St. Paul daily globe., 1885-07-26
FROM RICHES TO PENURY.
The sad Story of One Who Was Once
n Capitalist.
Swamped I'm Wall Street and Now a
Book Agent.

with ruddy cheeks, white hair, chubby legs,
abdominal proportions that bespoke the best
of living, the easy, affiuent address of a
man OF affairs and business. and manners
that would have rested gracefully on a cour-
tier. He dropped into a downtown Office
one day last week. and following is YER
batim account of what he said:
Thank you, sir; will sit down a few
minutes, sir, especially, sir, as this is about
the only kind invitation have had to-day,
sir. Dear me, what heap of comfort there
Is tucked away in kind words. 1t is so easy to
say kind word; they don't cost anything;
and then, sir, to only think what tender
chordsOf feeling one sometimes touches by q
harshOr cruel word.
Excuse me, SIR" continued the old man
in husky tones, as he turned his head away
from the listener and wiped a tear from his
weatherbeaten face. II have not always
been a book agent. sir. Lord bless You,
no. Why, time was, sir, when the name
of JOStin 81 Co. in the Mississippi valley.
between st. Louis and New Orleans, was
aS good as gold. / was worth a million then,
sir. That was before and since the war. sir.
You see L had the contract for paving sew
eral Southern cities, and then our firm was
one of the biggest cotton institutions in
the South. Well, sir, we got rich. and no
man could point finger at the firm of
JOStin IL Co. l helped hundreds of people
in those days, sir, and no man ever called
on Joel JOstin for aid in vain.
Some years after the war one of our big
Southern railroads failed, as you may re-
member, sir. Well, my name was high
upO
THE SCROLL OF SUCCESS
then, even though ! say it myself, sir; and
the government appointed me the receiver
and executor. You can imagine, sir, that
stood a No. 1, for | brought the road out
all right and hardly made a dollar for my
pains.
''Well. times changed. sir, and had a
weakness -pauSing as if TO reflect on the
vision of departed wealth and preStigc-'I
retired from business andwe moved to New
York. As was saying. had weakness;
indOrSed S5O.O for one firm,
$4,000 for another and so on
until | lost good deal of money. Well,
TO cap the climax, my wife died" turning
aside To brush away Il tear. Had she
lived. what followed would never have hap
pened. After her death l was lonely. and
the same year two big firms | had indOrsed
for went up and one didn't save me a
dollar. Then | got into Wall street; wanted
Il
invested in Lac!lawanna. and the panic
came and was Svamped. Why, sir, three
years ago was as well off as most men i'm
New York. l had my own livery and
everything man could want to make him
happy,
BUT IT'S THE INGRATITUDE
that hurts me most. OF course only few
of my friends know of my hard luck.
Well. sir, To cut 4 long story short, I
came West. had heard of st. Paul and
Minneapolis, and l thought 1 might dO
something. But it's no use. sir-(bTighten-
ing up.) y funny thing happened to me
in 81. Paul the other day, sir. l was
walking along the street when an old friend
Jared Johnson of st. Louis. came up.
slapped me on the back. and asked me if
was on the lookout Tor more real estate.
He thinks I'm rich man. and | wouldn't
let him know my fiX for the world, sir.
There's nothing like soft word tO give a
man lift, sir-I remember how, during
the darkest hours of a panic, / saved Il
friends life and fortune. lie was long on
stock and il looked as though the bottom
had fallen out of everything. Well, one
night his wife sent for me and when L went
to the hOuse-they lived in princely style,
sir-the poor woman called me 10 one side
and said. you will have to do something
with George. / am afraid he will kill him
self or 20 crazy. he acts so strangely" Well.
the poor fellow was in bad fix. l went
to his room. made him dress and
we started for walk. Well, sir. | walked
and talked with that man all night. and the
next morning we went on the board to-
gether and things looked little brighter.
made him margin his stock again, and in
two weeks he was out of the deal with
money ahead"
HAS he ever offered to do anything for
yOu?"
Dear me, he has never even mentioned
it. although his wife told me that | had
saved his life. and believe l did, sir"
The old man here narrated the manner
in which he was induced to invest the rem
nant of his fortune i'm Nevada mining stock,
and like all the rest of his speculations.
il had proved disastrous. on the cOnclu-
sion of which lie smiled sadly. and with a
CHEEKY good day, bowed himself out.