Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-10-09

under a pound till you hear from me
again I thought he was joking, as
the shares were then quosed at six
pence; but told him l. would do as
he wished.
A few mornings afterward receiv-
ed an envelope in ThoHpson's writing
but the letter it contained was intend
ed for another person, Mr.. Ellerton,
whom happened to know. So, think
ing that Thompson had probably put
my letter in that gentleman's envelope
I posted the letter I had received to
Ellerton, with request that he would
send me mine. About an hour after,
an old customer dropped In, and after
commonplace remsrk asked how
Juplters were going. l was on the
point OF replying 'slxeence, when
Thompson's parting words flashed to
my mind, and l answered as gravely
as l could, II pound Te my surprise
instead of expressing establishment or
lncredulity, he anxlously inquired
how many I could let him have, and
| sold him a thousand straight on.
Hardly had he gone when another of
my clients sauntered in whlstling. and
l sold him another thousand at the
same price. Just as / was reaching
for my hat to 60 on the street to find
out what had happened to the mine,
third buyer of Jupiters came in and
gobbled 1900 shares at thirty shillings
just as neatly as the others had swal-
lowed one thousand shares each at
pound.
81 rushed out of my Office now, for
I had become little frightened about
selling so much Jupiter without
knowing exactly what / was about :;
but no one had heard any news of
that mine, and the few shares l came
across got for six pence each. The
bulk of the shares were held in Europe
aud 1 could hear of no considerable
holder in Melbourne. 1 began to be
uneasy about having the shares ready
for delivery next day at 2 o'clock; so
I telegraphed to Thompson and he re-
piled that he was sending 10, 900 shares
by special messenger.
"When 1 got back to my office I
found the president of the Jupiter
Mining Company waiting for me.
This was the Mr.. Elllerton to whom I
had sent Thompson's letter tn 1t morn
ing. He did not give me time to
speak, but broke out, like the others
into inquiries after the Jupiter shares.
Fifty shillirgs,' said 1 Cox d heavens.
are they up SO nigh alreadya' said he,
but he took 5000 shares at that price
all the same. As he was going out he
handed me the letter from Thompson,
inclosed to him by mistake, which I
had forgotten for the moment. |
glanced at the letter. and tell you
my eyes opened pretty wide when 1
read: We made test crushing from
average rock yesterday, and it shows
OF. 10 pwts. to the ton; keep,thls
dark. Then it came upon me like a
revelation that every one of my buy
ers of Jupiter was a director of the
mine. and all were friends of each
other. I kRe that Thompson would
not tell me an untruth in the matter,
and that the shares would be worth
at least $40 when the good news got
around, and 1 was exceedingly angry
with him, for his stupid mistake,
which had caused me to sell the
shares so much GLOW.
81 took up his letter again, and my
eyes fell upon the word ounces,
wbich he bad abbreviated into 'oz.,
and l was thinking, half dreamily,
| that he ought TO have written 'oZ5 ;,
as there was more than one, when il
suddenly struck me that the letter 2
might possibly be intended for an r,
in which Sc the passage would real
Nine or ten pennyweights to the ton
an amount of gold not sufficient tC
pay for the working. The more
| looked at the OF the more like or it be
came in my eS es; 50 took the letter
to neighbor, and covering the other
words with my hands | asked him
what the doubtful one was. OR, as
plain as a pike staff, he replied al
once. Gould it be meant for oz9"
asked. Hardly he answered, unless
the context required the word ounce.
you never saw four bluer looking
| faces than those of the directors of the
Jupiter mine next day at o'clock
and the end of the affair was thai
Thompson pocketed nearly $4,000,
and the willy directors were MINUS the
same amount
"When 1 met my old school fellow
again he smiled softly. and said that
it certainly was dreadfully stupid OF
him to have missed his letters, and
awfully careless to write 'or' So badly
that it could be mistaken for 'oz;' but
l call it smart trick, and it is just
such Instances of the Kindness on the
part of spectators that cupiditv al,
ways produces which get us poor bro
kers reputation for cunning that we
do not deserve"