Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-10-30


CHAPTER XXIv.-CoHTINuEp.
All this was said in o tone of voice
and manner that showed, even more
than his words, how utterly broken
and hopeless the man was, and when
he ceased speaking he staggered again,
and those about him thought he would
have fallen; but he gathered his ener-
gies, made his way through the crowd,
which opened to let him pass, went to
the stable, and replacing the saddle on
his horse. mounted him and turned his
face toward home.
The moment he left the Recorders
Office. q dozen voices were heard eager
ly demanding to know the details of
the affair.
The man who was to have bought the
place could tell nothing beyond the
fact that on examining the records he
had discovered mortgage against it
for about the value of the property.
''lt seemed strange" he said, "that
the mortgage should be there and have
escaped the eye, not only of Mr.. Par
sons himself, but of the maker of the
abstract which he received from Mr..
Blake. There is evidently mistake
somewhere. Possibly the mortgage has
been paid and the mortgage has neg
lected to cancel it on the books in the
Office; if so and it can be proved, it can
all be made right yet"
Then somebody suggested that Mr..
Parsons be called back and an effort
made to ascertain the facts.
''It is pity to let the old man suffer
SO, if it is only mistake and the
mortgage has been pald," they said;
and half dozen of them started at
once to call to Mr.. Parsons to stay and
try to learn all the facts, but the Re-
corder, who had remain; d silent during
the discussion. now spoke:
"It's no use, men," he said, ''the
mortgage is there. and there is no
doubt but it will take the place, unless
the old man can raise the money to pay
1t of.
"You know have only been in Office
less than year. When 1 came in here
got to looking over the books back a
piece and l found things a little bit
mixed. and set to work to straighten
'em up. Among other things l stum-
bled onto this mortgage. 1t was re-
corded all right, but 1t wasn't indexed,
and you know man might hunt for a
week through these books and not find
thing that wasn't in the index. Be-
sides, no one would ever think of doing
SO, as every mortgage is supposed to
appear in the index under the name
both of the maker and the mortgagee.
81 thought at the time that like
enough trouble would come of the
blunder, which is the fault of old Pu-
terbaugh, who was Recorder at the
time it occurred. He was never sober
two days at o stretch, and ought never
to have been elected, but he managed
somehow to get the nomination, and
then we had to vote for him or go back
on the party; and you know we
couldn't do that.
"Well. as I was saying, thought
like as not Parsons never knew of that
mortgage being there, but hadn't the
heart to mention it, and it wasn't any
of my business anyway, and really
hoped 1t had been paid and would never
give him any trouble. But about a
week ago fellow was here from Frisco
you remember him, Jo?" he said,
interrupting himself and addressing the
landlord of the hotel, who WAS one of
the crowd-"that fellow with stove
pipe hat and suit of brown velvet
clothes. He stopped with youp"
Yes" replied the landlord, Z" re-
member him. He was there to dinner
and supper and left on the down boat"
WELL" continued the Recorder.
''that was Blake's brother-in-law. /
don't know whether he is as big ras-
cal as Blake was or not, but anyway it
seems that Blake got hard up and bor-
rowed fifteen hundred dollars of this
brother-in-law and gave mortgage On
that place up there for security.
at was more than the ranch was worth
at the time, but reckon Blake was in
fix where he had to have that amount,
and as that was all the security he had
to give, his brother-in-law let him have
it. May be he never went to look at
the place at all, but just took Blake's
say-so for what the property was worth.
"Well. after bit, Blake. who was
always looking over the records to see
" he couldn't strike lead of some
kind, happened to stumble onto the fac.
that old Puterbaugh hadn't indexed
that mortgage, and he made up his
mind to sell the place to somebody else
and leave the country.
''He knew no one would be likely to
see the mortgage in making an abstract,
and il they did discover 1t, why he
would say it had been paid and do
stroyed but the party had neglected to
cancel 1t on the records Then he wSuld
'bluster around. pretending 10 be look
ing for the party who had held IL in Or
der 70 have the matter fixed up, but
would never be able to find him, and
pretty soon the man who was going to
buy the place would get sick of waiting
and 90 of somewhere else, or buy an
other place. and the whole thing would
be forgotten.
"At least. that's the way l figure
u all out, and reckon ] amt very far
from right"
r"vat bow does IT come that sAl,