Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1903-05-02

QuleG DelnB OUCalHeu ATcu1e Pio
ceeded
Firstly, brethren, Gus is still the
same old stoten bottle he was when
we all used to get all his marbles
away from him on any old bunco
game that occurred to a kids mind.
This is no dream. I speak by the
card. He fell into a job of about his
size in the insurance office, and being
a patient and not overly ambitious
| mortal he made very good clerk.
Then he fell heels over head in love
with Angie van Ostrand-and her
fathers millions, and of sudden be-
came enamOred OF society. And he
went the pace. We will all have to
agree to that. No fellow in the set
wore better clothes, nor wore them
with better grace. But that sort OF
thing costs money and Gus was not
blessed with princely income as
| clerk for the Improvident Insurance
company. Sequel: he ran in debt
even as the rest of us have. But
| there was this difference-that Gus
had small prospects of an advance
and no hope outside. So it became
| serious.
"Then came the denouement. A
certain fellow clerk, who was a lot
smarter than Gus and knew it, and
| thoroughly despised him, got into Sc
we're financial straits through too album
dant manifestations of his smartness,
and, being in position where he could
Of bo hn0lyc he
touched the company up for snug
! sum and made last whirl at the mar
| lxet on the win-or-ruin proposition. OF
course he lost, and woke up one fine
morning with the penitentiary staring
him in the face. Then he began to look
| about for fire escape. 1t so happened
| that he and Gus were the only persons
who had access to the books he had
doctored and the dense stupidity of
Gus flashed across his mental vision as
a possible means of escape.
''He knew something of Gus necessi-
ties and took occasion to drop into his
ear suggestions of something great
coming off in c., G. & NJ, of which he
had inside information. Gus knew
that this seductive fellow clerk had
been dabbling in the market, and ru-
NOR had it that he had been very sue
| cessful. So he opened his ears to the
pointers carelessly dropped regarding
the great possibilities in the coming
campaign in c., G. & NJ. and when the
suggestion was dropped to him as to
what shame it was that poor men
like themselves could not take advan-
tage of the sure thing in sight-espe-
cially when there was such wad Of
money lying idle TO which either had ac-
cess, and which could be returned so
easily without anybody being the
wiser, he bit like hungry sucker. He
| figured on it until he was ripe for the
| pen, and then in his laundering way
got the essential details of the alleged
| tip from his disinterested friend. This
advice was given so that Gus was sure
to lose-for, you see, the other fellows
game was to get Gus to lose wad Of
the company money, so when the in
evitable investigation came GUS de-
linquincies would be discovered first,
as they would surely be, because Gus
could not cover up so cleverly as his
more astute associate, and then he
could throw the whole theft onto Gus
and escape the felony.
swell, Gus bit all right--swallowed
hook and all. But right here is where
| his genius came in, fathered, as it
were, by his superlative stupidity. He
knew nothing whatever of the market
or stocks or anything else, excepting
the adding Of figures, and the careful
| directions of his tempter fell upon I'M
whiting ears. He went out on his great
coup with letters and figures all jun
| bled in his Uranium and mindful only
] of making killing which would not
only restore his solvency, but would
pave his way to the favor of the van
| Ostrands, for old Van likes nothing
but success.
| "Now, mark you, instead of selling
c., G. & M. short for al the margin he
could copper from the insurance COM
pany's vaults, he forgot his cue en-
tirely by the time he reached the bro
ker's office, and, by George, he didn't
do a thing but sell p. & G. NJ a stock
| that was supposed to be as sound as
the everlasting hills, and which had
been on the up grade in a conservative
and healthy way for months. And this
happened to be the particular time that
Lorgan and the gang of Wall street
fnanciers determined to wreck the
road, and, starting at the price at
| which Gus bought, which was the high
est ever reached by the stock, P. & G.
| M. dropped like a chunk of lead and in
ten days Gus had cleaned up hundred
thousand, replaced the borrowed cap
| ital and started out in his new role asa
| genius
"His smart fellow clerk never knew
| what struck him, and soon after his
| shortage was discovered, and I'll bet
wine supper that he is now spending
his spare moments at the pen in fgur-
| ing out how Gus came to sell p. & G. NJ.
| instead of c., G. & NJ, and how his well