Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-21

thing. t Often saves the grown ups
from serious embarrassment.
When Seth Radford Jr., born,
Seth Radford Sr., had opened an account
for him in a small tin Institution, with paid up
capital OF 500 and with guaranteed interest OF
1000 per cent. per annum In exactly three months
nent and while the baby was not looking the
father looted the bank. All he left behind
little note-here's the very note, this Is what he
wrote:
"on demand promise to pay Seth Radford. Jr..
one hundred dollars ($100) with interest at the
rate OF 100 per cent a month. Value received.
Seth Radford Sr.'
It was against the law to charge such usury. and
baby was beginning life like high financier. He
would certainly have been Investigated and sent to
the penitentiary II the transaction had been discov
cred by any Of the magazine sleuths, and pointed
out to any of the school Of district attorneys.
Two months passed and Seth Sr., had not yet
managed to repay the infant Shyock, except by oc-
casonally slipping through the slot in the bank
casual instalmen of dimes quarters or dollar bills
AS for the baby he apparently Indifferent to
the condition of the loan market He never bal
anced his books; he counted up his petty
cash His main interest in life was small bunch
of livestock-ten pink and chubby toes. He was
miser with respect to these. and seemed always
afraid that of them would get lost Besides his
mother constantly looking them over, and
threatening to bite them off: and she such
greedy person that he could never be quite sure OF
her.
The muf1ed rattle of the money in his bank made
moor music to Seth, Jrs, hower-like little ears.
He much preferred the rattle of a real rattle. To-
day for the dozenth time he pushed his bank con
ten,ptuouslv to the floor and returned to the num-
bering of his toes Seth Sr had already picked
m the hank and restored It eleven times but now
the thud of 1t caught his attention from mood
of deep blues that the gurgling google Of the
baby had not managed to dissipate.
Fortune had been having fun with Mr.. Radford.
1t had played seesaw with him for two years;
month he soaring skywsrds, rich youth; the
next month ne bumped terra frma-with the ae-
entirely, fat on the ground, bruised aching; and
the seesaw board high out of reach.
Two years before he had suddenly realized that
he alone. He had seen his mother laid in
little grave alongside the grave of his father. The
town of his birth and his youth suddenly ceased to
mean home to him. He resolved to strike out into
tho unknown.
His assets we're a little cash, good deal of
riosty and fairy-purse of self-renewing hope. He
decided that New England a poor place to be-
gin small Texas its antipodes, young, big, not
faded Southwest he set his course. and arrived in
Galveston just the Beaumont oil fields burst into
fame with all the world amazing fury Of their own
gushers.
Young Radford knew less about the oil business
than even the Pennsylvania experts, who came into
the field with old traditions of how to handle slow
streams of high-grade oil, They were like trout
fishers with tarpons on their hooks Bankruptcies
and fortunes danced before the onlooker's eyes,
while whole lakes OF subterrene grease exploded
through long pipes. filled the air with hydro-car-
homie typhoons, and settled on the ground In unc-
tuous rivers of unholy smell.
New England was never like this" said Rad
ford but 1t looks interesting, as we'll as instruct
ive" He hired himself out a helper on drilling
rig to learn the trade-if trade it was to gamble
with earth's "innards" in such uncertain. but epic
fashion.
ing up as fast hammers could wed nail and pine.
Before he aware of it, Radford who but yes
terday had not known chain-tong from fish
tail dri-bt invited to take charge of brand
derrick Then the number of earthward sticks
TO offer him wonderful bargains which would make
anybody rich without doubt, but which the present
for various reasons of health, family. etc,
could not stop to develop But Radford was born
In New England. He was not convinced.
The oil fever began to lag in Texas. Then came
great find at Batson's Prairie. There was ap
overnight exodus. Seth arrived among the earliest
pony after plowng through swamps at
night. He decided to back his judgment He
bought little shoestring strip Of ground before
the prices had jumped very far AS soon as the
derrick was up, and the pipe down he brought in
eusher so big that he could not get tanks fast
enough to hold the oil He saw liquid dollars be-
longing to him sliding away by the hundreds. But
most of them he managed to capture.
He named the well the "Alice'-after certain
The price of oil was high. The Southern Pacific
was using 1t on the engines and the supply was
short.
Factories began to burn It instead of coal. Be-
fore Radford quite realized it, he was worth about
$4,000, and more bubbling up as fast as 1T could
He called himself genius. He was KoaI oil
King with two KS. He wondered what he should
present to his native town-a library?--a manual
training school? or park? He wrote to Alice to
ask her advice, She was Galveston girl. The
first he had met after he struck Texas. One
enough. 1t had taken single look from her
deep dark Texan eyes and two words in her mellow
Southern speech to parayze all his powers of re-
sistance
His heart looked no farther. 1t said "J'y sus;
1'y reste"
He had not known her long when he came to
agree with her opinion that, in the Civil War the
North had seeded from the South and from all
decency, and had somehow, after a series of ignobe
defeats emerged victorious only because the South
ern generals were too gentlemanly to fight any
longer with nigger-stealers
Before he had left Galveston he had partly per-
suaded Alice to forgive him for being born in the
odious North At Beaumont he had dreamed of
her of her Southern graces her Southern subtletes
Of tact and beauty Her every mannerism was an
angels trait He endured the mud the grease the
fatigue the fever. because he hoped 1t would some
day bring him the wealth that she ought to have.