Litchfield enquirer., 1872-10-03

the plausible individual who wished to. draw us into his scheme of fortune, making, and was completely carried away by his representations. e@
 '1, too, saw golden visions, and when your father said, Gentlemen. I mean to go into this thing,' I was the first to re- spend, So do l. o 0urexampie was infec- tious. We had the reputation of being prudent, far-seeing men; and the fact that we saw money Tn an undeyefoped copper mine had a. strong influence upon those present, none of whom had the remotest suspicion that our judgment was obscured and our vision distorted by wine
 ''There were ten individuals present at that meeting Under your fathers lead and mine, the preliminary organization of joint stock company was made. and committee appointed to procure char ter. The capital was to be two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, divided into five thousand shares at fifty dollars each: the money to be paid in by instalIments as needed. As shown by full estimates and the results accomplished in leading mines, not over fifty thousand dollars would have to be expended before paving returns were obtained The stock would then rise to par, commanding fifty dollars a snare TOT ten paid ln.
 "Your father headed the subscription, putting his name down for two thousand shares. His faith and example were po- tent with me, and followed with a thou sand more. In few minutes the whole subscription was full; and we had com pact organization of ten men, two of whom, your father and I, held the con- trolling influence; our proportion of shares being three-fifths of the whole number. 1t was voted to pay in at once two dollars a share, or ten thousand dollars, in order to make cash payment on the land, and to get funds for beginning immediately the work of opening the mine. The char ter would come and the company organi- zation proceed in due course.
 f%T-~an away f-a.,,- AlA4 ,..--1:..e, fa11:.,et strangely. On going to my store, re- member sitting down at my desk, and resting my head between my hands, try ing to think just where 1 stood and what had been doing. 1 remember saying to myself, as the excitement under which I had been labOrlng cooled down and my brain got clearer, Have I been dreaming or acting the fool?' I was doing a mod erately profitable business, that required careful working. My capital, while suffi- clent to insure success, was not large, and needed to be we'll cared for and handled jndiciously. I could not take two thou sand dollars away from 1t without derang- ing my calculations and limiting, in some degree, my operations. And yet, I had put down my name for 8 thousand shares of stock, at . par value of fifty dollars each, and might be called on to pay as- sessments to the full amount! 1 felt the co sweat on my forehead. 1 said to my self. What came over me? 1 must have lost my sensesr Then 1t flashed into my thought that the wine 1 drank at your sisters reception had been the evil intu- ence which led me astray-the blinding power that obscured my judgement. 1 was startled at the revelation, startled and ashamed.
 But there was now no going back up- on what l had done. 1 had entered into an honorable contract, and could not, without loss of business standing, refuse to meet its requirements. Your father came to see me late ill the afternoon to talk over the new mining enterprise. I saw that his fine enthusiasm was gone: and did not fail to observe that in re- ferrlng to the copper product his mind rested more upon the work that had to be done than on the splendid results to be obtalned. lie was not sure that the san- gulne individual who had led us into this scheme was the cool, reliable, balanced man we needed for the management of our affairs Ill the mining region. His calm, strong, practical mind was going over the whole ground in sober earnest: and 1t was plain that the rosy hues which had so pleased our eyes few hours were fading fast away.
 "But he was not one to look back after once putting his hand to any work. He was sensitive and proud, and more willing to face an enemy and dare loss, than to acknowledge a mistake. Under the in- hueuce of his unwonted enthusiasm. he had drawn a number of capitalists and men of business into mining enterprise. and he felt pledged to the work of it's suc- cess. .+t s- a..- E..-.
 ''At an early day our charter was in hand, when an election of officers was held, and your father made president of the company. The care and work, the anHeties and disappointments he endured for the next year or or two, in his efforts to manage the affairs of the company, broke his spirits and impaired his health: Money was poured into the mine like wa ter into sand; assessment after assessment was made, until each shareholder had paid in thirty dollars a share. It was inn possible for me to take thirty thousand dollars out of my business without de- stroying 1t; sol was forced to sell half of the stock at loss of fifty cents on the dollar. carried the balance at criphng cost But your father paid at each assessment, until he had sixty thousand dollars lock- ed up in certificates, that commanded no dividends, and had ceased to be quoted at any price in the stock market
 '1 will not detail the experience we had in copper mining. It was continued se- ries of disappointments; from the time ground was broken until the work was abandoned. Ore was found, but never in paying quantities. What was sent to mar ket paid us about mill pound for dollar expended in procuring it. Our su- perlntendent, whose calls for money were lncessant, always wrote in the most glow ing terms. Every indication was good. We were surely approaching one of the geat lodes which other operators had struck Tn that region, and the moment we reached 1t. our stock would go up to, and far beyond, par. But the lode was never found. At the end of year and half the mine was abandoned.
 
 'T shall never forget the meeting of directors at which we voted to stop work. Your father. who presided at the meeting, sat In the chair more like 8 statue than living man. At it's close I walked away with him. He was not inclined to talk. saw that he was deeply mortified and evidently much troubled. He had put sixty thousand dollars into this bubble, and the bubble had burst. The land, for which we paid twenty thousand, would not sell for enough to meet the claims that still stood against the company. So, all was gone. As we paused at corner of the street where our ways parted, he sad, with much bitterness 'To think of my being such fool I cannot account for 1t, except on the hypothesis of tempo rary insanity. In less than an hour after I put my name down for two thousand shares of that accursed stock, I knew that naa committed the greatest blunder of my life; and nothing but a morbid sense of mercantile honor kept me from renn-