The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-03-28

happy go lucky arrangements it
found itself in scrape for the sort OF
ready money that it wanted. 1t had
some ready money, which the people
did not much like, and it wanted
some ready money made of beaten
gold. And SO the chief magistrate of
this happy-go-lucky country had is
sued his proposals for what was called
popular loan"
Nobody knew very we'll how the
popular loan was to be taken up, but
everybody was quite sure that his
next door neighbor had better sub
scribe to it. People went so far as to
say how much Mr.. Jones ought to
subscribe and how much the Widow
Smith ought to subscribe. But, up
till the moment when Gertrude sent
that unkind message to George by
Florence, nobody knew very we'll how
the thing was going to turn out. 1t
might be that the popular loan would
all be taken up by set of sharpers,
or it might be that it would not be
taken at all. 1t might be that it
would be very unpopular loan. And
everybody was very curious to see.
There was once an occasion when
all the nations of the world agreed
that every person in the world should
scream as loud as he could at par
ticular instant of time. When the
instant came, there was horrible
stiffness over the mundane creation.
For everybody, instead of screaming
himself, had listened to hear some
body else scream, and no one scream
ed but dumb man in China and
deaf woman in the Sandwich Islands.
1t was something like this about
the popular loan. But at last the
great day came when, at Washington,
they opened the bids.
Now the credit of this nation was
pretty good and pretty bad. In very
bright, gilt-edged times it could Dor
row money at less than three per
cent. In those times when there was
trouble about the sort of money that
it would give and take, it generally
had to pay $4 on $104-that is to say,
its 4 per cents were placed at 104.
The different sharpers and the differ
ent old ladies, the men and women
who had been coaxed up to subscrib-
ing in different ways, were in general
sending in their bids at los and LOG
and 107.
But when at Washington the bids
were opened, the weary clerks hear
ing "1O7 49," "104 11-12," till they
went almost to sleep as they wrote
down the scarcely varying numbers,
all of sudden a bolt fell like light
ming from Jupiter. The reading
clerk, almost as sleepy as the rest,
cried out: zone hundred and twenty
4
fve Mr.. George Larkin, of New
Bedlam, offers 125 for 10 bonds of
the new ISSUE"
Every sleepy clerk in the room
started up in amazement. "Who is
Mr.. George Larkin?" And his bid
was entered as by far the highest bid
in the calendar.
The next evening every journal in
that great empire, which extended
from ocean to ocean, had biography
of Mr.. George Larkin. These biog-
raphies were made up generally from
the information given in the direc-
tory of New Bedlam. One of them,
therefore, described Mr.. George Lar
kin as the leading man at the Vari-
cites. Another said that Mr.. George
Larkin was engaged in profitable
thread and needle business in the
lower wards of New Bedlam. An
other said that Mr.. George Larkin
had won his distinction as a reporter
for the press. But all persons agreed
that Mr.. George Larkin was per-
son of great Importance in the fnan-
cial community, and that he was a
patriot of the first water. 1t was
generally agreed also that his fore
sight with regard to national affairs
was we'll nigh perfect, and that no
person knew so well as he did when
stocks would rise and when they
would fall "Our readers will re-
member how on previous occasion
the whole turn of the stock market
was changed by the sudden purchase
of p. F. and L. This purchase is
now attributed to the foresight of
Mr.. Larkin."
Gertrude, on that particular even
ing did not happen to open her news
paper. If she had, she would have
known that her lover was that day
the man most talked about in the
whole world. After this, she was SO
overwhelmed by her correspondence