Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-08
Profits of Plant Went to Government
officials.
NUMEROUS ITCHING PALMS
A Hard Luck Story Of Yankee in
Latin America-Could Not
Stand Pressure.
ITCHING PALMS

| doesn't take him long to wake up
Jesse Halderman of ST. Louis. one of the
| concession holders on 1.-THE Warpath" at
| the jamestown exposition, thus expressed
himself at the New Willard the other even
Ing. Mr.. Halderman spent fourteen years
"fooling around on the west coast of Cen
| trail and South America as he expresses
1t. wherefore 1t would surely appear that
| he ought to know whereof he converses
| when he veers around to the subject of the
! Latin-Americans,
Il was reading in the Mexican Herald
| this afternoon" he said. IAN account of
some riotous and ineendiary doings in one
| OF the Latin-American towns during the
| month of April.
| There goes my ice plant-that Is, there
goes the outfit that l used TO imagine was
my Ice plant l said to myself when l read
| about the messineSs.
| IF the Ice plant still stands It may stand
| nominaily in my name yet. l started the
| Ice manufacturing plant in that town, and
dug Tor the price to start it, at that 1t it
| had been in the United States | could have
| said that owned it. But, as l say. a blue
! eyed man in Greaserland-some parts of it,
| at any rate-only owns his shoes when he 8
| standing in them. Maybe this statement
! needs diagram. III draw one.
Saw His Opportunity.
| 1T was in '93 that l fell into the town
| from Callao, where I'd been brokering In
nitrates. The nitrates broke me. and 1
was on my way back to San Francisco by
short hauls. When I dropped into the new
town the first thing l noticed was that 1t
| didn't have any ice manufacturing plant
and that it needed one. So spent a couple
of days sounding the citizens on the ice
plant topic. The need was there Many
| other towns of smaller size on the west
coast had thriving ice plants. Why not this
| one! Thus those citizens. They would give
| the grand welcome to my ice plant, they
| told me. This was good enough to incite me
| to nudge along to the alcalde and the presi-
| dent Of the municipal council. 1t was yes.
| They would bestow upon HE, and with the
| gladness, site. just outside the corporation
| limits. for my ice plant, charging me moth
| ing. not even the taxes-for would / not be
| the benefactor. the alleviator, the Samari-
crannies yourself. They were very cordial
| about 1t. very grateful to me in advance for
| my suggestion.
| Il hiked up to San Francisco and nabbed
| the angel. l didn't have any bother in
making the angel see it, and he fell easy
| enough. Some years before I'd started an
| ice plant in Mazatlan. Mexico, and so
| understood the business and knew where to
| chinery secondhand, at a bargain, and
| shipped 1t down to the new place. Then /
got a fellow in Stockton. Cal. who knew
now to make Ice. and down we went to-
/ IL
| turning out fifty tons day and the demand
| growing all the time. within two months
after we lit there; All told. We had twenty
two employees, all Greasers, to help my ice
maker make the ice, drive the delivery
| wagons and dog-rob around
| Il had winner, money maker There
are a lot OF the rich ones in town. and Ice
/ was what they'd been waiting for all their
| lives. They didn't emit q bleat over the
rs cents a hundred charged them for the
Ice. 1t was pipe. + stood to get out on the
all free OF incumbrance lien. inside OF
about eight months after the opening of
| the plant.
An Official Visit.
1T was looking Just that good to me
when, one humid forenoon, highly padded
| major Of the army. in charge of a regi-
ment at the Buena Ventura garrison, called
| upon me. He wore about seventeen pounds
of bullion gilt in the form of epaulettes.
cross-belts. sashes and such like. and he
was very affable-oh, very
| II poked highbail into him and told
| him that l liked army folks-that I'd been
| In few armies myself. which wasn't any
stall at that. l showed him how ice was
made and l was there all through with
| that hospitality thing
| But knew. all the same that my majo
! man hadn't visited me for the purpose Of
| finding out how ice was made.
1t came out when he seemed about ready
| to leave. Ell had some fine. tall youths
| In my employ, yes?-some twenty-five?
Yes, yes. That was the number 1 told the
gilt-burdened major. and 1 added that some
| of the fine, tall youths were every bit of
| five feet three. The brave. blithe boys they
were, said my major. Soldier material too
| Oh, yes. fine soldier material
In fact he said. rolling for himself
corn-shuck cigarette. that was the object
| or his vist-to inform me-reluctantly,
senior, he was bound to acknowledge, but
| duty, senior. and all that-to inform me that
| the government required the military serv-
| ices of my twenty-five so-brave employees
None of them had yet, Ii appeared, per-
| formed his CONSUMPTION service in the army
although oddly enough, about a dozen of
| them were wearing some kind of a bum
| looking army uniform when 1 hired them.
Well, they would be required to enlist at
once, the major informed me, with pro-
| found sorrow sticking out all over him, and
| both of his mittS placed over his cardiac
| region. The reservists were being allowed
to return to their homes, so that the fresh
youths who had not yet served-well the
senor-meaning me-could see how the mat
ter stood.
"Oh, I saw it all right enough. / edged
the major into my six-by-six office. closed
| the door, and put it up to him square on the
blunt-for the GreaSer CRATER likes the out
and-out stuff when it comes to the duff.
The point is 1 said to him, how much
apiece is 1t going to set me back to keep
these runts out of the army"
Fixed the Major.
LAS 1 expected, he began to shrug and to
eat his mustache at that. and then he said
| that the service the so-loyal youths were
required to render the state of such a
perous character that
"'Uh-huh; sure thing 1 cut in there. but
how about five apiece, gold. to make em
immune from army service?'
THE major thought that that figure might
meet the requirements of a heavily bur
dened state, and
That was enough. l slipped him the $40
gold and he executed the immediate geta-
way, clinking his spurs and his easy chink
and clanking his saber real gay and all like
that he went.
1T was only matter of four days after
that before the president of the municipal
council rode out to my ice plant on his
white mule. | had the curl-up feeling when
1 saw him. but l invited him in showed
him how ice was made. trickled a high one
into his midriff, and then breezed him into
my Office and stood ready for the touch.
He right there with 1t. Referring to
the twenty-five grand, strongly built hard
working young men of Colombia whom |
had in my employ-that was the chant he
began as soon as the office door closed
oh, they're not such bad bunch of
tired sawed-offs,' l broke in on him. They
i otto, vtw.Fr 4,