The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1911-01-26
They Would Not
Speculate
By GROVER S. GRIFFIN
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911.
By GROVER S. GRIFFIN

/
cific? Well. at that time l 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. 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 it. ! was heels over head in love,
and my girls father was aware of my
financial condition. He gave me to I'M
| derstand that must look elsewhere
for wife. He would never consent to
give his daughter to one so reckless,
ana 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 on
the folly of thinking of marriage when
| 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 ad
vised me to go to work and threw out
| faint hint that if would earn an
honest income she might marry me
after all.
Il had no idea of doing that so long
| as had dollar in the world to put
up on stocks and kept pegging away
until at last got down to buying ten
shares at 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
made lot of money"
who's telling this story?" asked the
narrator sharply.
You"
'Well. then. shut up till 1 get
| through
The stock was about par. and
gave an order to buy ten shares. That
a hundred and fifty. The next even
ing / 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 l left her she
gave me kiss and. calling me back,
|
kiss
".lf get two kisses at having made
$500 said. how many shall | get at
having made $1OO0O:'
None she replied If you should
make that you would be all the fur
ther from reformation.
Il went away laughing. and whom
should | meet but Jim Atterbury.
told him of my good fortune and asked
him 10 go and have little supper with
me. He accepted. and we went into
restaurant.
This is kind of confession. l sup
pose, and might as well make it now
I'm on the subject. We drank several
! bottles of wine and l became ambi-
tious to treat Jim royalty. Going into
night bank. cashed check for $500
| and
BLEW it all in" said the critic of
the story.
| Not all of it. A pickpocket relieved
me of what I didn't spend. / went to
bed at o'clock and didn't wake up
till 5 in the afternoon. When | did
| 30 of fn
buying a paper saw in enormous let
| tiers in a newspaper that Northern
! Pacific had begun to skip up about 10
| O'Clock in the morning anG had closed
at with 1000 bid.
| Wasn't | disguised though? Had
| l held on a day or two | would have
made small fortune. And when l
thought that out of the whole deal
hadn't left but 5000 sat down and
| cried. Yes, / cried; for notwithstand-
ing the prejudice of my girl and her
father against specializing. ] believed
] a competence would have helped me
| through with her. Putting my hand
| in my pocket | found the letter she
| had asked me to post. l carried it IN
my hand till came, to a box and
slipped it in. hoping that wouldn,
| have to confess why | hadn't posted
! it the night before
F"That night there was terrible time
about Northern Pacific stock and the
next morning. true enough. there were
sales at 1000. In the evening. pining
for sympathy. | went to see my girl.
/ found her in the slough of despond.
l tried in vain to get out of her what
was the matter but failed. Finally she
said something about the letter she
| had given me the night before. l
swore / had put it in the box few
minutes after / had left the house.
She was too much in the dumps to
/ Jolly me, so l left early. ~
THE next morning about 8 o'clock
| she telephoned me to come right up
to the house. / did so and found her
] dancing about the room like d lunatic.
She came and threw both arms about
my neck.
Why did you tell me you had post.
ed my letter when / gave it TO your
| she asked.