The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-11
MESSAGES WERE MIXED.
Wealth Of The Fosters and Senator
BTioe Originated in a BluRdeT.

1 Riches Follow a Miatake-An Anus
ing Story of Bungling Through a
| Lucky Railroad Deal During the Oil
Excitement Which Laid a Golden
Foundation.
From the Chicago Daily News.
The failure of ex-Secretary Of the
Treasury Charles Foster brings to mind
| an amusing story. The anecdote found
its origin in the early days of Fostoria, o.
The two Fosters, father and son, and
Senator Calvin S. Brice figure in it prin-
cipally.
Fostoria was laid out by the elder Eos
ter, and ever since every enterprise of
any consequence which has taken root in
! the little place has borne the stamp of his
| name. One day when Fostoria was still
very young old man Foster conceived the
! plan of building a railroad to some
| where and few miles of
road were constructed but before
| the road got anywhere the funds gave out
and the project was allowed to rest, as
| old man Foster came to the conclusion
! that even if the road were completed it
wouldn't be the paying investment he had
| hoped for. The road lay idle for year
or two, and was considered dead loss,
Finally it became almost obscured by
weeds and grass and nearly everybody
| seemed to forget that it existed at all
Little did anybody suspect that those
moss-grown ties and rusty rails repre-
sented fortune
When the old boom commenced Ohio
land and railroads went up higher than
kite. Then Mr. Fosters thoughts re-
turned to his railroad. He hustled to New
York and easily secured the loan of
enough funds to double its length, so that
it would connect with line running into
Lima. The ex-secretary, who was then
a young man, made a trip to Lima and Sc
cured the services of Calvin s. Brice as
attorney of the road-for appearance sake
the road must have an attorney now, as
old man Fosters grand object now was to
sell the property. He wanted to get it
off his hands, He was sick of the railroad
business in and about Fostoria.
At this time Calvin Brice was young
country lawyer. He was struggling with
the world but the world was getting the
best of the struggle, and Brice was COM
compelled to wear trousers that were a
trihe too short for him, Did he jump at
Young Fosters otfera He jumped at it
In the vault in the dry goods store
owned by the Fosters was kept the huge
roll of stock certificates which had been
issued when the road was first commenced.
The Fosters retained nearly every cent of
the stock, as it was really the unwilling
ness of men in the surrounding country to
buy stock in the construction When
the dry goods box containing this
mass of paper was torn out it
was covered with the dust
of several years. Young Foster and Brice
Immediately set to work to fill out the
blanks and get the stock ready for the
market. The old man returned from New
York and he spent nearly whole night
in attaching his signature to the certifi-
cates-he was president of the road-and
early next morning Attorney Brice
started for New York carrying a little
old-fashioned trunk jam full of railroad
stock
The ex-secretary, under his fathers
orders put a few men to work grading be-
You'd the unfinished end of the line. Brice
watched the stock market in Wall street
and old man Foster turned his attention
to politics. The campaign was Just be-
ginning to get warm in Ohio, and Mr..
Foster always took an active part in
politics. In fact, at this very time he had
Col. Somebody trying TO work deal for
him in an adjoining county
When Brice reached New York, the
stock of the road he representative
original name doesn't exist now, as it has
since been absorbed by greater system
was quoted at Z. The Ohio boom con-
! tinued strong, and railroad men evidently
considered the Foster road good property,
for its stock went up gradually. From
to 9, then to 10, finally it reached 10.
Brice considered this fine figure, and
Immediately telegraphed Mr.. Foster as
follows:
Our stock is quoted at 10. What shall
do2"
Mr.. Foster was highly elated by the
news, and quickly wrote out the following
answer:
''Sell them all out"
Now, it happened that shortly before
hearing from Brice, Foster had received
a telegram from his political agent, the
colonel, who complained that the people
in his district wouldn't come around to
his idea worth a cent. The reply Mr.
Foster outlined for the colonel was:
Don't do anything more until l come"
Mr.. Foster never afterward took the
trouble to look up files and learn whether
he misdirected the two messages or
whether the mistake lay with the tele-
graph operator who sent them, but
through blunder on the part of some
body Brice received hecolonel's dispatch,
ana BflCe was uellNGreQ 10 inc colonel.
Both were greatly surprised but as they
were being paid for their work they were
willing to abide by Mr.. Fosters orders
Brice waited twenty-four hours and the
stock continued to rise 1t had reached
q and no word from Foster. Another
tWenty-four hours, and the stock was
quoted at 49, which he considered an
enormous price Still no word from F'os-
ter Brice could wait no longer, and
dashed off this dispatch to his son, Char
lie, supposing that the father was already
on the way TO New York:
For heavens sake, when isyour father
going to arrive2 The stock is at IS and l
fear it may soon drop!"
When Charlie got the message he hur-
ried to his father with it. The situation
flashed across the latters mind in an in
slant. The dispatches had been mixed.
Although the colonel hadn't understood
his orders, he had not replied to MIR Fos-
ter, as he intended running down to F'os-
toria in day or two. anyway, and this
was the first intimation that the presi-
dent of the little road had received of the
blunder. In a few minutes time the fol
lowing message was flashing over the
wires:
Sell right away, Brice There must
have been a mistake. l wanted you to
sell at 49,"
On receipt of this order, Attorney Brice