The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1876-12-07

Dor and expense. When his collection
seemed at last perfect, stuffed whale
arrived from Greenland and an Aztec
inscription from the CundurangO re.
giOns of Central America that made
all former specimens insignificant.
My uncle fastened to secure these no.
BILE gems. He got the stuffed whale,
but another collector got the inscrip-
ton. A real Cundurango, as possibly
you know, is possession of such SUI
preme value that, when once a collect
Or gets it he will rather part with his
family than with it. So my uncle sold
out, and saw his darlings go forth
never more to return and his coal
black hair turned white as snow in a
single night.
Now he waited and thought. lie
knew another disappointment might
kill him. He resolved that he would
choose thugs next time that. no other
man was collecting. He carefully
made up his mind, and once more en-.
tered the field-this time to make col
lection of echoes.
"Of what 2" said I.
Echoes, sir. His first purchase was
an echo in Georgia that repeated four
times his next was six-repeater in
Maryland !; his next was thirteen-re.
peater in Maine the next was nine
repeater in Kansas his next was a
twelve repeater in Tennessee, which
he got cheap, so to speak, because it
was out of repair, portion of the cragg
which reflected it having tumbled
down. He believed he could repair it
at cost of few thousand dollars,
and, by increasing the elevation with
masony, treble the repeating capacity;
but the architect who undertook the
job had never built an echo before,
and so he utterly spoiled this one.
Before he meddled with it, it used to
talk back like mother-in-law. but
now it is only fit for the deaf and
dumb asylum. Well. next he bought
a lot ofduble barreled echoes, scattered
over various states and territories !;
he got them at 20 per cent. off by TAX
ing the lot. Next he bought perfect
Gattling gun Of an echo in Oregon and
it cost fortune, can tell you. You
may know, sir, that in the echo market
the scale of prices is cumulative, like
the carat-scale in diamonds; in fact,
the same phraseology is used. A single
carat echo is worth but $40 over and
above the value the land it is on; a
two.carat or duble-barreled echo is
worth $50; a five-carat is worth $3.50 !;
ten.carat is worth $4,000. My
uncle's Oregon echo, which he called
the Great Pitt echo, was a 2O-carat
gem, and cost $2l6, O0-they threw the
land in, for it.was 400 miles from a
settlement.
Well, in the mean time my path was
a path Of roses. | was the accepted
suffer of the only and lovely daughter
of an English earl, and was beloved to
distraction. In that dear presence /
swan in seas of bliss. The family
were content, for it was known that |
was sole heir to an uncle held to be
worth five millions of dollars. How
ever, none of us knew that my uncle
had become collector, at least in any
thing more than a small way. for es-
thetic amusement.
Now gathered the clouds above my
UNCONSCIOUS head. That divine echo,
since known throughout the world as
the Great kOh.i-nOOr, or Mountain of
Repetitions, was discovered. 1t was a
sixty-five.carat gem. You could utter
a word and it would talk back at yOl
for fifteen minutes, when the day was
otherwise quiet. But behold, another
discovery was made at the same time !;
another echo collector was in the field.
The two rushed to make the purchase.
The property consisted of a couple of
small hills with shallow swale be-
tween, out yonder among the back set.
Elements Of New York state. Both men
arrived on. the ground at the same
time. and neither knew the other was
there. The echo was not all owned by
one man, a person by the name of Will
Hanson Bolivar Jarvis owned the east
hill. and a person by the name of Har.
bison j. Bledso owned the west hill :;
the swale between was the dividing
line. So while my uncle was buying
Jarvis hill for three million two hun.
dred and eighty-five thousand dollars,
the other PARTY was buying Bledso's
hill for shade over three million.
Now. do you perceive the natural re-
suit Why. the nOblest collection Of
echoes on earth was forever and ever
incomplete, since it possessed but one.
half of the king echo of the universe.
Neither man was content with his d.
vided ownership, yet neither would
sell to the other. There were jawings,
chickering's. heart burnings. And at
last, that other collector, with ma
Lightly which only collector can ever
feel toward a man and brother, pro-
ceeded to cut down his hill
You see as long as he could not have
the echo he was resolved that nobody
should have it. He would remove his
hill and then there would be nothing to
reflect my uncle's echo. My uncle re-
monstrated with him. but the man
said. Il own one end of this echo
choose to kill my end: yosl must take
care of your own end yourself.
Well, my uncle got an injunction put
on him. The other man appealed and
fought it in a higher court. They
carried it on up, clear to the supreme
court of the United States. 1t made
Il NJ, and s>f trort>1o $hor0 TVra IF tho