The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-08-22

WHICH Nc was UcL0S IOtS0u, OuL u0
saw only ruin behind him and perforce
went ahead.
Strange to say. we met at first little
or no opposition from our strong rivals.
Whether it was that Strauss and his
crowd were willing to let the mice
foregather into one trap before show
ing their claws or that they despised
US as weaklings no one could say. We
were able even to join the great pack
that made it possible for US to secure
our share Of the home trade. Mr..
Dround was aware Of this fact. but
averted his eyes. Necessity knows lit
tie sQueamishness. 1t must have filled
John Carmichael with unholy Joy to
know that Dround had come to this
compromise with his virtue.
So In spite Of the hard times we
pushed on. branching out here and
there as the chance offered. building a
plant in Texas. where Will was sent
to take charge. and making q deal with
a car line that had been started by
some Boston men. But the time came
when we had to have more money and
have It at once. There was none to be
raised in Chicago, where the frost Of
the panic had settled first and hardest
Slocum, who was my right hand all
these months, suggested that the mon
|, ey might be had from the Boston men
who owned the car line. So in July,
1898, we made hurried trip to the
east. They were frightened in Boston.
and we met with little but disappoint-
,ment. Men We're waiting for congress
to repeal the silver law or do some
thing else to make it pleasant and
/ wouldn't listen to putting out another
dollar in a Chicago enterprise. Then it
occurred to Slocum that we might in
'terest a man he knew named Farson,
:the rich man of his old home, Portland.
Farson, We found. was down the
coast somewhere on his vacation, and
we followed after him. 1t was the first
time I had ever been in that part of
the country, and the look of it was
queer to ne--a lot of scrawny, rocky
fields and wooden built towns. When
we failed to find Farson in Portland
1T did not seem to me worth while to
go on. doubted if there was as much
AAOACy AZ tAc Nuolc "" 40 VIC uOO
to have, but Slocum was strongly Of
the opinion that these Maine people
had fortunes tucked away in their old
So we kept on down the
.coast and found our man at his sum-
mer cottage on u little rocky island.
This Mr.. Farson was a short, wiry,
little man, almost sixty years old, with
a close cropped gray mustache and
looked for all the world like a retired
.schoolteacher. He received US on his
front piazza, and 1t took him and Slo-
scum half an hour to establish just the
degree of cousinship they were to each
other. l wanted to laugh and to put
lin: "We've come to make your for
tune, cousin. 1t don't make any DIFF
ference whether you are third once re-
moved or second twice removed" But
u thought it likely that Slocum knew
his business best with these people
and kept quiet.
When Slocum got around to saying
that we were interested in various
western enterprises, the weather seem.
ed to grow cool all Of sudden. But
Cousin Farson listened politely and
asked some good questions at the end.
Then he let US 60 all the way across
the harbor to the hotel where we had
put up to get our dinner. 1 thought we
had lost him, but Slocum thought not.
for Cousin Farson had asked us to go
fishing with him in the afternoon.
''He might have given US a sand
wich," growled to Slocum. ''That place
Of his looks as If he could afford it."
Slocum smiled at my irritation.
''He did not ask you down here. He
doesn't feel responsible for your COM
ing. Probably Cousin Susan would
need a warning before inviting two
strangers to dinner"
Well, the little old schoolmaster came
over in the afternoon with a very pref
ty steam launch. The fishing was not
all a pretense. He liked to fish, but
never saw a man who listened as keen
" as that man did. And did the talk
ing. I let him see that we were en-
gagged on big work: that in putting
his dollars into our packing houses he
wasn't just taking a hier way OF at
the end of the earth. had had some
experience in dealing with men by this
time. 1t was no raw young schemer
who came to this party. And had OBJ
served that what men want when they
are thinking OF putting their money
into new enterprise Is to have conf
dence in the men who will spend their
dollars. My experience has shown me
that the cheapest thing to get in this
world is money. II you have the ideas.
the money will dow like water down
hill. At any rate that was the way 1t
worked with good Mr. Farson.
We stayed there in Deer Isle three
days and had one simple meal In the
bankers house after Cousin Susan
had been duly warned. At the end of
the time Farson thought he would give
us couple Of hundred thousand dol
lars and take some Of our bonds, and
he thought maybe his brother-in-l aw
would take few more and also his
brother-in-law's brother. In short, Mr..
Farson was the FIRST one in a long row
| Of bricks. He went-up with us on the
Boston boat when We started back to
secure the others. 1t was q glorious
| night early in August, and after Slo-
cum had gone to bed the old banker
and sat up there on the deck watch.
ing the coast fade away In the moon.