St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-06-13
EXACT SCIENCE.
Revenge Visited Upon a Mortal
by Misapplied Principles.


by Misapplied Principles.
John Macy, President of the Potiphar
Mining Company, took his way down
to his Office one morning with a troubled
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.. Mays face deepened as he ascend
ed the stairs leading to his Office. He
had been guilty of 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 serious discrepancy existed
between the amount of cash in the pri-
waite compartment of his safe snd the
amount credited to his account on his
books.
The loss of the money was small
matter. The manner in which it had
gone was of serious moment. MIR. Macy
was essentially 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 zealously embraced
the study of chemistry. the. dead lam
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 roYed
with eyer-increasing delight over the
broad algebraic fields, dallied amid
the destinations of the diagrams of
Euclid, rioted among the marvellous
calculations of trigonometry, delVed
through comic sections, climbed the diz-
w heights of differential and integral
calculi, and even luxuriated fer a
time in the triumphant demonstrations
of applied mathematics, taking up civil
engineering, the laws of physics and
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 less poetical character,
young Macy weighted down his bag
gage with half a hundred pounds of
textbooks, and started West with a few
dollars in money and theory. He be-
lieved that he had discovered a new
science, and was resolved to put it to
test.
He had put his theory into practice
with pronounced success. His few pen
MES, carefully invested, with many
shrewd calculation of chances and pos
sibilities, and augmented with the in
valuable auxiliary of youthful strength
and industry, had sWelled into hundreds
in an incredibly short space of time.
Sagaciously estimating the virtues and
frailties Of his fellow-men, specializing
upon their action in given emergencies,
he had avoided the shoals upon which
many a commercial bark is wrecked.
Later on, learning of promising min
eral discovery that was offered for sale
by the owners, he had visited the spot,
tested the ore, made neat calculation
of the amount of pay-rock in sight,
ascertained the dip of the Wall-rock,
and then, applying his mental rule and
compass to the men with whom he had
to deal, bought one out at low figure,
froze out another, and, retaining the
third one as his partner, realized a
fortune. 1t was rumored among those
who were conversant with John Mays
mental characteristics that he had won
his wife by mathematical measures,
confusing his rival by means of q series
of strategic transformations of equa-
tons, enticing him into an eccentric
orbit, and then eliminating the poor
fellow altogether from the scene of ac-
ton, while Macy pursued system of
substitution and naturalization, which
resulted in the capture of the lady. How
ever that may be, it is certain that
she became an afectionate and de-
voted wife, and was even happy, after
. methodical and calculated fashion,