Morning journal and courier., 1889-07-24
WHO LOST THE TEN D0LLARSa
A Financial Conumdrum That Drove
a Man TO His Grave.

Man TO His Grave.
From the Pittsburg Timesl
You are fnancier. am not, but had /
a friend who died of a financial conundrum, |
and although it is too late to do him any /
good, would like to know the answer.
He was good fellow, poor fellow, but he
was unlucky. Besides he was good deal of
a fool. He invested all his own money and
some more in Gloriad mining stock. He
saw great deal about it in newspaper of
great former morality and much previous
virtue. He did not stop to note that the
stock was ninety-fve per cent. or more be-
low par, nor inquire if anybody controlling
the financial columns of that paper had been
presented with block of Gloriad stock.
He didn't do anything but go and blow in
his savings in Gloriad. The stock took a
tumble before he did, and at the roundup
he found himself with large block of Glo-
Rad, which nobody wanted, and no money:
His wife died, and his only son, who had
been brought up in the expectation of luxu-
ry, went to the bad. Believing still that
even a mining stock which could get quoted
and noted every day in the paper that used
to be honest when his grandfather read it
must have some value, and having nothing
much to live for anyhow, he came out here
TO LEANS 10 1ufoSblRdto Luo COuultAOu VI tuo
Gloriad enterprise.
His discoveries did not bring him either
consolation cash. He found that the
nearer he got to the supposed mine of wealth
the smaller was the demand for the stock en-
titling him to a share in its munifcent prof
it's Having embarked in the investigation
1 he went on at it. The further he went the
worse he Jared. When he struck FL Paso he
had just one round, white silver dollar left
to his name, and he went and bought a
drink with it.
The barkeeper took his American dollar
and handed him Mexican dollar in change.
A Mexican dollar at that time was worth
only eighty-five cents in United States money.
There were rumors of trouble between the
two republics TO wing out of Indian raids,
and the pursuit of the robbers from one
| country into the other. A Mexican dollar
I was only worth eighty-five cents in Texas,
and the United States dollar was worth but
l eighty-6ve cents in Mexico. 1t was early in
l the morning. He had nothing to do with
| the rest of the day or with the rest of his
/ life, for that matter. The Mexican eagle
on his last remaining coin suggested some-
I thing to his desperate fancy and he wan
dered across to Ell Paso Del Norte, on the
Mexican side. He bought drink of mes
cal there for fifteen cents, laid down his
Mexican dollar and received an American
dollar in change, equivalent to eighty-fve
| coin and an idea struck him. It appealed
i to his speculative humor.
He 1etraced his steps to the American
side, walked into a saloon, called for q
drink of whiskey, paid for it with his SOL
itary American dollar, which he had re-
got Mexican dollar in change. This he
promptly carried over the line, bought a
drink of mescal and got United States dol
lar in change. Then he got to thinking.
| Here was the situation. he had precisely
the same capital he started with an hour be-
fore, and had distributed sixty cents worth
of liquor through his system in the way OF
dividends The whiskey and mescsl were
| gone. They were no further use to any
| body. The visible supply of exhilaratinG
beverage had been absolutely diminished tt
| that extent. He had bought it at the mar
ket price. He had paid for it in cash. He
! had all his original capital still in his pock
walking back and forth from the Mexican to
| the Texas side, and vice versa, but that, as
| he shrewdly decided, was non-productive Ia
| Dor as far as the interests of the public were
concerned 1t earned nothing, for 1t added
3 nothing to the supply of anything. he
! | might have walked back and forth until the
| river ran dry without anybody being the
l better off.
Here was chance to get even with the
section of country which had indirectly been
the cause of his bankruptcy. He walked
back to the Texas side, bought another
drink, got Mexican dollar in change, wen
| back to the Mexican town, got another drinl
o | and United States dollar in change. H.
kept it up all day. He picked up a sticl
and cut a notch in it for every drink, as the
: old Indian fighters used to keep score of thu
scslps they took He kept 1t up prett.
steadily all that day until closing-up time
b | and set at it again the next day as soon as b
| could see He waxed enthusiastic over hi
speculation, giving a war-whoop at ever.
notch in the stick.
!. But at length he got wondering who wa
y losing all this money. Apparently not thu
It bar keepers. They were getting the marke
rate for their liquor. Surely not he, for b
was holding his own. The problem both
8 cred him. He was naturally a curious man
= The more ne thought of it the more b
drank, the more his head swan round wit
II perplexity, and the more the subject il
Q question became complicated with extraor
binary things which reminded him OF tn
}. | menagerie he had gone to see when he was
o boy. At length, when he had consumed nv
e dollars and five cents worth of Texas whis
y key, and FIVE dollars worth of Mexican mes
Or cal, he died in front of the saloon where b
le got the first drink, and with silver dol
lar in United States coin in his pocket
died of wondering who had lost the te
dollars and five cents worth of two kind
of liquor which he had consumed, aithoug
n the local coroner said 1t was ,delirium tire
y mems.
ID But neither the coroner nor the jury e.
N | planned who lost the ten dollars and hN
"a cents, and that's what I want to know.