The Tupelo journal., 1909-05-07

| culver of a muscle or a wavering
cadence of the voice, yet nevertheless
instinct with a deadly earnestness,
Mercer began to talk. He told of his
struggling youth on the drained plan
tation, mortgaged so that after the in
terest was paid there was barely
enough to set the meagerest living
for mother and sister and little broth
er; of his accidental discovery of iron
ore IN the place; of his working as a
common laborer in the steel mills; OF
his being rooster" "strand-boy,"
'rougher," heater" roller" during
three years while he was waiting for
his chance; of his h~eart-draining toll;
Of his solitary studies.
81 never was the kind of fellow to
make friends" he said, in his soft,
monotonous voice, so | expect l was
the fonder of my own kin. I'd a mighty
good mother, sir, and sister; and there
was Phil-my little brother. We were
| right happy all together on the old
place that's been in our family for 100
| years, and it was all we asked to stay
| there; but it had every dollar OF
mortgage it could stand, and the soil
all worn out, needing all kinds of
things; and | wish you could have
seen the m%akeshifts we had for ma
| chimes! l was blacksmith and carpen-
ter and painter-just 16, and not an
especially bright chap, but mighty will
ing to work; and my mother and sis
and I've did a heap. When Stun
bled on the ore / couldn't be sure, but
| wrote to Aunt Rebecca Winter. She
sent a man down. He looked up
things. 1t would take a heap of money
to work the mines, but it might be a
big thing. She paid off the mortgage
! and took another. First to last, she's
been mighty kind to US. She would
have done more had we let her. So |
went to Pittsburg and learned my
! trade, and / made enough to pay inter-
est, and the people at home got a fair
ly good living. When l was 81 l was
back home, and got a company started
and put up a mill. You know how
those things have to creep up. But
there was ore, all right, and under
stood my business and ta&ght the
hands. We'd a right sweet little mill.
Well, l don't want to take up your
time, sub. Those next 10 or IL years
were right hard work, but they were
happy, too. We prospered; we helped
the whole county prosper. W. paid
Aunt Becky. We were in good shape.
We went through '93 paying our dfvi-
dends just as regular and making
them, too, though we didn't much
more-it was close sailing. But we
were honest; we made a mighty good
article; and everybody trusted us.
| Then came the craze for mergers, and
a number of us got together. Still we
weren't very big, but we were big
| enough to be listed. | didn't want 1t.
| but some of the men thought it was a
terrible fine thing to be Iron Kings
! That was how. Keatcham was look
| ing over the country for fish for his
| net; he somehow heard that here was
| a heap of good ore and new mills. The
first intimation we had was his sec
| rotary coming as a northern invalid
I why, he stayed at our house because
we were so sorry for him, the hotel
| being in new hands and not right com
Portable. He seemed so interested in
| our mills, and bought some stock, and
sent presents to Phil and my mother
after he went"
sThat was Keatcham's private secre-
tary, you say?"
YES, sub, Atkins. You met him on
! the train-as sleek and deadly a little
scoundrel as ever got rich quick. Oh,
he's deep. Well, sub, you know the
usual process. Convinced OF the value
OF the property, Keatcham and one or
two others set out to buy it. They
got little blocks of it here and there.
Then Atkins wrote me in confidence
that some men were after the CON