The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-04

mails history does not record II the mule
END or the trade turned out pioftably
as the clock end did he has certainly had
no reason TO regret his bargain. 10 would
be intefesting to know if he established
a mule annex to has jeWelry store. and
II ne ulstlngulshed the various grades
as fourteen karat sixteen karat and TWEEN
ty-four karat mules.
Mr.. Belcher's clocks were shipped to him
from chicago, well packed and securely
boxed, and were received by him in Kan
sas City all in good order. Without un-
packing them he loaded them upon two
pig wagons and started to Texas with
mem Ihey had cost him nominally some
u or y each, but IN the trade he had got
them for considerably less. Some We're in
round, metallic cases and some were ia
square wooden ones. They could be
bought to-day for 81 or $3.50 piece. AS
soon as Mr.. Belcher got into the Indian
Ilerritory and far enough away from
the land where clocks and watches We're
plentiful, he began to dispose of his
clocks. Some men would have tried to
sell them, but that would have been a
fatal mistake, and Mr.. Belcher did not
make it.
He traded the clocks instead of selling
them He knew that money was scarce
ana that cattle We're plentiful; so he took
cattle. His price for a wooden clock was
a cow a calf and a yearling. For one in
a metallic case It was only a COW and a
calf. All the way through the territory
he traded with the people he met on the
roaq, and when he reached Grayson and
Cooke counties. in Texas, ii took him
only a short time to dispose of all that
were left.
Wherever he went the people were glad
to see him, for he was working a territory
where clocks were needed and hard to
buy. one man in Cooke county bought
nIty OF them. Whether he bought them
70 speculate on or to distribute among a
large force Of solitary and widely scat
tered ranch hands l do not know Judge
lindsay OF Gainesville bought one and has
It in his house to this day
AS soon rs the last clock was DISPOSED
Ol Mrs Belcher started back over the
route he had just travelled to collect his
pay. by the time he got into Kansas
city again he had with him a herd of
nearly LOO cattle His two modest loads
OF clocks had grown to such an extent
that he must have felt like Jacob of old,
when he said: with my STAFF 1 passed
over this Jordan, and now l am become
J Two pa IN a. the present time i
the least, to sell goods with such a sys-
tenn of collection as Mr.. Belcher used.
but in 1870 1t worked all right.
Mr.. Belcher modestly claims that there
was nothing at all phenomenal about
this trade, but that the same principle
he used will be successful anywhere.
out what the people wanted and sup
piled them with a good article on such
terms as they could meet. Having done
this he deserved a good big profit
When his herd of 1900 cattle had in
creased to many times its original size
he exchanged it for 10000 acres of unim-
proven idLu IN MOIAtdsue county Wnlcn
was then on the frontier. When a rail-
road passed through this pasture" he
laid off the present town of Belcherville
and sold the adjacent land in small tracts
for farms. One rather unusual feature
about the case is that in spite of his well
known success as a trader, he has the
confidence of every one who knows him
as to scrupulOus honesty and personal
piety. He recently had a heavy life in
surance policy cancelled because he be-
lieved that the doctor who examined
him had not stated fully enough certain
intendent of a local Sunday school, and
is referred to by all who know him as
Brother Belcher."