American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-05-23
Trying to IS SELF Il Banker.

THE San Francisco Chronicle tells this
tale:
A curious looking individual presented
himself at the Bank of California and de-
manded to see Mr.. Ralston. From the
dress and appearance of the man one
would scarcely be led-to suppose that he
came in for the purpose of engineering a
financial negotiation. On his right arm,
however, was a large basket of remarka-
bly, fine and small spotted pups, whose
heads stuck out in all directions from the
edges of the basket. In a few minutes a
man with nicely brushed hair and soft,
gliding step came out and Informed the
man that he might come in. In a mo-
ment more he advanced with a quick step
and moved within the sacred and charmed
circle where thousands and thousands of
clinking gold twenties jostle and make
music with their fellows. But the noise
occasioned by the clink of wealth did
not seem to attract his attention, and
without seeming to think that the place
on which he stood was "holy ground''
he walked into the private office of the
millionaire and deposited his basket of
spotted bull pups on the floor with the re-
mark:
There's them pups, Ralston." At the
sight of the canine beauties the eyes of
the banker glistened with pleasure, and
the pup -fancier turned the basket upside
down, and in an instant the whole litter
were running over the soft carpet and
gamboling with delight
"Now, Just look at EN-" remarked the
man, waving his hand over the group;
" the finest strain, barrin' nun, that liver
yelped in this town, you betcher. Now
| want to sell we the whole lot, and know
in that you're little hard up, and strug-
glin' to keep large family runnin', I'll
put 'em down where ye can reach 'em
without straightenin' your elbow. flow
much for the lot, the whole of 'em, just
as they are?"
"WelI, Jack" replied the money king,
"you know how I'm situated now-times
mighty hard Stocks down; money mar
ket depressed, and this new issue of
greenbacks, you know, takes the under
pinning out of things, you know"
YES" replied the dog-seller, with
considerable deliberation, 81 took all
'em things into consideration, we see, and
concluded l wouldn't put the screws on
we very heavy on that account. I'll slam
the price down and chuck we the whole
lot for, say, a-a-.'' Here the man
paused and hesitated, while he looked
the banker in the eye and seemed to wait
for him to say something. There was an
unpleasant pause.
"Well," said Ralston, a guess the
price you named is about the thing, don't
you? ?" turning to a Chronicle reporter on
his right, who had been waiting for some
time to negotiate trit1ing loan of $780,
900. The reporter thought SO, too.
"Well, all right, so that the whole lot
of these fine bull pups go for the low
bedrock price of S75.''
"Seventy-fve dollars! Why, man,
such sum, in these times, for six spotted
pups! Amt you ioking?"
"Now, look here" pleaded the dog
trader. eff you can git any such pups as
them for the same amount of coin I'll
pay for UNI and eat UNI raw; yes, eat UNI
raw"
"But dogs, my man, amt in the demand
they used to be. Dogs are quite common
now, you know, and getting cheaper
every year"
THAT'S so, for the common breed o.
pups; but for this yer kind of spotted
pups, not snatched up on every bush
the finest strain, as l said before, barrin'
nun, that ever wagged his trotter in the
town, for coin-all the coin you can put
up" roared the man, quite excited.
81 know; but these spots are not
regular spots, are they? But it strikes
me there is something of an artificial cast
about these spots" and with remarkable
deliberation the banker lifted one on his
knee and began to examine it with great
deliberation with a magnifying- glass,
such as are generally used as a counterfeit
detector. at strikes me, Jack, these
spots are dyed-put on with brush"
The dog fancier did not remain after
this announcement, but got down on the
floor and began to scramble about under
the chairs after his spotted pups, which
he caught, and, replacing them in his
basket, started Oft. Hold on, Jack"
yelled the banker, laughing heartily,
"you go over and sell these pups to Sam
Butterworth, and I'll pay you all he does
for EN-" "Sam Butterworth! Do you
s'pose sam Butterworth don't know Il
painted pup the minute he sees one. |
tried him about half an hour ago, and he
sent me round to you"
In another instant the man had vanished,
taking the painted dogs with him.