The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-05

Pol sp0cu{ reouctionS. and washing one hand with the other. wipe off the balance and get clear again. In two years--if all went welI--he should be aoie eo say to the United Bank: Good morning and many thanks to you.
 tnen would come the grateful task of bringing home once more his own deep sunk money; and then. finally, the reap ing ot the golden harvest of clean pront' big profit hanging to It. something really big. You see" said the enthusiastic Bowling. we can't go wrong. because of the tremendous wide margin. That's what attracted me from the frst"
 Second only to time, as a matter for consideration in every development scheme. Is the wideness of your mar gin. In this scheme--after careful es- innate of all conceivable adverse con ditions---the margin seemed of mag nificent wilderness.
 Here were forty acres from which you must subtract eleven acres occu- pied by the Hill Rise houses and gar dens. That left you twcnty-nine acres of open ground, from which again you must subtract five acres for your roads; and after that. you had twenty four acres as mapped out by Bowling into 206 most attractive plots. Dowl- ing calculated that the land all through would carry without the smallest difficulty an average ground rent of 100 pounds per acre. That is to say: when the twenty -four acres were covered. you would have created ground rents to the pleasant tune of 2,400 per annu1i. which, when sold at twenty-fve years purchase. would bring the tidy capital sum of 60,0o0 pounds Thus your margin smiled widely upon you: 10000 pounds of profit. minus interest on money bor- rowed. loss of interest on money sunk, cost of roads. law charges, etc.. but plus--and what a plus it was!--the twenty houses and eleven acres of Hill Rise. f9
 Then indeed would arrive the gold en epoch. The real battle would be over with all his money safe home again. Crunden could quietly defnolish and develop Hill Rise itself. First one side then the other-the even num- bers first should be given to the house. breakers; the ground should be cleared; the, lovely attractive strip the cream of the whole thing--with it's unique frontage to the comfnen. should be mapped out in narrowest plots, let to the best builders. and adorned with neatest. nattiest.- most up-to date lit- tie villas-electric bells, tiled bath rooms. no basement. This. indeed would be leisurely luxurious task an easy happy time of all plus. no minus: everything coming in. nothing going out.
 Mir. Crunden by no means accepted MT. Dowling's gliuering figures; he made heavy discotints for tempera mental enthusiasm; he weighed all things in his own mental balance. The considering cap was worn by night and day before he decided to take the great plunge. He knew. far better than Bowling, what loss of interest on capital sometimes means. It begins as a mischievous little pilferer. but with time enough it swells into a most monstrous thief, taking your all. The public never thinks about loss of in- terest; and thus men may be envied for making a fortune when in fact they are spending one. Nevertheless, he thought he saw his way clear to the end of the Journey and a substantial reward. His own estimate of the time required was five years at the worst. could possibly occur at the worst. At the worst" was his maximum, and watchword and. satisfied that the worst was good enough, he started boldly and resolutely.
 He must open his yard and build what ara known as decoys Builders are timid adventurers; they like to Ouii0 othSiS atS y0u must lure them on to new ground; not drive them. He would build few rows of cottages-always saleable, and . en a few decoy houses here and there: and then, say in two years, he could close the yard. Meanwhile, du- ring this early stage. the money poured out. Three thousand already spent on roads. two thousand and more ab- sorbed by the unfinished cottages, over draft costing a thousand year, all stocks and shares converted into vacant and unremuner- ative ground:-everything was prog ressing well, slowly, perhaps, though as well as could be expected: but here were solid enough items to set down to capital account.
 And already the. unforeseen was oc- curing. The bedrock itself on which Bowling founded the scheme had shift ed. No available building land; build ing land sorely needed, but not a yard to be obtained. That was the very foundation of the scheme; and 1t had heenNknocked a little sideways already by the fact that Mcdford had obtained other building land-ten acres of it, at Hill House, Who could have foreseen the sale of Hill House? In lesser mat ters the unforeseen confronted one. Bowling had always counted on the rents of Hill Rise; and these were promptly failing Whenever the un- foreseen made itself prominent. Mir. Bowling always said Tut, tut" and already. before five months were gone, he had said it very frequently.
 'Yes, I must confess, things are go- ing slow"
 Damned slow" said MT. Crunden once, with loud grunt.
 "Rut it's all right. It will be all right in the end"
 "Yes. I know that said MT. Crunden resolutely. Though I believe now 1t will take longer than I thought-and a great deal longer than you thought"
 In these circumstances MT. Crunden hesitated to dismiss the proposal of Messrs. Griggs without discussion.
 It occurred to these smartest and most tn oughtful of auctioneers that, having sold the estate once, they should now sell it again and earn second commission. If MT. Crunden favored this notion. they proposed to erect q large marquee on the ground itself. advertise the sale handsomely, secure railway saloons or a special train, issue invitation cards and return tickets. and bring down under their personal superintendence a heavy load of likely buyers" After such lunch con as MT. Crunden might be disposed to offer the bidding would be animat- ad and Mir Crupdeo'q n11na bArad lots