The Whitefish pilot. [volume] (Whitefish, Mont.) 1904-current, 1911-01-26
They Would Not
Speculate
By GROVER S. GRIFFIN
Copyright by American Press Asso-

"You remember" said the Wall
street man. 1.-The time the different in
terests were fighting for Northern Pa
citic? Well. at that time | was dip
ping into stocks with mighty little
money and usually on per cent mar
gin. would lose $50 one day and
make several hundred the next. repeat.
Ing the process vice versa.
Now. l never could do drudgery. and
my position of Spectator on not
enough to buy good horse was dis
tressing But this was not the worst
Of 1t. was heels over head in love.
and my girls father was aware Of my
financial condition. He gave me to un-
derstand that l must look elsewhere
for wife. He would never consent to
give his daughter to one so reckless,
and even if gained fortune in Wall
street it wouldn't make any difference
to him. for he didn't approve Of sue
cess gained in that way Spectators
were drones.
LAS for his daughter. she said she
agreed with him, gave me lecture Oh
the folly Of thinking of marriage when
l had not means for support for my
self alone and was liable to be landed
high and dry any day so far as my
little capital was concerned. She adj
vised me to go to work and threw out
faint hint that if would earn oil
honest income she might marry me
after ALL
II had no idea of doing that so long
as l had a dollar in the world to put
up on stocks and kept pegging away
until ut last l got down to buying ten
| shares ut Il time. One afternoon after
| l had had some successes my broker
told me that had 500 to my credit
He also told me that Northern Pacific
| was acting very strangely and
"Oh. cut it short" said one of the
listeners. when the stock went up
you were in for Il hundred shares and
made lot of money"
who's telling this story?" asked the
narrator sharply.
YOU"
"Well. then. shut up till get
through
THE stock was about par. and
gave an order to buy ten shares. That
vas just before the stock went up to
hundred and fifty. The next even
ing l went to see my girl and told her
that had made fifty points on North
ern Pacific. having sold out that after.
noon.. She said that my selling was
the only sensible thing connected with
the transaction. When left her she
gave me Il kiss and. calling me back
gave me letter to post and another
kiss.
"'If | get two kisses ut having made
$780, l said. how many shall get al
having made $10.O00:'
None she replied. If you SHOULD
make that you would be all the fur
Their from reformation.
Il went away laughing. and whom
should | meet but Jim Atterbury.
told him of my good fortune and asked
him to go and have little supper will
me- He accepted. and we went into ;
restaurant.
This is a kind OF confession. sup
pose. and l might rs we'll make it nov
I'm on the subject. We drank severa
bottles of wine and | became alnbi
tious to treat i'm royalty. Going into ;
night bank, cashed n check for $500
and
BLEW it all in" said the critic o
the story.
; Not all of it. A pickpocket relieved
me of what didn't spend. l went t.
bed at G O'Clock and didn't wake III
till 5 in the afternoon. When l did
went out to get something to eat ant
buying Il paper | saw in enormous let
tiers in newspaper that Norther
Pacific had begun to skip up about l
o'clock in the morning and had close
at with 1000 bid.
"Wasn't | Disguised though: Ha
l held on day or two l would hav
made small fortune. And when
; thought that out of the whole deal
hadn't left but 5000 l sat down an
cried. Yes. l cried; for notwithstant
ing the prejudice of my girl and he
father against specializing. l believe
competence would have helped M
through with her. Putting my han
in my pocket ! found the letter sh
had asked me to post. carried it i
my hand till came to a box an
slipped it in. hoping that | wouldn
have to confess why | hadn't poste
it the night before.
: "That night there was terrible tim
. about Northern Pacific stock and til
:, next morning, true enough. there wer
, sales mt 1000 In the evening. pinin
for sympathy. l went to see my gir
l found her in the slough of despon
5 l tried in vain to get out of her whs
1 was the matter but failed. Finally sl
, said something about the letter ST
| had given me the night before.
swore had put it in the box fe
minutes after l had left the hous
:, She was too much in the dumps
jolly me. so l left early.
THE next morning about 8 O'clOe
she teleDhOned me to come right