Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-08-21

week he received a polite note from
Take-it & Keep-it, informing him that
his hundred dollars had been put in to
make up a .'co-operative fund" in
which twenty-five or thirty persons
were interested. There was already a
profit of tive hundred dollars to his
credit, but if the "co-operative fund.-
could be doubled, the manager would
be enabled to exert a powerful pressure
ON the stock market and send prices up
with a rush. The profits would then
%quadruple. 1t was an unusual oppor-
tunity, and the writer of the letter
suggested that if MI. Pitchfork did not
happen to have one hundred dollars on
hand it would pay him to borrow it for
a few days. But Mr.. Pitchfork did
have the hundred dollars, and sent it
on with joyful eagerness.
The days crept slowly by, and Tim
othy's watchful sister began to wonder
what it was that made him so ervou
and absent-minded. At the end of the
second week Timothy received a tele-
gram instead of a letter. The telegram
read:
NEW YORK, May 10, 18s-.-Timothy Pitch
JOTh. SenQ us announcer nunQrCu OOlldFS III
once. The market is booming, and a large
majority of members of the "co-operative
fund have resolved to axe fullest advant-
age of the rise. 1t will pay you to be prompt.
TAKE-1T L. KEPT.
The young farmer was not exactly
satisfied with this second postponement
of the realization of his profits. The
telegram, however, "a an intimation
that hasty action was necessary, and he
hurried to the village, drew out a third
hundred dollars and dispatched it to
New York. That night he wrote a
note to Takc-it & Keep-it, instructing
them to close out his share in the ''co-
operative fund.- at once and send him
what was due him. He found that the
anxiety was wearing on his mind, and
disturbing him in the performance of
his everyday duties. The answer to
his letter came two days afterward. 1t
was a telegram saying:
The market has gone against US: Unless
will be wiped out entirely. Can get you out
with a profit if you send us two hundred dol
lars. 7. u K"
This phase of the case was a severe
blow to poor Timothy. He had not
calculated on losing anything. His
imagination had reveled simply in the
probable extent of his profits. Now
his only thought was to ave the three
hundred dollars he had Invested"
Still blindly confident of the integrity
Of Take-it & Kcep-it, he allowed him
self no rest until he had drawn two
hundred dollars more of his savings
and sent it to his tempters. The fol-
lowing two days were given up to bitter
reflections on Timothy's part, which
were not lessened by the receipt of still
another telegram worded something
like this:
''The evil one seems to have his grip
on the market. Still going down.
Must have two hundred dollars more
or all is lost. Will not have to call on
you again"
In sheer desperation Timothy tele-
graphed back:
q haven't got two hundred dollars
left"
Some innocent dupes, under the cir
cumstances, might have thought of
mortgaging the farm, but, fortunately,
Timothy's love Of money was not as
great as his reverence for the old home
stead. In a few hours after the young
farmer had sent his telegram an answer
came back. He tore it open and read,
with mingled feelings of sorrow, shame
and relief, this terse announcement of
the result of his brief session of specu-
lation in stocks:
You are wiped"
The lesson had been a severe one.
but Timothy was disposed to put up
with it philosophically. He congratu-
lated himself that he had got ''the con-
sarned thing off his mind. The next
day. however, new emotions were
stirred by the receipt of the following
letter:
NEW YORK, May is, 1ss-.-Mv Dear limo
perhaps panied at what l am going to say.
l am going to ask you to lend me one hun
dred dollars. and will tell you why. Since
l have been here, now nearly a year, | AVE
been doing nicely in the store. My employer
was very kind and ] was getting good wages.
Until a few weeks ago | had one hundred
and twenty dollars saved up OF course. L
became acquainted with the other girls in
the store, and one day l was asked to join
five other girls in making up a "co-operative
fund.- for Il safe investment in stocks-I
mean those things that they buy and sci, and
bet on in Wall street. One of the girls read
about the cooperative fund" in a weekly
~ dhA I w ShC u a SA1CulGE
which showed how large sums of money
could be made with small investments, The
]circuiar was signed by Take-it ~ Keep;it,
was addressed especially to ladies. l put in
ten dollars with the five other girls, and we
each expected to get one hundred dollars by
the end of the week. We only got Eve dol
lars apiece, but the manager for the firm
wrote us that he would reinvest our original
fund, and us the prices of stocks were going
up with n rush he would advise us to send
him as much more as we could and we might
easily make several hundred dollars.
Well, four of us girls wanted to send
twenty dollars more each. but two out of the
six did not have it. l thought it was per-
fectly safe, so / told the two girls who had
money that l would advance their share out
of my savings. In a few days we got a nice
little note from the firm, saying that our
money had already trebled, but that it would
market was bound to go higher. or course,
happened that the superintendent of our
store was ugly that day, and he made some
sharp remark to me which L resented. l felt
so independent, you know, at the prospect of
making so much money, that l could not
take abuse from ANYBODY. The superin-
tendent told me that ] must not talk back to
him, and l did talk back to him, and l was
discharged on the spot.
Oh dear, and howl L don't know what to do.
This morning one of TIN, girls got another
note from Take-it g. Keepit's Office, saying
that a bear or some other animal had got
into the market, and unless we sent twenty
dollars more each we would lose all that we
had invested. Not one of the girls has twenty