The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-04-17

"a patient and not overly ambltlous
mortal he made a very good clerk.
Thenshe fell heels over headsain love
with Angie van Ostrand@and her
fathers millions, and of a sudden be-
came enamored of society. And he,
went the pace! We will al" 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 wa not
blessed with a princelys 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 o*hope outside: Il became
serious. 81. =
"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 abun-
dant manifestations Of His smartness,
and, being in a position where he could
do a little %doctoring of the books, he
touched the company up for a snug
sum and made a last whirl at the mar
ket 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 begant look
about for a fire escape. It 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 ear to the
pointers carelessly dropped regarding
the great possibilities in. the coming
campaign in c., G. & M.,and when the
suggestion was dropped to him as to
what a shame it was that r2or men
like themselves could not take advan.
tage Of the sure thing in sight-espe-
cially. when there was such a wad OF
money lying idle to which either had &C.
cess, and which could be returned SC
easily without anybody being the
wiser, he bit like a 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
atvlce was given SO that Gus was sure
to lose-for, you see, the other fellows
game was to get Gus to lose a 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.
"Well, 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 un.
whiting ears. He went out on his great
coup with letters and figures all jum-
bled in his Uranium and mindful only
OF making a killing which would not
only restore his solvency, but would
n0Vn hic 1x-oy ~ fbo fo1o~
Ostrands, for old Van likes nothing
but success.
Nov, mark you, instead of selling
C., G. & NJ. short for all the margin he
could copper from the insurance CON-
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
doya thing but sell p. & G. NJ 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
happenedt to be the particular time that
Lorgan and the gang of Wall street
financiers 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.
NJ. dropped like a chunk of lead, and in
ten days Gus had cleaned up a hundred
thousand, replaced the borrowed can
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 a
wine supper that he is now spending
his spare moments at the pen in fgur-
ing out how Gus came to sell p. &G.M.
instead of C., G. & NJ, and how his well
laid plan went awry anyhow.
Anyway, with all the evidence in I
reckon it is up to us to admit that Gus
is a mar of genius, because he got there
and everybody admits it. And amt
such superabundant luck allied with
Such dense stupidity, genius, anyhow.
Let's all have a cigarette and forgetit."