The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-12-30

it manifested Itself IN MS WoIh
George Sherwin was a capable and &C
curate bookkeeper and the books over
which he toiled for eight hours every
day we're marvels Of precision and
neatness
The lack of sanity showed itself in
the old man in his interest in stocks.
Feverishly he followed the market
keeping tab on fifty or sixty stocks,
from Western Union and Northern Pa
cifc down through the list to the in
.dustrials," some of which lacked "A
footing on the stock exchange. $40
a week bookkeeper without a spare
$40 bill to bless himself with, going
home with Il long face over the fact
that some stock had dropped ten
.points-of course he was bit crazy.
The office did not know the old
mans history, how in his younger
days he had been a broker on the
street" and a sharp one, how he had
.lEdnSEItbSGu lllt Univ lNNNl ANAN Va
brokerage never to speculate on your
own account how he had made one
of those wild successes which some
times last a fortnight and how, in
the windup, the market cleaned him
up with neatness and dispatch and
after a week of frantic fighting to re-
trieve himself sent him to his bed
with brain fever.
1t was probable that during the hey
day of his success old George had
been a trihe crazy The brain fever
left him sane enough, without any out
ward longing for speculation and an
unimpaired ability to keep books He
could have a job in a dozen brokers
offices, keeping the complicated rec
a terror of the game and went away
to turn UP years later in the manufac-
turing town where we find him keep.
ing books at $40 a week for the Pee
bles factory of the Amalgamated But
ton Company.
With the years had come a dulling
of the terror of the days that had
wiped him out and the old man
kept sheets on the market and did an
4 imaginary business in Wall Street
Z He made some shrewd guesses, too
and if he had actually margined the
s stocks he had slated for big rise he
could have sold out rich man. On
= the other hand, he sometimes missed
and the favorite stock went down
Those were the days he went home
), with a long face
There was quite an opportunity
right in town for speculation in moi
r expensive way if the bookkeeper had
had the money. The manufacturing
q plants were all big ones-cotton mills
steel plants, sewing machines, agri
> cultural implements, and so on. No
one but was incorporated with
stock and bonds to sell, some of thu
securities being held in the local mar
:, ket at few cents per share. Every
bOug W NJ uleluC a lllIlC ONOl lACNCool
ties bought shares of some kind; al
the employees of the different concern
were privileged, nay, requested, Il
buy preferred stock in their employ
ers business, and downtown Their
: was place where local stocks wer
bought and sold.
There are possibilities in industr
ais, even at few cents per share.
times of prosperity holders of loci
II securities received dividends and tn
t. value of their holdings scared. TIL
shipping clerk in the PEBBLES factor
was a devotee to Consolidated Loct
motive, the Burnham & Barry branc
of which was located down by tn
n railroad, and one day he came int
the office radiant and had the bool
keeper cash him check for $16O.
What do you think of that, Pop?
he asked jubilantly. THAT check rel
resents an outlay of $40 in Consolida
ell Chu-Chu futures when things wei
so slack six months ago, Now the
are full of orders and everything hur
ming, and I've sold out $500 to tn
A good"
1t was shortly after this the boo
keeper took to keeping chickens. Mr.
Sherwin and the girls were delighte
when one day the taciturn old ma
came home early and went to tinke
ing with an old shanty on their plac
and it developed that he was makir
it into a chicken house. If the wOuI
Of their earlier days had healed in Il
.. husband, it had not in the wife, wi
for months back had watched her pr
occupied mate figuring figuring int
minably evenings by the fire, and wi
saw the old gambling propensi
~ growing in him again If he wou
only take to chickens it would be