The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-09-03

! shipments ucVOlVtu on me. My summer
vacation was passed in attending to it,.
! Two or three shipments were made, and
my heart was in my mouth until reim-
bursements came. We cleared some SG0.-
600 in six months, in gold. on the first
shipment. 1--WE shall stop now," said.
Here is money enough made for a first
venture, and you have means now for ex-
plOrations in Peru" Nonsense, my
dear boy" was the reply, - il will take
a quarter of million before | can even
begin. This time our people want artil-
lery trains. At it again. Chances are
more than ever in our favor. We are to
be paid heavily this time, and in addition
have had a concession made me of some
hundreds of square miles i'm Peru, exactly
where my researches are to COM
mence." | pleaded and pleaded in
vain, but was bound to the wheel.
\ lighter pOsition-one occupying
me but few hours-was given
me in the Office, and all the rest of my
time was devoted to the arms business. l
had managed, so far, to be very circum-
spect in my purchases, but could not al
ways be on my guard.
All large banking houses have peculiar
set of men, who frequent them-old men
often, who sometimes come for news, or
WIZ nitlhC ONOlclOlldl OilCn
these persons may have been acquaintance
of long standing, who had been on init
mate terms of friendship with the fathers
of the present firms, and who are allowed
the privileges of the offices. Among these
friends was an old man who dealt particu-
larly in notes. He was Frenchman who
spoke English fluently and elegantly, with
scarce an accent. Pick him up in the
street and you would not think he was
worth five dollars. One suit of clothes
sufiiced him all the year round. For ten
years | had known him to wear the same
bandana handkerchief around his neck. A
new bandana marked decade in his life.
He was highly educated, and, though
filthy in person, had, strange to say, dis
tingLe manners. HIS passion was money
making. With flare, as the French have
it, keen sense of impending trouble, he
was ever ready to improve the situation TO
his profit. lcould not call him a vulture,
nor one who weuld suck your blood or
pick your bones commercially with
relish. BalZac's GObseck was not exactly
like him, for this old Frenchman was
charitable to certain degree, givingaway
every year fixed sum to benevolent insti-
tutiOns. But, a note once purchased by
him, it had to be paid to the inmate. His
word was his bond. fhepurchased anOte
for thousands of dollars-and he took few
risks, only buying gilt-edged paper-he
never gave his check for it. His signature
few had ever seen. He would draw the
bill himself from his bank, and pay in
money for the note. His curiosity, his
acquaintance with everything in the city
was wonderful. No man failed, or was on
the eve of it, but this strange character
knew it. With intuitive perception akin
to the marvellous, he would with single
sniff of his long thin nose smell out gen
uine, bOna-fide note, issued in legitimate
way, from a kite. Occasionally he StraS
gled into our private office. He had taste
for art, and one day while L was alone,
thumbing a Spanish dictionary for a word
| wanted, he entered and picked up trag-
ment of South American idol, which was
used as a paper weight. =" A crude per-
ception ofart!" he said; "a transition, in
fact, emanating from something higher; a
retrogressiOn. Art and religion were at
first in their grandest and simplest form:
and man complicated them. Money easy
Today, but there will be a storm soon.
Pray, let me trouble you to go in the office
and bring me the portfolio. | will make
an investment. Must be short of paper
not over sixty days-and only choice, not
over $4,000. How is it that you are away
so much? We miss you. The junior
looks fatigued. What are you working
away for with that Spanish dictionary?
All Spanish business is dangerous. There
is a basis of sterling honesty-chivalric in
fact-amOng Spaniards, but their revOlu-
tons are the disturbing quantities. Pray,
lend me your pencil; have some inter
est to calculate.' | gave him my pencil,
taking it out of my pocket, and went to
the main office for the portfolio containing
the notes. He carefully secreted those
that suited him, compared the discount
with my calculations terms were agreed
upon as was his custom, he left to draw
the money for them in person. In ten
minutes he had returned with roll of
bank-bills, and the notes were re-eXamin-
ed and engulfed in greasy pocket-boOk.
- Hem ~ ne said, just as he left; /" here is
your pencil. Inever took another mans
pencil in my life, but some thief has stolen
mine. A pencil that cost me cents only
Is months ago, and not more than a fin
gers breadth of it used up. But by the
way. / noticed something peculiar about
your pencil. Why do you have a percus
sion cap, and cap made for an army gun,
too, stuck in the end of it? Might go off.
And while L think of it, are you opera
ting for a corner in cannOns? | was can
nOnier at Waterloo. In South America
| have bought up many an old piece, and
turned an honest penny by selling the
metal. South America! Que le diGbLe are
you doing in that country? a friend at
CallaO tells me things, and have a strange
way of putting this thing and that thing
tOgether-mOSaicS in fact-and making
picture bit by bit. By the way, you find
i,,G South Ar0naria1 Y,nncaias nI1ifa n 9 fine n
the Greek or Roman. Heinz" and he
winked blear eye and shuffled out. Our
French friend had put an evil eye on
things. From that time our ventures in
South America all came to grief. Our
ship was wrecked off Cape Horn. Too
wise to put all our eggs in one basket, we
had distributed the shipments. One raS-
cally captain took his cargo to the enemy's
port, another ship was captured. The
government we were working for Quib-
bled when they or we were unlucky. We
were losing money by hundreds of thOus-
ands of dollars. | was so fully absorbed
in the engrossing minuti8 of the business
that never asked where the money came
from. In the midst of our anXieties a
home crisis came, the same the old gentle
man had prophesied. Our house, | was
afraid, was in a strait. The old bOokeep-
er's mouth, from sucking his pen, trick
he had when he was nervous, was ink
black.
One afternoon, when working hopeless
ly over the South American business, my
patron entered. Throwing himself upon
the sofa for moment, he sprang up again
and locked the door. "If, my poor boy,
those accursed people don't pay tO-mOr-
row. or ifthe bills on England for that dis
puted account don't come. | am ruined,
and with il the firm. The house wants to-
morrow $4,000. | borrowed it thirty
days ago from the firm. with the consent
of course of my good old partner. Money
is going out like torrent, and not drop
coming in. My South American remit
tances, some $4,000, should have been
here twenty days ago. What shall dOg
and great drops of sweat rolled off his
forehead.
" Is all your private fortune gomez l
asked. =" Can You not effect a mortgage
on your house?''
THAT was mortgaged some months ago.
All gone in this wretched business. If |
had the best security in the world it would
be useless. There is not SIS to be had on
the street."
"Your old French friend?" said. gasp
ing for breath.