The Newark journal., 1909-02-12

Upon the evening of the day on which MT Tieklemore made his first deposit there appeared in a leading daily paper that had published standing offer of $500 for a genuine, authenticated autograph a photo-en- grayed fac-simile of his signature, and an announcement that the original could be seen at the Paragon office There, behind a strong plate glass, and jealously guarded by a husky police man, Tinklemore beheld the signature he had furnished the bank for com parison Later he received note of apology from the president saying that. while he was the last man to accuse a brother official of underhand- demanded the statement that for his part. he was incapable of converting a public trust to private ends, while he cashier, whom he met that even- ing in society, said with some bitter ness that it 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 spells
 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 Tieklemore, since I see you have no cheeks out"
 .Ah. but have" he replied lots of hem" 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 cut 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 ritcher's pronounced talent for supply ing debit items seemed to him peril ous at such crisis, so he kept the matter quite to himself.
 Tn a few days the explanation ar rived in an accidental way. strug. gling literary fricnd said to him:
 "1 see you have set up a bank ac- count, old man"
 Why, yes" replied Ticklemore, guardedly, scenting touch, in small way-in a very small way. How did you know?"
 "Oh. I saw one of your cheeks in mans autograph album. It was for S11. He wanted 1t bad, seems to me"
 Ticklemore remembered the check. It had been given for box of cigars. Eleven dollars did seem a large price pay for an autograph. even for that of a writer of his unexampled popu- arity, but here was the fact-a man had paid. in effect, this precise sum for one.
 The authors inflammable imagina- ion blazed up at this spark into vivid flash of generalization. This un-
 
 translated itself into boundless wealth. His daily expenses, If paid by checks not too large in individual amount, would be eagerly provided for by his admirers. while his income remained intact It was fortunate condition of things beside which the resources of Monte Cristo became insignificant.
 He applied his nimble pen to this new task with zeal He worked half the day only upon his new novel, and devoted the remainder to the conge- nial labor of writing checks. equally imaginative in point of value. that were never to be paid. In a short time his second book duly appeared, and it's popularity exceeded, if possible, that of his first Thus encouraged, Ticklemore employed an attractive young woman as an assistant to do the drudgery of filling in the amounts and other details of the checks, and saved his own strength for the labor | of signing them, thus doubling his daily output.
 | His wholly unimpaired capital he in- vested in real estate in choice locali- Mes and in good bonds. displaying | considerable shrewdnees in both lines