would forget my extemporaneous speech. The first toast of the evening was ¥Th President of the ‘Pacific Stock Board, and imagine my dismay when Mr. Bald- win responded by saying, “I am not a speaker and I have arranged with my friend Fitch to reply for me.” My dis- claimers were_of no avall and I reluo- tantly responded. “In speaking at all” said I, “I wish it distinctly understood that my name is not Fitch but Baldwin, that I am for the time the mouthpiece of the president of the Pacific BStock LY MM and all that I say must de indorsed you “I have been fortunate In aequiring wealth,” sald I, “and I feal it to De my duty to aid those who, for lack of oppore tunity or lack of financial acumen have not been ‘Lucky.’ I have watched with interest and admiration the career of my friend Fitch, and in order to duly express my kindly feeling for him and in order to ald & worthy young man, I have de- termined to buy and carry & thousand shares of Sterra Nevada for him.” *“It shall be done,” sald Baldwin, amid roars of laughter. *“I am fairly caught™ But he didn’t buy any Sferra Nevada for me, and it was just as well for me and a good deal better for him, for if he had done 80, and carried it, he would have carried it down hill, for it went from eighty dol- lars & share down to a dollar & share, with certainty and celerity. EVE IN MODERN EDEN (Copyright, 193, by T. C. McClure.) cal idea that prompted Adam Breck to swing suddenly round in his office chair that gray November day and say, “Throw in the farm at ‘Buttonwood, Jimmy, for good measure, and we'll close the deal here and now.” It was an equally whim- sical idea that sent Breck up to Button- wood the following June to inspect the farm, for Jimmy Cregar had closed th deal then and thers, and a deed to the place, duly dra up and recorded, had reposed in a pigeonhole of Adam’'s desk since November. That evening Adam sat on the stone doorstep of his Buttonwood house. He had been most happily disappointed in the place. The house was a low, ram- bling story-and-a-half affair, in an excel- lent state of repair. An inviting plazza ran along the northern side; the western end was half hidden under rambler rose bushes just coming Into bloom, and a box-hedge divided his domain from the road. To the left he could see the cozy house of a nearby neighbor, Dr. Thurs- ton, as Breck learned from the lantern above the gatépost next door. The peace and quiet of the place appealed to him. Seated there In the red twilight, Adam suddenly felt a desire to remain here—to build up the place by his own éfforts. Sell it, rent it, give it away? No, Indeed. He would build it into a little Eden of his own devising. And, the mood being strong upon him, he trudged the mile and a half to town to telegraph for his effects. Early next morning Breck set to werk. With a pair of ancient pruning shears he had found in the shed he was trimming the hedge, which, somehow or other, was not the simple task he had imagined. He By Barry Preston T k * was awkwardly lopping off the twigs, when he became aware some one was watching him from the other side of the fence. He turned and saw a girl looking at him from the depths of a sunbonnet. She was an amasingly pretty girl, and the laughter lurking in her eyes was a trifie disconcerting. 3 “Good mornin, our new neighbor?” Breck doffed his hat and, fishing In his 'vest pocket, found a card. He apprgached the girl, am Adam,” he announced, presenting the card, “and this is Eden I am making. I fear I'm doing it badly,” he added, with a deprecatory wave toward the gouged hedge. “Rather,” sald the girl, her eyes spark- ling. “If you like, papa wiil lend you the gardener.” “Oh, no,” sald Adam: “this s to be an Eden of my own making. Therein lles the charm.” “Eve, by Jove!” he asserted, as she entered. Then he returned to his hedge trimming with a vigor which threatened to exterminate It. & After that they entered Into the jol- Hest sort of friendship. Every morning she called across the fence, “Good morn- ing, Mr. Adam. What is the latest bul- letin from Eden?” Whereat Adam would perch on the fence and drolly relate his experiences with the pruning shears or the lawn mower, or he would set forth his doubts as to where the ruspberry bushes should be set out. Summer waxed and Eden grew. “It's finished,” sald Adam, almost re- gretfully. “Eden is complete as far as my work goes.” They sat on the stone doorstep In the twilight of a late July day. The girl was looking pensively at the red sky. she sald. “Are you “More Edens to conquer?’ she asked, lghtly. “Noy” he sald: “I want to complete thigl} one.” “You sald it was finished,” she said. “I sald my work on it was finished,” he returned. ‘“‘Here is Adam,” he went on, “and here is Eden. There's a discrepan- “You won’t have any trouble finding the serpent,” she observed. “Eve came before the serpent,” he sald. “I should think,” she sald, “you'd profit by example. Eve was the undoing of the original garden.” “There’ll be no serpent in this garden,” he sald. “I've made this solely for Eve. Every flower-bed I have made, every drop of paint I have put on, has been with the thought of Eve. It's all for her.” “Then you had Eve in mind when you came here?” she asked. “Yes,” he fabricated, unblushingly. “Oh,” she said in a queer little voice. “I've always.known her,” he went onm, “from the time I was & chfld.” She was silent. “I've always thought I'd make her an Eden with my own hands. I hope she’ll be happy here. Do you suppose it will suit her?” he asked, anxiously. “It should,” she said. “Does It suit her?” gently. She started. “Pray, how do I know?” she said, coldly. He slipped an arm about her and drew her close to him. “T've always known her,” he explained, “but I never saw her until she looked at me across a fence, and laughed at from the depths of a sunbonnet beca: I gouged the hedge. Does it suit her?” he repeated. “Adam.” There was a world of tender- ness in her voice. “Eve,” he sald, gently, he asked, very