Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-04-23

| sale began.
"After l had made bid of SO, 500. this
man spoke to me in an undertone and
said:
How much are you going to pay for
that boat?'
"'That's rather peculiar question,
| replied
eyes, said he, but wouldn't it be bet
ter for you to pay me 500 than for me
to run it up against you?
perhaps it would / replied, and
said no more.
"The boat was knocked off to me at
much less than it was really worth.
ats former owners contested the sale
on the ground of a conspiracy between
the stranger and myself to bid it in at a
nominal price. / proved by the United
States Marshal that | had been in his
company every moment before the sale
began, and also proved by the stranger
himself, who was working against me
in the case, that he had never seen or
known me before that day. But the
first court decided against me, on the
ground that the price was not an ade-
quate compensation for the vessel. |
appealed to the Supreme Court, directed
every detail of the case myself, and won
it, in spite of predictions of failure from
even my own attorney, on the ground
that | had proven that the stranger was
not able to pay for the vessel had he
been the successful bidder.
"This litigation took until fall. The
vessel had lain dry all summer and her
seams mad begun to open. Neverthe-
less we found parties willing to give us
q cargo of iron to Chicago A storm
came up and we were obliged to throw
much iron overheard in order to save the
ship, which was seized by the iron men
in Chicago
"By the time I had raised enough
money to get out of this scrape and fit
out for Central America navigation had
closed, and she had to lay over until
spring That cost no less than s., 600
dockage, repairs and everything.
ain the spring we took cargo of corn
to Montreal; went light from there to
Cape Breton, whore we took load of
coal for Boston. where | had gone by rail.
"a fearful storm came up after the
ship left Cape Breton, and by the &C
counts of shipwrecks that formed my en-
tire reading, while | was waiting at my
hotel in Boston, l hardly expected to
hear from the ship again. But | did
CAS- our captain was a lake captain,
and had never sailed on the sea- | wished
to get posted on all the difficult details
of seaport entry, which is more per-
picking and intricate affair than the tariff
"The custom house clerks would not
give me particle of information on that
subject and confessed complete gnor-
ance of it. But | happened to find an
Old friend-a ship broker-who knew the
deputy revenue collector, and introduced
me to that official, with whom | had a
long talk on the details of seaport entry.
"After the ships papers had been pre-
Scnted, we were informed that certain
errors in them laid us guilty Of a certain
maritime OffenSe, punishable by seizure
and sale Of the vessel and it's cargo by
a United States marshal.
"The deputy-coIlector, when reminded
of his conversation with me, denied any
recollection of it, Then [ told the officials
that, in order to make the whole thing
complete, they should hang the owner
and agent Of the veSScl-make a clean
job of it and prevent further trouble!
"When they wanted to know what
was going to do about it, | told them that
perhaps had better pull in Washing
| ton than they imagined and that l was
going to pay visit to the Secretary of
the Interior
cat that they fixed things up in a
hurry, on my making a written state
ment of the history of the papers, and
of the fact that our men knew nothing
about making out ships papers for sea-
port entry and exit.
"The ship was then stocked and in due
time reached the harbor of Ruitan.
"While here | formed the acquaintance
of the Governor of Eastern Honduras
a man of fine presence and ability.
"ThiS acquaintance would have ended
in my accepting an official position I'M
der him had | not been determined to
make a final test of my enterprise.
81 bartered my merchandise for another
cargo of tropical frnits, and we steamed
away for New Orleans in defiance OF
Gains.
unfortunately we decided to take the
cargo as far north as Mobile just as
we reached there an untimely severe
frost nipped the fruits of all our struggle
into nothingness,
"My resources were exhausted, but
others picked up the enterprise where |
was forced to drop it, and made
their millions from it. / recall, in par
ticular, one old 'dago,' then common
fruit vendcr on the streets Of New Or
leans, who became Il millionaire from
the Bay Island steamship fruit traffic,
in few years from the time when /
brought the first cargo, by steam, to
Mobile.
From that disastrous voyage has
grown the immense fruit traffic with
Central America"
The gentleman who gave me this mar
rative in the true Chicago spirit quickly
recruited his fortunes. and is now an
houored and successful Chicago business
man.
In an account of Mexican meteorites.
NJ L. Fletcher, an English mineralo-
gist, describes fourteen huge masses of
iron which have been found within a