The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-20
= CHOICE INVESTMENT"


our descendants millionaires at a cos
of penny apiece if we only take care
to invest the penny in the right way
In twelve generate lions at per cent
compound interest the penny will be
come one million pounds.
Next to investing a penny in this way
the best way of enriching your de
scendants seems to be to leave them a
kings share, or the fraction of king Is
share, in the New River company We
have all known for long time that the
water lords are growing rich at our ex-
pense, but none of us have quite Under
stood, perhaps, that there is snug lit
tie fortune in the tiniest bit of share
in a certain London water company
If you do not care to believe this there
is sale in London to-day which vii
satisfy you once for all. 1t is sale of
a freehold adventurer's share" in the
New River company.
1t is like an echo from the Stuart
days. To trace this share back to its
origin we must go back to the days
when kings We're forbidding the growth
= of London, prohibiting the burning of
coal, or filming rich men heavily for liv-
ing more than certain period a year
within the city
London had it's water problem even
| then, and a clever Dutchman was try
! ing to solve it by raising the Thames
water high enough to supply the upper
portions of the city. Peter Morris was
the real originator of the Thames water
/ companies He erected a ''forcer" on
an arch of London Bridge to convey the
water into the houses of the East End
as far as Grace Church street, and SIM
liar apparatus was provided afterward
for the districts of Fleet street and AL
dergate.
To convince the Lord Mayor and al
dermen, the ingenious Dutchman threw
a Jet of water over the steeple of St.
Magnus' church, and after that the city
authorities leased to him one arch of
London Bridge for five hundred years
at half sovereign a year Two or
three other arches We're leased in the
same way, and for two hundred years
the Dutchman's curious water machine
was one of the sights of the city. AT
the beginning of last century the lease
was sold by the Dutchman's family for
thirty thousand pounds, and in 1922 the
Southwark company bought 1t for ten
thousand pounds.
Such was the way in which the water
question was being dealt with three
hundred years ago. About the same
time Hugh Mydde1ton a London gold
smith, began an enterprise for supply
ing Northern London with water from
Rerts. He built the artificial waterway
which to-day we call the New River,
with a branch cut into the Lea near
Ware To-day the city and the north
ern suburbs draw over twenty million
gallons of water daily along this water
way
1t is an ill wind, indeed, which blows
nobody any good. The owner of the
lucky share to be sold to-day owes his
good fortune to the misfortunes of the
man who built the New River. The
goldsmith ran short of money, and his
scheme was in peril of falling through.
But those were the days when kings
went to business, and in 1872 King
James put money into the goldsmith's
enterprise on condition that he received
a share in the profits. 1t was the be-
ginning of prosperity for people yet I'M
born.
When you can make the law fit in
with your pet speculations you are pref
ty sure of a good dividend, and some
of our kings have known how to fit in
royalty with business. King James
helped the goldsmith to establish res
ervoirs in Clerkenwell, and Charles l,
before he lost his head, gave the enter
prise another lift by licensing lottery
for raising money to bring water from
Herts to Westminster. Four thousand
pounds year was the kings profit out
of this transaction.
So there came about the state of
things of which an old writer boasts
when he says: There is not street
in London but water runs through it
in pipes conveyed under ground, and
from these pipes there is scarce a house
whose rent Is fifteen or twnty pounds
per annum but hath water brought into
it,"
The royal connection with the New
River company has long ceased, but
the company still trades on its great
past. Not long ago there were sold in
London several fractional parts of one
OF The shares allotted TO King James
when the company was founded. /
Charles l once owned them but he sold /
them, with the rest of his predecessors !
shares, back to the company for five |
hundred dollars a year. For this sum,
which has been paid year in and year
out ever since, the company being pos |
sessed of what is literally a kings ran
som.
They are the most valuable shares in |
the world. You would probably find it
difficult to buy one for one hundred !
thousand pounds. The last time a .
Kings share was put up by auction it
was split up into one hundred and
twentieth parts, and one part was
knocked down for seven hundred and
ninety pounds. A sixty-fourth part
went for fifteen hundred pounds, the