Times-promoter., 1898-11-12
MOSES JACKSON & GO.
Expsriences of a Unique Firm Ihat
Pro pered by Following
Yankee Methods.
fobf
NJ. QUAD.
Copyright, 1895.

the hardest kind OF work, untll Ee e"hio
of age. Then he bought little farn'
and began for himself. In time he got
married. and in tine children came 10
worry and bless him by turns, but IL
was always the same old routine Vi
hard work and poor living. On the Gay
that he was IS years OLD, MOSES
Jackson went to the nearest village 10
buy a hoe. His wife had asked him TO
dron into the office of the Gazette
and bring home bundle of old papers
for the pantry shelves. lie found tne
editor alone, and the paper about 10
suspend for the want of patronage.
The editor noted the farmers wrinkled
face. bent back and discouraged look,
and after some general talk he said:
Look here, Moses, you are fool and
am ditto. You are grubbing your life
out for bare living, and ! am dead
broke because the people here don't
appreciate brains. Let's go into part
nership."
They sat and talked for an hour, and
the result was an article in the next
weeks Gazette which created talk all
over the county within three days, and
within week had been copied all over
the state. There was a spring on the
jackson farm which hardly anyone
but the owner knew of, and it was an
nounced that the waters of this spring
were a sure cure for all kinds OF skin
diseases. The editor gave half dozen
names and told a dozen lies in the ar
ticle. but people afflicted with skin dis
cases did not stop to question his YER
acity. The paper mad been off the press
a day when they began driving up to
the Jackson farm. They wanted that
water in bottles, jugs, kegs and bar
rels. and the old farmer was on hand
| TO sell it to them at a certain price. In
side of a fortnight he was shipping
spring water to points 400 miles away
| While he was busy at the spring his
wife was busy i'll the house. Scores
and scores Of people were wiling to
pay 50 cents for dinner, and before
the rush was over scores and scores OF
others also paid so cents apiece for the
privilege of sleeping on clean straw in
| tic barn.
/ BY and by there came the sanitarlum
man. He was ready to pay 5000 Tor
| the Door old farm, worth at the best
less than thousand, but he wanted
an analysis of the spring waters first.
The analysis pricked the bubble, anG
week later the rush had ceased. Moses
Jackson went down to see the editor OF
the Gazette and figure with him. As
they figured they chuckled.
Moses, our firm has taken in $4,000
in cash. Figure out the expenses ano
we divide $1,000. You still have youl
farm left, and may tell you that tht
Gazette has put on $50 new subscrlb
ers, and is now entering upon hoon
with big B. Go home and hoe corr
and say nothing. In about two weeks
our trap will be ready again"
There were plenty fpeople who sale
it was TOO bad that things turned ou
so wrong for the farmer, but there
| were uU lCdl III % S'Sh tiiN = \
pert of the chemist on that spring
Pretty soon his neighbors noticed !
strange woman around his house, bu
!, before they had time TO ask question
the Gazette came out with two-coi
umn article and explained all Th
strange woman was Mother Clark,
,, the great locator of mines by mean
Of witch hazel rod. Through the me
Gium of that rod she had LOCATED
scores of gold, silver, lead, coal an
: copper mines all over the country
The Gazette lied from start to finish
but it was Il lie which every reade
swallowed with avidity and wante
= more. Mother Clark" happened t
=, be passing through the county and a
, the witch hazel rod kept pointing t
: Moses Jackson's farm, she had stoppe
10 tell him that great wealth la
buried beneath the surface. 1t nigh
be gold or it might be coal, but it wa
there for sure.
Again there was rush for the Jacl
son farm. People who had skin dis
, eases had failed to find relief throug
II the spring waters, but that had notf
ing to do with lodges of iron or layer
:, of coal. The newspaper article wa
y copied far and wide, and men travele
500 miles to see that divining rod a
: work. Every day for ten days the ol
woman walked over the fields at
). slow pace with that rod balanced o
=. her finger. Moses followed her, an
y wherever the rod dipped he stoppe
and drove a stake into the grount
When she had finished he had stak
for every acre. She wasn't sur
whe ether it was iron or coal under HI
land, but rather leaned to coal. Their
p. were scores of dinners again at
;. cents apiece. and scores more slept
= the barn. While men were tumblin
U ove~ each other to secure options 0
"a the farm until shafts could be sunk,
dozen different farmers were impi
tlently waiting for "Mother Clark"
go over their fields. Her terms wei
ten dollars per hour, and owing to IL
? mental and physical exhaustion 81
would walk but two hours per da
u When she had worked" half doze
&c farmers she had call to go west, al
the editor of the Gazette sent wol
for Moses Jackson to come down ar
l I