Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-10-19

| In L eDIUdIy VI 0dcl year there used
to come into that section of the coun-
try somewhat INSCRIPTIONS travel
| ing fur dealer, named Latham.
In buying our furs, he used to take
advantage of us boys-at least we felt
so, and we had good reasons for the
| suspicion.
| He knew how 20 deceive us in de-
| preciating our furS. When blufing
would not serve his purpose, he would
talk as patronizingly as the very fluent
statesmen in dry-goods stores. Every
shot hole he could find in skin less
ened its value. He was always telling
us that the prices of furs had fallen,
when, as we sometimes learned after
wards, there had been no depreciation,
| but on the contrary, a rise.
AS you may well believe, we had no
respect for him, yet as he was the only
fur dealer in that section, and we
knew little Of the city market, we
were forced always to sell to him-and
| az DIS own price.
| Latham came to town that Febru-
! airy, and of course he heard of the
black fox skin long before he went to
| see it.
! When he did see it he pronounced it
| off condition, and would not offer near
! as much as Will asked.
After much talk, however, a bar
gain was concluded. Latham gave
thirty-eight dollars for the skin. We
all thought that was too little; but
Will seemed satisfied He laughed at
our expressions of sympathy, and ap-
peared rather amused than otherwise.
About the middle of March, Latham
and another man suddenly made their
appearance in the neighbOrhood. They
brought back the black fox skin, and
inquired for VIII. He had gone away
on visit to an adjoining county. La
than was in a fearful passion, and
used some very severe and emphatic
language.
It appeared that at the Boston whole
sale fur-house, where Latham sold his
furs, they had made a discovery. The
skin which Latham had bought of
| VIII was not that of q black fox, but
of a common red fox, blackened with
some kind of dye!
Latham threatened to have VIII ar
rested and sent to jail. But as he
could not ascertain where the boy had
gone, he went away, after staying
about town number of days.
Nothing further was ever done about
the fraud.
The story somehow got into Boston
! paper, and was copied far and wide as
rare piece of comical roguery.
am ashamed to say that the most
of us boys felt that VIII had done a
smart thing. We so heartily detested
Latham that we saw no wrong in eX-
ulting over the fact that he had found
his match, and been cheated. Every
body was laughing about what they
called = WINS sharp trade. NO one
called it by its right name, .tro,td.
Because Latham was a rascal, peo-
pie seemed to argue that it was quite
right for viii to be swindler.
AS now look at it, enlightened by
subsequent events, this criminal act
was one of the worst things that could
have happened to VIII.
He came out of the transaction, in
the estimation Of the thoughtless and
the bad, a shrewd and clever fellow
and the cheating was SO much laughed
at in the county, and SO generally
talked about in the newspapers, that
he became in his own estimation quite
a hero.
1t gave him certain notoriety as a
"sharp boy" and the idea that such
"sharpness'' was rather commended
than censured by the people.
The method of the swindle was a
very simple one. He caught red fox,
and colored the fur with a dye, such
as some young men use for their
Whlskers. The whole story came out
bit by bit.
On the farm owned by the writers
grandfather, there was a natural
curiosity in the shape of an apple-tree.
1t grew few rods below the house,
just inside the stone wall which fenced
the road.
1t was very thrifty, fine-looking
tree, and bore large apples, striped
golden-yellow and red. They were, l
think, the most beautiful apples that [
ever saw.
But of all ill-favored, sour, bitter
fruit ever tasted, those apples were
the most disagreeable. They left the
worst flavor in the mouth of any fruit
| ever attempted to eat.
speak of them as natural curl
osity, for, as rule, beautiful apples
are finely favored. By way of point
ing moral, grandfather once painted
the word Hypocrite on shingle and
nailed it to the trunk of this tree.