The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-01-02
A PECULIAR
FACULTY
By ARNOLD TREAT
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1911

am the black sheep of the family.
never liked to study when / was at
school, and after quitting school
didn't like to work. | remember that
ms boy during the marble season |
took no interest in the game except
"for keeps" and usually won all the
other boys marbles. When / came in
from playing the game with my peck
cts loaded down with alleys and aces
and bullseyes my father would look
at them wonderingly.
When | was eighteen / was put to
work My employer owned a large
number of dwelling houses, and they
We're mostly vacant. The reason for
this was that he would do nothing for
his tenants They were all mortgaged
to the same man, who couldn't get the
interest on the mortgages. The mort
gagee came into the office one day
tearing mad and told my employer
that he didn't know how to manage
such property and the houses must be
put into the hands of some one else.
HartwelI. the owner. offered TO put
the management in my hands, TO
which Johnson, the MORTGAGE, assent
ed. | suppose Hartwell thought he
could make me do what he liked. But
in that he was mistaken ! offered a
big commission 10 agents to reconl-
mend the houses and gave the tenants
everything they asked. The result
was that within year | had the
houses all occupied all in prime or
der and paying good interest on the
investment.
When | got things running / had
nothing more to do, so | lit out into
the world for bit Of excitement. |
strolled down the street, with my
hands In my pockets and saw red
flag out at the door of a handsome
dwelling. I'd got some idea of the
value of such property and thought
I'd go In and attend the sale. Per
haps | would buy the property. |
hadn't any money even TO pay the
percentage of the amount of purchase
demanded when the property is knock
ed down to the highest bidder, but
that didn't trouble me bit. l had
the assurance of Satan himself. So l
went in and found a lot OF bidders,
each one acting as IL he was afraid he
would have the house on his hands.
estimated that the property was worth
n lot more than any of the bids.
don't know why / did so. l only
know that / felt certain of it. So |
raised the last bid by $1,000, That
scared everybody else Off, for | put on
n look as much as to say, "Tm bound
to own this property If | have to pay
double its value for it," The conse-
quence was that 1t was knocked down
TO me for SCI 900. The auctioneer
called on me for the usual percentage
of purchase, which was $500 As l
had nothing but my wits to satisfy
him. / proceeded to exercise them. |
asked him If he would take my check,
and he replied, "Not without it being
certified" Then / asked him If he
would wait till | sent check to the
bank for certification, and he said he
would. Since / hadn't any check or
check booker bank for that matter
to draw on / was wondering what
move / should make next, when the
owner of the property rushed in ana
asked il the sale had taken place.
When told that 1t had he sank In
chair ard moaned
"I've got the money" he said, with
which to pay Off the mortgage
II thought the case must be one OF
foreclosure" remarked. i've bought
the property dirt cheap. I'm ready TO
sell it back to you for 70 per cent Of
what it's worth. l consider it worth
$4,000. I'll sell it to you for $4,000"
The man fretted and fumed and dick
cred. but at last he accepted my terms.
Just you give me $1,000 for my
bargain" l said, land I'll sign any
paper you like"
He agreed to do so, and I made a
quick profit Then l told him that
what had said was true, and
thought / could sell the property for
$4,000. He declined to bother with
me. but within a year sold 1t for
S65.O0o. It was all luck. A railroad
terminal station was put up near the
property.
l slapped that $4,000 around in all
sorts OF Investments and every time |
put 1t in pulled it out with lot OF