The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1896-07-02

ONE ROAD TO FORTUNE
BY Luke Sharp.


I suppose that most newspaper men
have been approached at II time or
another by people with tremendous
schemes for making fortunes. Some
times these schemes require publicity.
and SO the owner of a world-revOlu-
tionizing patent selects a newspaper
man in the hope of getting that pub
licity which the inventor thinks is all
that is really needed to bring it to
success.
London has always been the happy
hunting ground for men who wish
to get capital for their projects. The
smoking-rooms in the big hotels on
Northumberland ven are usually
very full of Americans who have come
over here with great money-making
schemes which require small fortunes
to set them going. There was a time
when almost anything American could
b. f1oated on the London market, but
that time is past, and l doubt if it
will ever return.
There is a general belief that most
company promoters are swindlers, but
as far as my W experience goes |
find generally that the men believe
In the schemes they have come across
the Atlantic to promote. The invest
ing part of the British pubic have
been so duped by the wholesale rail-
way swindles of America. and other
transatlantic schemes for robbing
them, that, for the past few years.
1t has become increasingly difficult to
capitalize anything from the United
States. The present crisis between the
two countries has effectually killed any
remnant of confidence that the British
capitalist had in American invest
ments, and now if the man with a
business to sell is wise he will en-
deavor to sell 1t at home, Il not spend
his time and substance upon london
hotels.
Sometimes these schemes are not
what they appear to be OH the sur
face. Some years ago three young men
from Chicago called upon me wanting
some information about the ways and
the haunts of the British capitalist.
although why they thought l knew
anything about him is more than /
can tell. They were all lawyers, and
as far as l could see had not yet sue
ceeded in building Il remunerative prac-
tice for themselves in the well-known
city Of Chicago. They had a pan.
however. of making a fortune for
themselves in a short time, and when
this laudable ambition had been at
tanned, they intended to go in for name
and fame in the law business. They
claimed that there was Il great deal
of money to be made in seal fishing.
They therefore came over to England
for the purpose of raising money
enough to fit out ten small vessels and
send them from British Columbia to
engage in the sealing trade.
l pointed out to the young me that
it was rather strange for three citi-
zens of the United States to come to
a foreign country for the purpose of
getting money together with the oh
ject of disobeying the mandate of their
w government; but the young men
replied that they had gone deeply into
international law: that the United
States was wrong in it's contention that
sealers could be driven from the Ber-
ing sea-; that the United States would
undoubtedly lose its case if it went t.
arbitration. and that when the de-
cision of the international court was
given against the United States, there
would DO Al tremendous rush into the
sealing business, and so they wanted
to get organized thoroughly before the
traffic began, and before the cream of
the business was divided among too
many. The young men said they had
devoted much time to the law on the
subject, and they were certain that the
case of the United States could not