The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-05-30
EXACg SCIENCE.
Revenge Visited Upon a Mortal
by Misapplied Principles.


John Macy, President of the Potiphar
Mining Company, took his way down
to his Office one morning withatroubled
look. 1t was long before his usual hour
for appearing on the street, and the
people whom he met glanced at him in
passing wonder, marveling that man
OF his position should relinquish his late
morning sleep to tread the damp pave
ments and brave the chill night mists
still lettering over the lower portion of
the city, until they should race out to
sea in ingnominious retreat before the
brisk onslaught of the vigorous trade
breeze, The preoccupied expression on
Mr.. Macy's face deepened as he ascend
ed the stairs leading to his Office. He
hal been guilty of a piece of negligence
which would have excited the surprise
and incredulity of his friends, and
which was in his eyes little short of I'M
pardonable. In the press of business
devolving upon him in his official Ca
pacity he had neglected to keep close
watch of his private accounts, and had
only the day before been aroused to q
sense that a serious discrepancy existed
between the amount of cash in the pri-
vate compartment of his safe snd the
amount credited to his account on his
books.
The loss of the money was a small
". I'll l. 4
gone was of serious moment. Mr. Macy
was essentially a man of method. He
was, if | may be allowed the express
sion, man of mathematical turn of
mind. In his college days, when 9th
ers OF his comrades jealousy embraced
the study of chemistry, the dead Ian
guages, belles-lettres, probed deeply
into the annals of ancient and modern
history, or sought distinction IN base
ball, rowing and other intellectual ex-
ercises, John Macy stuck resolutely to
mathematics. Recognizing the claims
of other studies merely to the eX-
tent required to pass examinations
without being plucked, he had roved
with ever-increasing delight over the
broad algebraic fields, dallied amid
the destinations of the diagrams Of
Euclid, rioted among the marvellous
calculations of trigonometry, delyeC
through comic sections, climbed the diz
w heights of diflerential and integra
calculi, and even luXuriated for {
time in the triumphant demonstrations
of applied mathematics, taking up clvi
engineering, the laws of physics anC
higher astronomy in turn. When Com
mencement Day arrived, and his college
days were ended, while other students
slowed away copies of Horace or Homer
in their trunks, along with sundry mo
mentoes of a less poetcal character
young Macy weighted down his bag
gage with half hundred pounds o
textbooks, and started West with few
dollars in money and theory. He be
lieved that he had discovered q new
science, and was resolved to put it t,
test.
He had put his theory into practic
with pronounced success. His few pen
MES, carefully invested, with many
shrewd calculation of chances and pos
sibilities, and augmented with the in
NdludDlO uuA ildl VI NOuOhlul SllClSe
and industry, had swelled into hundred
in an incredibly short space of time
Sagaciously estimating the virtues an
frailties of his fellow-men, Speculatin
upon their action in given emergencies
be had avoided the shoals upon whic
many a commercial bark is wrecked
Later on, learning of a promising mir
eral discovery that was offered for sal
by the owners, he had visited the spo
tested the ore, made neat calculatio
of the amount of pay-rock in sigh
ascertained the dip of the wall-rocl
and then, applying his mental rule an
compass to the men with whom he ha
to deal, bought one out at low figure
froze out another, and, retaining tn
third one as his partner, realized
fortune. 1t was rumored among thoS
wIsy were converSant with John Macy
mental characteristics that he had wo
his wife by mathematical measure
confusing his rival by means of a seriC
of strategic transformations of equ,
tons, enticing him into an eccentr
orbit, and then eliminating the poo
fellow altogether from the scene of a.
ton, while Macy pursued a system
substitution and naturalization, whiC
resulted in the capture of the lady. How
ever that may be, it is certain tn;
she became an atfectionate aud d
voted wife, and was even happy, aft,
o methOdical and calculated fashion