The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-07-15
company organization proceed in due

course.
CT went away from that meeting feel
ing strangely. On going to my store, 7
remember sitting down at my desk and
resting my head between my hands, try
ing to think just where I was and what I
had been doing. remember saying to
myself as the excitement under which I
had been laboring cooled down and my
brain got clearer, Have I been dream
ing or acting the fool?' I was doing
moderately profitable business that re-
CURED careful working. My capital,
while sufficient to ensure success, was
not large, and needed to be well cared
for and handled iudiciously. I could
not take two thousand dollars away from
it without deranging my calculations and
limiting, in some degree, my operations.
And yet, I put down my name for a
thousand shares of stock, at par value
of fifty dollars each, and might be called
on to pay assessments to the full amount.
ct felt the cold sweat on my forehead.
I said to myself, What came over me?
I must have lost my senses Z Then it
flashed into my thoughts that the wine
drank at your sisters reception had been
the evil influence which led me astray-
the binding power that obscured my
Judgment. l was startled at the revela-
ton startled and ashamed.
But there was no going back upon
what had done. I had entered into an
honorable contract, and could not, with
out loss of business standing, refuse to
meet its requirements. Your father
came to see me late In the afternoon to
ak over the new mining enterprise. I
saw that his fine enthusiasm was gone !;
and he did not fail to observe that in re-
ferring to the copper product his mind
rested more upon the work that had to
be done than on the splendid results to
be obtained.
"He was not sure that the sanguine
individual who had led us into the
scheme was the cool, reliable man we
needed for the management of our affairs
In the mining region. His calm, strong,
practical mind was going over the whole
ground In sober earnest; and it was
plain that the rosy hues which had so
pleased our eyes few hours before were
fading fast away. M
But he was not one to look back
after once putting his hands to any work.
He was sensitive and proud, and more
Wiling to face an enemy and dare loss
than to acknowledge mistake. Under
the influence of his unwonted enthu-
siasm he had drawn a number of CAPT
talists and men of business into mining
enterprise, and he felt pledged to the
work of its, success.
cat an early day our charter was in
hand, when aa election of officers was
held, and your father made President of
the company. The care and work, the
anxietles and disappointments he en-
d11red for the next year or two, in his
efforts to manage the affairs of the COM
pany broke his spirits and impaired his
health. Money was poured into the
mine like water into sand; assessment
after assessment was made until each
shareholder had paid in thirty dollars a
share.
cit was impossible for me to take
thirty thousand dollars out of my bust
ness without destroying it; SO was
forced to sell half of my stock at loss
of fifty cents on the dollar. I carried
the balance at a crippling cost. But
your father paid at each assessment, I'M
TIL he had sixty thousand dollars locked
up In certificates, that commanded no
dividends, and had ceased to be quoted
at any price in the stock market.
will not detail the experience we
had in copper mining. It was a con-
tinued series of disappointments from
the time the ground was broken until
the work was abandoned. Ore was
found, but never in paying quantities.
What was sent to market paid us about
a mill pound for dollar expended In
procuring it. Our superintendent,
whose calls for money was incessant, al
ways wrote in the most glowing terms.
Every Indication was good We were
surely approaching one of the great
lodes which ether operators had struck
in that region, and the moment we
reached it, our stock would go up to, and
far beyond, par. But. the lode wasnever
found: At the end of year and q half
the mine was abandoned
81 shall never forget the meeting of
directors at which we voted to stop work.
Your father, who presided at the meet.
ing, sat in the chair more like statue
than living man. At it's close walked
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.it 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 a corner Of the
street where our, ways parted he said,
with much bitterness
'sS To think of my being such fool
[ cannot account for it except on the
hypothesis OF temporary insanity. In
less than an hour after put my name
down for two thousand shares of that ac
cursed stock, I knew that I had COM
mltted the greatest blunder OF my life,
and nothing buta morbid sense Of mer-
camille honor kept me from repudiating
L Il