The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times., 1910-01-29
A LOBSTER BORN EVERY HOUR


by which the farmer comes and beo,
to have his money taken from him
Here is the method,
A stranger visited a farmer In Town
and asked IL his farm was for sale
The farmer replied that he had never
thought Of selling.
Suppose you did, >" asked the strane.
err what would you say 1t was
worthfo
The farmer pontered for awhile. As
nearly as he could figure, the whole
place with improvements was worth
about six thousand dollars; but as he
had no desire to sell the price he named
was nine thousand dsllars.
The stranger argued for awhile that
It was too much but finally made this
proposition; "I1l tell you what III
do. III meet you more than halfway.
You want nine thousand dollars fot
your farm and are not sure that you
want to sell 1t. want to buy IL; but
IN not willing to pay more than
eighty'fve hundred for 1t. Now let =
take q little time and think IL over.
II pay you dvs hundred dollars, and
you give me an option for sixty days.
agreeing that IL you desire to sell the
farm within that time you n sell II to
me at my price, eighty.f .fve hundred
dollars. In case you deslds to sell me
the farm, the vie hundred will apply
ON the purchase price. In case you
have decided not to sell, you keep the
i've hundred and I'm out Just that
much"
The farmer did not soc how he could
possibly lose anything by the transac.
tion. Alert, however, for possible fraud
he drove with the stranger to the county
seat, whore they went to the bank, his
own bank, and drew up the option
agreed, and the stranger, who, II seem.
cd, had opened an account there, drew
out hve hundred dollars and paid Il
over. well satisfied with his bargain,
the farmer went home.
A week later he discovered two other
strangers, bespectacled and armed with
mineralogists hammers, tracingA ledge
of rock through his farm. lie tried to
ascertain what they were doing; but
they were very mysterious about It,.
Finally they told him that they had
discovered oil bearing rock on his farm.
One of The men, who said he was an
agent OF the Standard Oil Company.
then and there offered, first ten thou.
sand dollars, and finally eighteen thou.
sand dollars, for the farm. lie ad.
ded that the ledge ran through the ad.
joining farm and that 1t was his pur.
pose OF buy one Of the farms, he did not
care much which, and started putting
down 4 well at once. There was every
indication that there was plenty of oil
there, and he was willing to add a
bonus Of an eighth Of all oil discovered
If the farmer would close the sale at
once. IL not, he would close fos the
adjoining farm.
A sudden light dawned on the farmer.
The five hundred dollars he had receiy.
cd the week before for the sixty.day
option did not look SO large as 1t had.
lie asked for twenty.four hours to con.
slider the matter and drove hastily into
town, whore he found the holder Of the
option at the hotel. Explaining tina, he
had decided not to sell, he tried to re-.
turn the Ave hundred and cancel the
option. The would be purchr ser was
adamant. lie had the option, and he
was going to keep 1t! The outcome ot
Il was that the farmer paid him twenty.
five hundred dollars, all the money &.
had in the bank, for the surrender of
the option.
Unfortunately, the supposed STANDARD
Oil agent never returned TO close the
deal They were too busy helping the
first would be purchaser to spend the
two thousand dollars profit Of the
transaction.