The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-03-15
IN GENERAL.


day laborers and exotic princes, rich
financier and writer of phases OF city
life were in the cafe of a fashionable
restaurant. The financier was eating
serious filet, the writer frivolous eel
with tartar sauce. They had bowed to
each other and then pursued the even
tenor of their thoughts, which, surely,
were not similar, for the writer, listen
. ing perhaps to harmonious phrases
which were in his mind, smiled, whereas
the financier, nervous and careworn,
moved his lips as if reciting lesson
which he knew not we'll His mute
turbulence became so annoying to the
writer that he decided to ask the cause
of it,
''My dear friend" said the financier,
ST may tell you-who will never harm
me and who are ever walking in azure
that in an hour l shall surely have lost
my credit, my fortune, everything
There is a meeting Of stockholders from
whom l must get more money, and
have not yet found pretext, good or
bad, nor the first word Of my speech.
relied on my secretary, who Is man OF
genius. but he rushed out in the street
Yesterday without his coat, and today he
Is in bed with pneumonia. Just my
luckv'
Without deigning to comment on the
ferocious selfishness contained in the
financiers last phrase, the writer asked
= for an explanation of the financial diff
Guilty and received it in phrases brief,
precise, saying exactly what the speaker
wished to say-perhaps because they
were not addressed to stockholders.
Then he asked the waiter to send for
paper, ink and stub pen, and said
calmly:
"Nothing can be easier. l wish it
were as simple an affair to write phase
of city life, with its exposition, develop
ment and final expression"
ga phase of city life?" asked the finan-
cier with evident surprise.
"Yes," replied the writer. They are
things that we do as a sort of relief,
when we are so burdened with work
that we do not know where to begin
As for your speech, it shall be quickly
made up. Your mines are exhausted;
you are after other mines in their place;
your stockholders expected dividends,
and they shall be assessed. Not to be
able to convince stockholders of the i'm
perious necessity Of paying an assess
ment is to admit that one has never
known how to put in its place word of
four syllables and has never been the
friend Of flaming adjectives."
The phasist wrote rapidly IN curslve
letters; the leaves were piling up before
him and they were covered with perfect
ly regular lines The financier was beat
ing tattoo with his nails on rod of
his chair The writer ceased to write,
and the fnancier began to read. AS he
read his face Frightened and in the end
it radiated light as if dipped in the pink
furnaces of Aurora.
1T Is positive, then, that the things
which l wished to say to my stockhold
ers are true" he said when he had par
tally recovered from his stupefaction.
"They are true if correctly deduceG
from one another, united with that false
metal which is called logic, expressed il
words the sounds of which are varied
enough to preoccupy those who listen
because in literary point of view there
is no other sort of truth" the writer re
piled.
The fnancier had quickly paid his bill
to the waiter, put on and buttoned hi
overcoat, and placed the manuscript il
his pocket.
"My life is yours" he said to tn
writer, while he pressed his hand
"Only claim it. But l suppose 20,
would not know what to do with it, S,
let us talk seriously How much none,
do you want? l cannot do less than pa,
you any sum that you may name"
"Oh," said the writer, 81 sell phase
of city life, but do not deal in financia
speeches. have written this only t.
serve you. Do not talk of it. l wan
nothing"
"Nothing!' exclaimed the fnancier
with suspicious air well, suit your
self. am obliged to you, anyhow"
The writer quickly forgot the incident
He was too busy collecting epithets dc
scriptive of the saffrons, the pinks an
the grays of sunsets to think of the un
published page of Robert Macaire' tina
he had written. But his cashier suddenl
desired to visit Canada, and not to trave
alone took the cash box with his luggage
1t happened on the day when Sloane
bill for oriental rugs, which the write
had bought on credit, was due. At tn
same time Bradstreet's, Matthews an
Stikeman sent to him fifty volumes ecc
nomically bound in half Levant morocco
of various colors at the rate of four do
lars volume. He called on the finar
cier, who demonstrated in few word
how wide the gulf is which separates
man of finance from a man of city Lii
phases. He said:
mo. | never lend money to peopl
who are not practical. When you save
me from bankruptcy l asked you t
name the sum that you wished woul
have given you $4,000, sec, 900. $50, OC
and notes secured by bonds, and any
thing that you might have asked, br
you preferred to enjoy the luxury {
rendering service for nothing Yer
well, keep your illusions; | keep IN
money. You have written somewhei
that books go to those who love then
Money is like books it wants to |
HdOred "-Neyy York Tin,ae