The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-12
BIG MONEY IN HOPS.
The Great Scheme an American Dis
closed to an Eng1ishman.


From the New York Commercial.
Among the passengers on the Cam
pania arriving here last Saturday aft
ernoon from Liverpool was an English
man about 40 years old who had in
terested everybody in the first cabin
during the entire voyage. He was tall
and well-put up, with an attractive
face and manners, bleu eyes, thin, red
dish -whiSkers, a bald spot on MS
crown and a broad accent and an up
ward infection of a sort that could
hardly be exaggerated on the stage.
He smoked a great variety of pipes,
played a most excellent game of crib
bage wore a monocle or eyeglasses
alternately land had a most bewilder-
ing assortment of tweed suits cut in
every conceivable style and in patterns
running from the quietest to the very
noiSieSt.
But the most conspicuous thing about
him was his commandments. Be
fore the ship had fairly cleared Holy
head he had told several of his fellow
passengers his name and business and
more or less of his personal history. He
was Mr.. Adelbert Harcourson, bound to
the United States for the first time,
and he had a good many hundred thou
sand pounds of the surplus of an Eng
lish insurance company for long-term
investment in this country-and Gould
you, me dear fellow, put me onto any
good thing over there, you know?"
This, in substance, was impaired to
about every American in the ships
company before the second morning
out. HarcourSon was an interchangeable
talker-and a decidedly interesting one,
too-and his letters and other papers,
which he displayed freely, showed that
he was speaking the truth about him.
self and his important mission. But
he seemed to make small Roadway in
securing advance information on good
things in his country.
Finally-it was at the dinner table
Friday night, with the Campania al
ready sighting Cape Cod lights--the
agreeable Englishman began lamenting
his i'll luck at having to go ashore
without having learned of any thing
for investment. He seemed to be feel
ing so genuinely bad about it that his
vis-a-vis, a New York advertising man
with an Office not a thousand miles
from the Times building, took pity on
him.
"Harcourson," he said, I'm in a
fairly good thing over here that may
interest you-but I'm afraid that none
of the shares can be had now" The
Briton was all attention at once. you
see," continued the New Yorker, "the
steady increase in the consumption of
malt liquors all over the world has
kept the price Of hops advancing rap
idy-and the supply is now short. And
you have noticed, of courste, that frogs
hind-legs as a table delicacy, are rap
idly increasing in popularily-and the
price has advanced, too. They bring
a dollar a dozen now at wholesale.
I foresaw just this condition of things
a year ago and prepared to make a
fortune out of it. We organized a
company with a capital of 800, 000, 900
all paid in, and then bought a chain
of small lakes up in Wisconsin. Frogs
from all over the country have been
bought cheap and shipped there for
allures the frogs to the banks and
RATS at any time, and it also makes
them breed with marvellous rapidly.
We have about 100000 frogs in the
ponds now, and a most magnificent
plant for propagating, slaughtering,
cold storage and so on"
Harcourson's face fairly glowed with
excitement and he asked nervously:
You can get me some of that stock,
cawn't you, me good fellow"
The New Yorker paid no attention to
this interruption. All the other pas
sengers had become interested, too.
"A thousand boys-mostly street
gamins from Milwaukee, Chicago and
Detroit-are hired at the plant to tickle
the frogs with willow switches after
they have been lured out Of the water
with the patent frog food. This is
done three times a day. The frogs all
hop back of course. That gives us
100000 hops a day-and we still have
the legs left. OF the latter about 20, 900