Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1889-03-05
MISCELLANEOUS.
Monthly Auction Trade Jour
nal for February.

Iel lOI SOI udI- "
Twenty five percent, cash before delivery
Can any rules be simpler-any argument
stronger, or any road surer or shorter This
ritter began under these iron laws after a
skooling of three years in the store of Jacob
Senseney, Winchester. Virginia. in 1854. with
$500, is years old. will never forget the
harty cheers from James Riley, Joseph S.
Carson, Henry NJ. Brent and Nat Bent. head
officers of the bank, as drew my money and
started for Baltimore. Twenty-Five per cent
was stuner and staggered tine old timers, the
fifty and one hundred per centers, but 1t drew
in the hi and 10, the rich and the poor-every-
body dealt in the little 13x1s. After a while
we run the store bak seventy feet Things
dubbed and trcblcd, and We moved into the
largest store in the place. wher records were
smasht and everything run at the very hiest
rate of comercial speed.
Had the ritter then had q place like 466 and
4GS to get his thuuderbolts from, how much
easier and swifter the race, but the running
around, and hunting up bargains, and the
time in the auction rooms was u serious mater
and vast waste of valuable time cudn't
spare. And, beside, ther was then, us now
no place outside of the auction rooms where
we cud buy upon our terms-hve per cent. ad-
vance-tha all wanted from ten upward The
proprietor. then twenty-five, visited the me
tropolis once month, kept bank account in
Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, and
was preparing to change headquarters to New
York, when the tocsin of war sounded, and
the chivalrous South grapled with Its great
Northern brother. It was that heroic little
md eI,r.,
up to the last inevitable hour, until Lincoln
cald upon Virginia to help flte the South, and
then closing his great business, he shot Yam
KEGS, and Yankees shot him at the rate of s12
per month. God of heaven what an occu-
pationI
The twenty-five per cent. c. B. D. had
yielded nearly 100000 in seven years! This
little pile was invested in tobacco, cotton and
Confederate four per cent. bonds. The two
former were swept out of existcnc upon the
burning of the rebel capitol and Appomattox
cut down the valu of the bonds to two cents a
pound 1t was no falt of the twenty-five per
cent, or of the spot cash. It was simply the
sweep of Intellectual progress-an upward
and onward advance of human liberty. 1t
touched not the imutable law of twenty-five
per cent. cash, even tho it struk the shakels
from the Anglo as well as the Afric of the
Suny South Then, In this eventful life of vi
cisitude came year on the farm-in the har-
vest field, 101 in the shade and at the foder
shOk, ten below zero. What a life for a poor
devil without dime-eleven thousand old
diets hanging over him, and burning up with
ambition; what good the undaunted pIuk fol-
lowing the plow and reaper-thro the humble
be's nests, for little to eat and place to
sleeP-it was a little better than fitting the blu
belies-that is, far as making money went.
IN fact ther were chances during the war that
did not occur in the unromantic life of the
sheaf nnd sho6, the hoe and harrow. For in
stance, clever little days financial specuIa-
ton in 1864, belo Petersburg. 1t was the day
that Wilson and Kautz, rniders getting back
from ther expedition of desolation and plum
der, struk Malone 1t was agen. as always.
The Yanx were loaded down with unavailable
colaterals-the colored brother and his mule
and chickens and dux and dogs. It was all
over in twenty minutes. The blu boys scat
tered In every direction, hoping to find pas
sage thro to Grants lines only about mile
off 1t was like Holcomb's band, and about
the same ods--four to one-tha lycr loded
down with plumber. beside, between the radera
and Grant, stretched a long line of irresistible
Confederate curage that no force cud pierce
or drive. Sargent Timberlake and this ritter
detached that da on special duty pounced
down upon a bunch of these frightened fugi-
tives, beside dozen prisoners. armed with
thirty shooters, We got any quantity of stolen
plunder-eolored gentleman and ladies riding
in the old family carriage-mules, hogs and
cows-a clever little string, thirty in al. and
20, pnt
at the head q brot up the rear) he was a mag
nifcent looking soldier-pasing US on the road
were many who asked of me, what general
that was at the head of the captives. Unwit-
ing ansered. Lee, when tina wd have some
excuse to gallop to the front to take good
look at him. All, me. the old Confed laft long
after. as we recald the old war jokei
arriving at Petersburg. We turnd over evry.
thing, and beside the admirable letter of mer
| glorious service to the commanding general, We
got 500 in prize mony, big pile then too, Il
was. We invested It all in confederate dried
aple pies, and on hill overlooking the Cock.
ade City. we sat down and feasted. Half ar
hour finished up our two hundred dollars
worth Of pies. tina wer s35 apiece, and at nits
we wer as hungry as ever.
Yes, in that hard year at home, on the farm
walking from the field with my father at nitt
(after dark,) often referred to that clever rec
ord at Winchester. and boasted that wouIf
eeliPs the achiements of the early waterIoos il
the splendor of futur triumf In the Metropolis
to which in irony he wud usually anser ,'whe,
VII U get the car fare 10 New York;
Pardon the ramble, but peple ike to have
Illustrations tina want facts, not theory-real
| ity, not the idle dream.
The author of the net spot cash landed a
the Battery, March 10th, 1865, peniles, age,
80, slept in the Oak street police station. anC
next morning eat at the Astor House fre,
lunch, and took look at the future batll