The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1912-10-11

W VIC EOI IN nn q
ee.hnneht Johnny, a missionary or
q ha''Ve' otherwise you live ON money
run nome or the French deport YOU
ior a convict. Tha,x Clark's garden
Vi Eden. got the facts nj n tour.
ISIS JOINT uptown. So, there I am,
cant live If don't go; / can't go;
! can live II | could go, Nice. com.
or'aDie bunch Of alternatives that,
l mad a little money, but n court down
IN west Virginia skinned me out of
H. Now ! haven't enough to nav a
uoctor' That's why ] shook my head
on the floor n while ago"
You mean said ~r,andolph Mason
a legal decision rendered against YOU
In a suit at law"
Not 4 bit of It." replied the man:
l mean what | say-skinned out Of
II. | had no lawsuit. I was standing
IN n crowd Of rubes before n court
mouse when the blindfold lady step.
ped out with 4 little shell game and
lifted my wad."
This" said Mason. lis the jargon
or n cab driver. What do you near ?"
tn cut It out" replied the man,
I viii begin over. When my father
died he left me ten thousand dollars
In bank stocks. II paid a dividend OF
o four per cent. and no taxes.
Being naturally smarter than my
father, | at once determined To take
that money and get Yich. | sold the
stock, pockcted a check book and got
busy. One bright morning. in n little
town on the Monongahela river, a
commissioner was seiling a tract Of
land before the court house. In my
hunt for good things I happened by
accident to know about that land. II
Is n rough mountain tract. not worth
ten dollars IN acre; but IL is under
laid with the Pittsburgh vein of coal,
standing up eight feet thick, clean
and solid like n ledge OF sandstone.
4 corner or the land comes down TO
the railroad and there is n little mine,
opened and operated by the old farm
! er who lived on the place. He had n
/ polo-tipple, wheeled the coal out by
hand, and got off about ? car a day.
The tract contains some two hundred
acres.
Il stepped up 10 the commissioner
and inquired about the sale. lie told
me that the owner was broke and the
court was selling the land. ! inquired
II the coal was included and he said.
] w.. Fv,s, Tho civ 80 f1HF p1pf.s nF
the earth Then | asked the bid.
When he answered fifteen dollars, I
nearly threw n fit! Fifteen dollars!
The coal was worth two hundred m
acre. Now. I had been knocking
about the coal country for a good bit
and I was no grocnhorn. | knew that
this was the Pittsburgh vein and |
knew what Il was worth. The court
was selling the land. so there could
be no doubt about the title. | would
not have trusted any dealer about n
land title If II had been a private
sale: hut here was the Court-tNe old
blind lady herself-sclling the land,
40 the game was bound to be straight.
| bid twenty. The commissioner call
ed Il n moment, and a big man, out
n little way IN the crowd, with a nose
like your elbow, bid twenty-five. let
the thing hang TO see II there was an
other bidder: then, just before the
going ] bid thirty. Nosy looked me
owe snorted and finally bid thirty
five. and FIVE more l said. He
stamped around for a while n hnaI-
" lifted II to forty-five.
"'All right. Nosy,' I said to myself.
I'll Just throw n good, stiff blum into
Won and end it, An FIVE, I said. AN
five moro every time you raise IT.
He looked at me for a good minute.
you're a damned fool!' he said,
and then he walked out Of the crowd.
Nosy was right about that; but |
didn't know Il just then. The land
was knocked down to me at fifty dol
lars an acre. I paid cash and got my
deed, all signed, sealed and delivered
"yyhen I got home and opened my
nockaCe. I had rs nice a o or saw
dust as YOU ever saw. The old girl IN
tho thinkers had double-crossed me
ike an expert. No street faktr could
have cleaned n smoother job. My tue
IN this land proved 10 be only n Ire
cs,o,e. I hunted up n lawyer. He
so,d that a court did not guarantee
a title when It sold land. remember
b,s I~anguage-it cost me money n !
sho,, always remember II. He said
Tho doctrine Of caveat emptor Cd
tanned at judicial sales; the purchaser
boucht at his peril That is. your
eves are your market The our
se,,s AND through It's oficer to the
ruh,,c, sells the title for a good one
t.ro. FOUR money: and. II the title is
sosectiye. O are stuck. you cant get
your money back. The old lady comes
or, % her door and sells you a pig
4. . noke. II there's no pig In 1t, the
,Ora,s on YOU. II It's somebody else's
n,g M Jokes still on you. I've oeen
IN ,S,inst the shell and the little pea
tho sve-doliar bill and the soap oot,
en- clad gent VINO knew my uncls
Enbraim in Potunk, and all KINDS Oh
rooked faro. but for the real tnlns.
s,ye me the old blind girl In tne court
house" ,ha table and
,.lrsa through the open door at tne
Aatn ln0tHtTCutty