The Minneapolis journal., 1903-12-23
Washington Star,

washington Star. 49,.
Three years. ago last month acquired
some shares in a Mexican gold mine,' said
a Baltimore hotel proprietor, who makes
frequent trips to: Washington to shake
off the Bal'mor'. lethargy. II didn't buy
it. took it for a debt. A southwestern
man. who drank a great deal, lived high
at my caraVansary for about four months.
He paid his bills for the first two months.
But he was compelled to renege on paying
for, his last two months of entertainment.
He said he was broke. Il had noticed that
his diamonds had been disappearing, piece
by piece for some time, and SO there was
no reason to doubt that he was. telling
the truth He had q fine wardrobe.
I am going away, he told me, when
T.. presented MY bill for the two months
for which he hadn't settled, and i cant
pay :you.. l guess I'll have to leave my
traps as security 'f=fsf - r,
He wasn't the sort Of man T felt like
treating that way. -
81. No 1 said. Take your things along.
can square my bill
He seemed to be rather grateful.
. Well. he said. II don't like to go
away without. leaving something in your
hands that you'll be able to figure on. I've
already sold the pawn tickets for my kim
berly rocks. Tell you what Ill do. I've
got a little package Of. nonassessable gold
nine stocks in a trunk Forty shares. It S
a Mexican mine. Dan't know where: it,
locat ted, Never inquired. II bought it
from a San Francisco friend of mine last
year, when 4 was flush, to oblige him.
Paid SIS a share for theSstuff Par value
a hundred. I'll just leave it with you. Tt s
a pretty long shot, but you can never tell
what going to happen to a Mexican
mine. And it'll help me to leave it with
you-I won't feel so much like a. blk -
- told him he could leave it ifihe want
! ed to. i added that didn't consider him
a blk, only I thought he drank more red
liquor than he really ueeded.,
| . ..He was quite intoxicated by the time
he handed me the gold mine stock. He
was SO punctilious about, it that he drew
up a :paper-he was a 1aWyer-legally
transferring the gold mine stock to me,
and he went out and had a notary put a
seal on the transfer paper. Then he wrote
| letter to the San Francisco office of the
| gold, mining company, notifying them that
he had transferred the forty worcestershire
shares to my name. Then he handed me
the shares, shook hands and went away
L have never seen him since. But three
| months after he left my hotel received a
check from him for s21$, the amount OF
his. Indebtedness to me- together with a
pleasant little note, dated New Orleans,
which he wound !. up by; saying that ]
needn't return the gold mine stock to him
that could keep it as an asset against
possible rainy day. deposited the
check in my. bank The check was as
good as gold. ~
l. swell, that gold mine stock was a great
joke in my family for a long time. 1t was
mighty ,ornamental-looking paper-so or
nate, n.fact, that on dull afternoons L d
occasionally get 1T out. Of my desk and look
at the big, gilt letters and figures and en-
:joysa quiet little laugh. The elaboration
ofsthe lettering and the curlyouest Of the
figures struck me as beingsso ingeniously
executed, so well devised to captiyate the
| imagination of ef4impressionable investors
couldn't help but laugh.
-. My wife, a clever business woman.
whose hobby is that I am too easy with
professional hotel deadbeats,s enjoyed look
ing at that gold mine stock and talking
about it quite as much as I did. A little
OF. the wind was taken out of her sails. as
the saying runs. when I received the
| check covering the Indebtedness of the
man who had left the gold mine stock with
me as security. But that didn't kill the
fun which she experienced in the contecl-
:plation of the gold mine stock That I
had received the, check she maintained
was pure luck, nothing else-the man ha d
no doubt sent it to me in a moment OF
drunken generosity. But that had ever
taken the gold mine stock at a,l-that was
the nubs of the joke, as my wife saw it.
and, for that matter, as my grown daugh-
ters saw. it. They. too, guyed me about
the matter for a long. time.
= = : Never. mind. papa my daughters
would say to me- with a mischievous twin