, 1886-09-08
BANKING OUT WEST. I
FINANCIAL OUTCOME OF PAYING
ATTENTION TO BUSINESS.

A Dozen Farms and n Wife-Making
Money Regardless of Sentiment OF Sym
pathy-TroubIe with tho settlers-A
Funny bargain.
On an east bound train the other day was
a well fed and comfortable-looking man,
who announced that he had been attend
ing to business very strictly for three or
four years, and that he was then on his
way to the seashore for the purpose of
having a little recreation. His wife wns
a plump, fresh-looking young woman sew
eral years his junior, who. besides being
f~ashionaDly dressed had an air of bust
ness about her which is met with in the
fair sex more frequently in this part OF
the country than elsewhere.
"Yes." the tourist said, after settling
himself back In his scat in the smokers
section, ave bsen attending to business
mighty close. In fact. I've had to. I'm
banker. When / came out in this coun-
try | had just about 5000 clean cash.
Down where 1 came from everybody said
1900 wasn't enough to put in your eye.
1t might do to buy a home with or get a
team, but as far as business was CON
concerned 1t was only an ~aggravation. /
fA<a ~ IA al ooCbt DhnChhr hAha
made up my mind that / would show
some o. the smart men whether $1,000
capital wus good for anything or not. l
went west along with the immigrants. set
up a little Office, put out a sign Money to
Loan and sat down to await custom.
Il put my money out in small sums
principally. A settler would come in and
ask for $50 or 800. l would ask him what
he a Well, he might have an equity
in his land, or he would have some house
hold furniture, farm machinery, or horses
and wagons I would let him have the
money. and a a mortgage on all thai
he had, deducting my interest at 20, 12 or
IA per cent, In advance. Plenty OF them
would want a little money for u month or
two months, and I'D always sock it to
those fellows. I've had $40 for the use OF
$50 for thirty days many time. A good
many of the settlers were Sc~andinavians,
and | could not talk to them in their own
language. nor could they speak to me in
mine, but | got up a printed form which
they could understand, and in that way
managed to do business very satisfactorily.
BANKING BUSINESS OUT
ut requires n very clear head and
good Judgment to do a banking
business out here. Particularly is
this true In a new Settlement In
the winter time. pve changed my
location three times since I've been in Da-
kota. After a township has been settled
for a while 1t is not much good to men in
my line. When | have moved l AVE al
ways gone into new country. The people
get along frst-rate for a few months, but
the first winter fetches them. They have
to have money, and a man wristbands
by ready to help them is a sort of public
l have had at one time and
another mortgages on the stuff belonging
to several hundred farmers, some times
taking mortgages for sums as small as
s10 to $50. In fact, they are the ones that
pay, as the men who give them are usr-
ally on their last legs, aud about all that
you have to do is to wait a while and then
gather in their stuff.
81 have corie into possession OF some OF
the best farming land in Dakota in this
way. A man might get hard up. and
come to me for 500 for six months. When
the time was up he would be worse Off
than he was before, and by stretching the
mortgage n little l would give him an
other 800, the whole thing to be paid in
three months. Then he might come around
and make a poor mouth, and csk for an
extension, and all that, but you see that
wasn't what | was out there for. My
capital wasn't very large, and ! had to
keep 1t moving, n then, too, there is no
sentiment in business. I'd ave to take
the farm. In some such cases / have
sold 1t back to the man at l2 or Is per
cent. interest. on condition that he would
pay me monthly, but he usually gets tired
of that
THR FUNNIEST BARGAIN.
ayes. | ave had TO take a good deal Of
~ Ia. V... 49, ~ "a .t,T chat
couldn't give away, but l took 1t just the
1t wouldn't be business to let 90
of anything that you once got hold of.
Probably the funniest bargain that l ever
made. though, was the one that brought
me that young lady in there, my wife. She
was out here farming as she calls it,
though she didn't know a harrow from a
feed-cutter. She was a brave girl, though.
She had n little money and paid for her
farm, nut she had to go into debt for her
house and machinery. That's where /
got in my work. When II came time for
her TO make a payment she was short,
and so she came to me for money. / gave
1t TO her and ooh "a mortgage on all her
property real and personal. That is the
kind OF deals like to make. II you can
one of those girls for a customer. you
are liable to have a farm after awhile
dirt cheap.
well, when the note fell due she
pay 1t, and l gave her an extern
sion at IL per cent. i usually get 10 in
such emergencies, but 1 took pity on her.
Then that came due, and she had no
money. and so ! foreclosed on her. That
made her mad. She wanted to make a
compromise, and after a while l patched
up a bargain with her, but as ! repented
OF 1t, l told her the place and all the things
would have to be sold. A friend of mine
bid them in for about the sum of my
which she didn't do. Not much. She
just stayed there, and one day when /
rode out to see II she had gone, she
opened on me with a rifle, calling me an
old shark and thief. When l tried to get
some help from the people round about,
they intimated hat they would see me
hanged first. and. by thunder, the girl
had me. She was in possession, and there
wasn't law enough in that county then
to get her out.
5 after awhile l came to the conclu-
sion that ! would have to reason with her.
II was getting to be about time for me to
climb out of there my way, but l couldn't
bear the idea of losing the farm. Then l
got a man to negotiate with her for an
interview, and after awhile | called on
her. making myself as agreeable as pos
sible. The upshot of II was that / asked
her TO marry me, and she consented. Pm
pretty well satisfied with the deal, for to
tell you the truth. l would never have got
that farm II hadn't taken her along with