The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-17

"Then 1 began to see through it,"
Il must admit / don't" l remarked .
ITS all mystery to me-" Periwig con-
tinued:
My New York house is one OF those
, old-tashioned concerns that always en-
close, in their letters, copies of all tee
grams sent and received during the day
got the copies of the kilograms out of
the envelope, and found the cow
of my telegram to them. And then II
was all clear In making out my tele-
gram, instead of using the code word
meaning sell 1000 bales August" 1 used
the word meaning buy 1000 bales Au-
gust, so, of course, they bought, instead
of selling"
But" | expostuIated "the rest of your
telegram about following the decline; and
then their answers to your
Don't you see? NY telegram 10 than
read plainly, buy 1000 August. repeat
transaction at each favorable change of
points, etc." nothing said about anv de-
cine. AS to the answers, when got he
hrst one, never looked I'D anvthin1 ox-
cept the code word for the price. which
was 6@, all right The balance was
matter OF course. The second report Won
remember, was handed to me on tho
street. ana that took altogether for
granted; 1t could only be 1000 bales sold
at $50.
"Out of the basket of kilograms and
letters l took from the TOP the letter
| bearing the most recent postmark Tbat
letter, after speaking of the DAVIS bust
ness, went on something like this: TO
DAY S purchases make you altogether GO =
600 bales long. in which there is an enor-
| nous profit. You have hitherto succeeded
so well in following your own ideas and
not paying any attention to our we'll
meant though erroneous advice, that as
we have previously said, we are Offering
no more. We congratulate you on your
pluck and nerve. and only venture to ex-
press the hope that you will realize this
splendid fortune before a downturn I'm
the market seriously impairs it,
Quick! l called to my wife, get a
| telegraph blankn
Nonsense she said, you mustn't try
| TO attend to any business
Quick, blank, or I'll get up and get
it myself
"The blank was grumblingiy brought.
and I dictated to my wife the following
message:
Stop buying; realize on whole line to
| best advantage. Think market high
enough
with the message gone sank back. a
little tired, but as you may suppose, a
million per cent. better.
! OuIiHB lle Jay TepOTtS OF the sales
came in by installments. The line was
worked off around 1890. had sixty-odd
| thousand bales, with an average profit of
over s. a bale, little over a half-milIion
dollars in an
Great Scottp exclaimed, "and all
through a mistake and your opportune at
tack of sickness!'
Exactly" assented Periwig; 'if I
hadn't gotten sick, would have immedi-
ately discovered the mistake, and / would
| have broken my neck to close the trade
! at once with a paltry two or three thou
sand dollars profit Luckily, however, /
, got sick and stayed unconscious Just long
| enough"
"And your New York people, did they
ever know the real facts of the matter?'
mo, certainly not; how could they? I
! had sent plain order to buy, which they
executed. When | went to New York
| they expressed surprise that | had kept
| so close and silent so long. despite their
| frequent and vehement proffers OF advice.
| I told them that i had made up my mind
what / was going 10 do before I went
| 10 the deal, and saw no occasion 70 change
my instructions. had been unweii most
J OF the time, and the market was going
all right
but the best part Of II is my wife's
change OF view. She now considers thai
am the best and shrewdest business
man IN America, and frequently observes
that she always knew my natural abll.
ties would sooner or later bring me 70
The front Pretty good. wasn't ~"
l TOLD Lin 1 thought Il Was.