Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1908-08-13
THE TICKLEMORE
BOOM
Copyright. by shortstory PUB CO
BY r. Z. CHASE

A"iuiJ oe remembered by the pres
ent generation Of readers of fiction
though his vogue some ten years ago
was as great as It proved ephemeral.
He had served the usual weary an
premiership to letters, during which
his only extravaganza was postage
stamps. and his superlativs luxury
three meals day, when the pubIica-
ton OF his striking tale, King Sub
terfuge, the Subtle" first brought him
into prominence. At the very thresh-
old or fame he encountered the auto-
graph collector. His greatly augment
ed mail now brought him fresh COM
missions, fat checks and fattsring
words OF praise and encouragement.
but also. In the proportion Of twenty
to one. requests for his autograph
from that incomprehensible class that
attaches value to this simple product
OF the writer's art.
Had his success been less sudden
and the resulting demand for the more
legitimate product Of his pen been less
overwhelming. a pardonable vanity
might have induced him to yield to
these requests; but as It was, he took
the advice Of his friend Coolpitcher,
the comedian.
Never, dear boy" said that vet
eran In popularity, ION your blessed
life. Ignore EN- Don't make your
self too cheap"
In this counsel Coolpitcher was en-
urely consistent with his own prac-
uce; for though he had never been
niggardly OF his autograph, and had.
indeed. given It freely during n long
and cheoksrsd public career, chiefly
In the form Of LO.U.'s, he had never
made 1t at all cheap to its re-
eipients. Ticklenore adopted It forth
with. employing the requests which
continued to crowd bis letter box as
pipe lights. and utilixing the re.
turn postage stamps they occasionally
contained for the forwarding OF manu-
script to his publishers.
1t was not long before II got abroad
that the distinguished Mr.. Tickle
moro had nsvsr given his autograph
to any one, even going to the length
OF signing private notes with a rub
Der stamp. and of making verbal con-
tracts only, to the jeopardy OF his De
cuniary interests. This singular fact.
circulated widely in the newspapers
by his astuts publishers rs q literary
note. stimulated his admirers to re-
doubled energy in the pursuit of so
unique a possession. More than one
hotel man privately wrote the distin-
guished name in an old register. and
then employed some disinterested per
son to discover It.
The few genuine autographs that
had survived from earlier years had
been long ago absorbed by collectors.
and the situation thus created was of
lnestimable value. for advertising pur-
poses. to the authors delighted pub
fishers.
That Coolpitcher's advice was likely
to be a source of direct profit to the
author himself never occurred to
either of them; nor was it so at first,
save in the small economy In postage
stamps that 1t occasioned, until the
growth OF Ticklemore's income ne
cessitated the opening Of a bank &C
count. This expedient was agreeably
forced upon him in a very few months
after the publication OF King Subter-
fuge, the Subtle" which ran nimbly
into edition after edition.
Upon the evening of the day on
which Mr.. Ticklemore made his first
deposit, there appeared In a leading
daily paper that had published a
standing offer of $500 for a genuine,
authenticated autograph, a photo-en-
graved fac-simile OF his signature, and
an announcement that the original
could be seen at the Paragon office.
There. behind strong plate glass, and
jealousy guarded by a husky police
man, 1inklemore beheld the signature
he had furnished the bank for com
parison. Later he received a note of
apology from the president saying
that, while he was the last man to
accuse a brother official Of underhand-
ed conduct, simple justice to himself
demanded the statement that, for his
part, he was incapable Of converting
public trust to private ends, while
the cashier, whom he met that even
ing in society. said with some bitter
ness that 1t was hard position for an
upright man to be mixed up with peo-
pie whose moral sense was a minus
quantity. From which Ticklemore in
ferred that they had divided the spoils.
At the months end, when he called
for his book, which had been sent in
to be balanced, the young man who
handed it to him said:
You need not have troubled to
bring In your book, Mr.. Ticklemore.
since 1 see you have no checks out"
"Ah. but have" he replied. Tots of
them" And indeed. charmed by the
novelty of the thing, he had written
an unnecessarily large number, in
payment OF divers small bills. None
of these had been presented for pay
ment.
He could not account for this, and
when at the end of the second month
he again received back his book with
out a single debit item, he was not
only puzzled but vaguely alarmed.
He did not seek Coolpitcher's ad-
vice, however, in this matter Cool