Daily Yellowstone journal., 1891-08-09
2 ".


An unhappy man during the ensuing
week was Farmer Heinrich Kropn.
When not ia anxious private c~Onsulta-
ton with the GOldbug, who seemed TO
have become a fixture on the place. he
was sunk in melancholy or in such nerv-
Gus plight that a trivial thing would
suffice TO throw him into a passion.
Frau Kropff did not scruple TO free her
mind Of the vehement conviction that
''some guilty secret" was worrying him.
and had pleasing suggestive stories TO
! tell of a man in Schnorenberg, Of whom
She once heard, who went on IN that way
for Just n month, and then hanged
himself.
One day those shrewd ~betrayers,
Messrs. Cute and Sharp, reappeared at
the farm. Sight Of them transformed
Herr Kropf-s grief TO Indignation.
Robbers! Schwindlers!' he cried. Il
got a boor opinion Of yOu. Vat tuyfel
shall nave sent your skinny faces my
way 70 schmell out more about my farm
as 1 know mineselluE, Vas 1 not a fool
when give YOU permission that you
shall schnoop about my blaze: Heb?
They ~laughiugly replied that 1t was
too late TO talk about that now; business
was business. and there was no reason
why they should not utilize good thing
that he did not even know he had. He
swore that he would not sell the farm 10
them, but they did not appear either sur
prised or disturbed, merely replying that
1.-THE courts would settle that" Herr
Kropff s~huddered. Like most honest
men he had a horror Of courts. Finally,
after a long consultation between the
partners, Mr.. Sharp said 70 him:
1--WE have a great regard for you, Mr..
Kropff, and do not want to be hoggish
in this matter, so we can probably agree
upon a compromise that will be mutually
satisfactory. We only want the north
ern half Of your farm, and viii pay you
for that the same amount that we had
agreed to give you for the entire place.
Furthermore, we will let you a v in
payment stock in the company we are
organizing, and viii put you in on the
ground floor. In other words. you shall
have two thousand shares at fifty per
cent. of their par value, the price al
which viii be put upon the market the
first twenty-five thousand shares
How many shares altogether viii
there bey'
'.One hundred thousand. The divi.
dends on your two thousand shares viii
bring you in from eight hundred to one
thousand dollars a month at least, and
if you choose to sell out within si1
months you viii get probably twenty OF
twenty-five dollars per share"
IT, eL~N .--unnawnaUf Nth HffNa hRa1
tation, the farmer agreed. Aside from
the brilliant prospects opened mp by
Mr.. ShaKp's scheme, he had an idea
that he thought was his own, though II
reality il was a ray from the Goldbugi
genius, and its ~magnihcence easily rec
onciled him to the compromise pro
posed.
Frankly, Mr.. Kropf, said Mr.. Shar
as he re-entered his buggy with Mr.
Cute to drive away, II am very glat
that an amicable understanding ha
been reached between us. The thing i
so big that we can afford to be liberal
and hardly any price would be too mucl
TO pay for the good viii of 80 estimabl
and pleasant a neighbor as yourself. II
four or five days l will bring you n
your stock and we will make the trans
fer"
, Mr.. Chipland was present during tina
interview, but took no part in it and nc
body seemed TO notice him.
When the New Workers were gon
. Farmer Kropf went out to the bar
alone, and using a piece of keil on tn
smooth face of a toolroom door, plunge
into a sea of calculations. He woul
not be oversanguine, he said to himself
/, and so would take az a basis the lOwesi
and not the highest, figures Of incOm
? that Mr.. Sharp had named-eight hur
, dred dollars per month or nine thousan
. six hundred dollars per mum. Tina
he could easily loan on good security q
; six per cent. Allowing n year for ~
- cumulation Of that sum-, as a starter, /
ten years more dividends and interest o
his loans would have reached the sum {
s1S4-265. But his magnificent idea woul
dwarf that. He. without any c0mpan
TO share the profits, would work n
= southern half Of his farm asa gold min
" and Of course it would pay him a re-
niue equal 70 all that the company woul
take from the northern half, OF, in 9TH
words. fifty times as much as he woul
get from his two thousand shares. . ]
" eleven years. then, he would have fro
=, that source Sc ,7l3,250. The contempt
ton Of those figures almost took h
breath away. Again and again he wei
n over them, each time exclaiming IN