Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1909-05-27

Once upon time there was village
located upon the main line of q railroad
with shipping facilities to all parts OF the
world. II was surrounded by q rich
farming country cultivated according to
the most approved agricultural methods.
and the thrifty, industrious farmers were
in the habit of following labor from seed
time to harvest until long years Of pros
perity enabled them to leave the farm to
the management Of the boys, while they
retired to the village to live on the inter-
est of their money.
This village was a tidy place OF 1000 in
habitants, who took pride in their COM
Portable homes, in neatly clipped lawns,
and well-kept gardens, and who were
positively lavish in their use of paint and
whitewash. Such place had, OF course.
handsome streets arched by the spreading
limbs Of elms and naples, concrete walks.
electric lights and most of the other com
forts and luxuries of life. II had a pIen-
ty OF the most up-to-date stores with
goods so enticingly displayed that it was
almost impossible to pass BY them with
out buying something at regular bar
gain which it would be a sin to miss. II
had also about dozen thriving indus
tries and could have had more except for
curious apathy manifested by the pee
pie, when they didn't manifest active OBJ
position, at the mention OF any new en-
terprise.
The young folks growing up naturally
had no money to yield them a living in
come and, as there we're no wage-earning
chances at home, they had to go away to
find employment. The result was that at
any large gathering OF citizens an observ-
er from the gallery looked down on a
hairless waste of scalp.
These people had money they were
anxious to loan at high rate OF interest
or invest in large dividend paying stock.
They would give eager ear to the most
transparent OF bubbIe-pEomoters, If only
the oil we'll, gold, silver, coal and iron
mines he represented were far enough
away so that they could not possibly find
out the truth Of the marvellous state
ments he made to them and could show
child-like faith in his tales of sudden
wealth, more improbable than those Of
the Arabian Nights"
They invested in Kansas and Alaba-
ma, in Mexico and Arizona; threw their
hard-earned dollars into all sorts of holes
in all sorts of out-of-sight places, and had
trunks full Of certificates OF stock. repre-
senting thousands and good for nothing
but to kindle the fire in the kitchen
stove. After losing every cent put into
some wildcat venture. they would wait
20 years, perhaps. and then listen to an
other smooth stranger playing the same
old game and swallow his bait, hook, line
and sinker just as greedily as they had
before.
Within a mile of this village was q hill
having outcroppings Of very valuable
granite and so situated with respect to
the railroad that. were quarry opened,
the stone would almost load itself.
Every body agreed that excavations ought
to be made, the extent OF the deposit de-
termined and quarry worked. It was
certain that such a Ncourse, should the
stone prove abundant, would double the
size OF the village, make 1t a hive OF in
dustry, pour money into the tilIs of the
merchants, the pockets of the farmers,
cause real estate to double in value and
make the whole town prosperous and
happy.
Did they do il? Not much. Catch
them chucking a cent into hole in the
ground right in plain sight; hole they
could watch and see that it did not event
ually turn out to be the yawning mouth
of some promoters pocket. The money
spent in buying their trunksful OF gold,
silver, coal, iron and oil certificates,
guaranteed to rise in value from 10 cents
to 800 a share in years time, but
which developed a talent for sinking to
less than nothing, instead of rising--that
money would have been sufficient to open
a quarry and run it successfully. Instead
Of a lot Of paper-the wreckage of shat
cred dreams of wonderful dividends
they might have, had actual dividends to
gloat over and might have seen dollars,
in the form of big chunks of granite,
come out Of the hole into which they
dropped pennies.
At the worst, had the granite proved of
small quantity, which expert opinion
considered very unlikely, and had it not
paid to work the quarry, the investors
would at least have had a hill pasture to
show for their money.
Had that granite been located in Mis-
sissippi or Patagonia, and had some dap
per gentleman. having the gift of CAB,
gone to that village with a couple of spec
cimens in his pocket, a few post card
views of the towns beautiful scenery,
handsome streets and houses, its good
public buildings and few prosperous in
dustries; had be told, without any embel-
lishments, of its advantages as q place of
residence and OF business and then un-
folded scheme for placing its granite
on the market, he could have had for the
purpose all the money he could ship away