The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1908-02-27
THE ktDSAND GOlDMINt.
rhoir business was f,y catching.


American, and Bludgeon, an English
man. who looked as if he had kept door
at boxing club and prospered TO hlgh-
or but not necessarily holier things.
The secretary was meek, cool, eHcl-
ent and unobtrusive. He did as he
was told, trembled when he was spoken
to, and looked afraid.
Goldstein was a reSplendent person.
His hat and boots were of the glosslest;
his coat was immaculate; his taste IN
fancy waistcoats was doggy to degree,
but did not get dangerously doggy; MS
trousers hung with an accuracy when
is only seen on. the musical COMEDY
stage and in the higher walks o! Snady
finance. His tailoring was good. but
no tailor could discount the face. Win
its pendulous rolls of unhealthy fesh;
the dull eve that cleaned snakellke.
though dim with drink and good living,
and the predatory mouth, from Whlch
teeth started-buck teeth, tangllke,
and stained with tobacco. He SAT over
tie web and watched the flies come,
talked to them as they hung on the net,
and wove the silken death strands
round them. H.:
Jefferson was the very reverse. HIS
spare frame was clothed IN blue serge.
His face had something OF the haWk III
it--a cold, calculating expression, as Oh
one who preyed for pleasure. he stoou
in the background and WoVe lie heO
that caught the fly. He wrote the au-
yertlSements
Bludgeon was the bully. His brass
voice frightened women and lntlmldat-
ed men. 1t was he who challenged as
sault and brazened things out when the
Jews heart failed him before the bigger
and angry insects who protested at
their treatment in the net.
They were partners and daily put the
fear of death by starvation into the
head of the secretary, Dobbs. They de-
lighted to believe they kept his nerves
uuivering. 1t was part OF their creed
that man works best who can be Kept
at the nice extreme which draws nerves
to their highest tension without Undue
ing prostration. So they kept hlm on
the rack.
They did eyerything-the three part
ners. They swindled people innocent
of the city by dealing in options they
never bought. They had nice picklngs
on fictitious margins. They played
Dattledore and shuttlecock with all
sorts of people over borrowed money
and they didn't start lending under so
per cent, and usually finished off some
where about 800. They carried on a
nice little game over packets OF shares,
selling good line or two for appear
ances' sake with three or four lines,
hocussed in their pre-prospectus days,
for the sake of profit. They. would
lend you money on houses or land, and
you were lucky if you had either money,
houses or land in the end. Sometimes
ri inf lift 10 If
their own and collar everything sell
ing nothing to the subscribers at d
genuine diamond mine price, and get
ting further fat by the process of buy
ing i'll and selling out until the company
was so much Ike financial carrlon that
not even the most innocent fly could
stand the odOr.
For headquarters they had a hand
some place in Doobrown street, near
the Mansion House, and well in the
charmed circle of the Eastcheap dis
trict, packed full of clerks and type
writers, boys in buttons and men in
livery. 70 the unsophsticated it look
ed like a money making mill for the
clients, but to the people who knew it
was mill which ground not slowly but
exceeding sure, its food being the fool,
and its purpose being to separate him
from ms money.
Their biggest effort was happening at
the time this story opened. The ked-
sand looked like being boom.
Boys said Goldstein, in his fat
voice, to his partners, "may die if this
amt a good thing, ii it amt the best
thing that ever vas
B4udgeon stood listening with his
mouth open.
Jetfersons thin lips crinkled Three
hundred thousand pounds, by gosh, in
one handful out of the British public"
he said.
AN all for nothink," snuffled
BludgeOn.
Haven't | told you," scow!ed Gold
stein, mot to speak the truth? 1t is
not for nothink-lt's a pinch tor the
public. Vat | say is, we give 'em
gold mine, and, if ! may die, we do
We give the mugs a gold mine, of
course" said Biudgeon, as if repeating
a lesson.
And a very good gold mine, too,
think" Jefferson added Its true
there amt enough gold in it to tip
cigarette Without only three men
know that, and they are around this
table"
The secretary came in, noiselessly,
and laid a card ON the table in front Of
Goldstein.
t!ti2 is waiting
aoldstetu picked up the card.
''Abel Storm, publisher" was the
name i. hore
STORM" shifted Goldstein, don't
know him from Abraham"
"What is he?" asked Jefferson.
SO nnhlish;r; onnordin' to the card, !"
Goldstein answered:
Jefferson's thin lips let ii long,
straight line.
Look here, Goldstein," he said, Il
don't like the look of that card. There's
something unpleasant about publish
er's card, coming the day before we put
out the prospectus
''But he cannot know anythin',"
Goldstein said hoarsely.
''Barabbas was a publisher, some man
said" answered Jefferson, land when a
publisher calls OH me on a day like this,
| Just wish he had been Barabbas. The
beauty of BarabbaS is that he was
crucified long time ago. 1t would be
all the better if he had been Storm. |
scent trouble"
Bludgeon lit a cigar.
Trouble is in my line. Show him
up! I'll soon cut his comb he said.
Eyes," said Goldstein, "let's have
1 D,,tI ctD VI y,