The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-11-16
JUST .sJEENIS.'
How He Made a Village Pay the
Piper.

1 had retired to peaceful village
in Michigan to write a book entitled:
The Conscience of a Con Man OF
course it was not my conscience that l
was to write about, but another chaps.
A few days previous a gentleman
who takes a deep interest in bringing
out the best in young men had souSn ~
to encourage me by selling me some
shares in a silver mine at cents
on the dollar. At this figure L took
$4,000 worth, face value, though 1 felt
like a highway rotber to do it.
I had to salve my guilty soul by
promising to send the whole of the first
dividend to the home for aged shop
lifters.
Somehow or other it became known
in the village that I had those bonds,
and men began to drop in to inquire
about them. There was hardly a man
in the place that hadn't been shorn
three times over in Wall street put
they had grown a new fleece and want
cd to he shorn again. 1 declined to
sell to any one. 1 refused to put
urice on the bonds. I was literary
Young man, who wanted the DIVIDENDS
to accumulate for his old age L want
ed to love my neighbor as myself, and
to be obHging and kind, but must
say nay, my to a sale.
Then they came by the skies and sew
ems and laid persistent siege to my
good nature. They studied my face
and saw thereby that they had only
to hold on long enough and 1 would
yield.
elder and a church deacon that sell
fshness was a worse crime than horse
stealing, and after they had bid against
each other till they had run the figures
mn to IA 1 threw up my hands anu
walled ont:
'.Take them-take them. and leave
me penniless in my old age!
have since been told by notorious
actors that the scene could not have
been better played. 1t was dramatic
up to the chin. For moment my au-
dience was spellbound. Then there were
wild whoops and a rush.
AS soon as 1 could count the money
and hand out the bonds I resumed
work with the complacent feeling that
comes to one who has done his whole
duty For a week more was beloved
by all. Then a newspaper whose ed1-
tor hadn't got around in time to ouy
any of the bonds devoted two columns
of double-leaded matter to what was
termed the most gigantic swindle since
the whale swallowed Jonah"
1 was called a hog thief and a mon
ster l was compared to Mr.. Judas Is
CARROT, to his great advantage. l was
called a modern Lucretia Borgia.
was batted. I was thumped. was
kicked and stepped on and rent and
rolled and riven.
had refused to sell to widows. I
would not let the ministers in. 1 had
discouraged those who bought at their
own figures, and yet it was the opin-
ion of that editor that ought to swing
for my cold-blooded crime.
How tickled and suave and kind
human nature is when ahead of the
game. How dog-gone mean when De
hind it!
stood my ground. 1 had a bad week
of it, and had to read the riot act
seventeen times in the seven days,
but gradually the town cooled off.
Then 1 felt a strong desire to even up
things. No angel ever feels that way,
but man has no wings or harp.
There was milldam in the village.
There had also been a sawmill, but it
had burned down. There were fish
under the water and gondoIas float
ing on its bosom. The banks were
lined with elder bushes, and there
were romantic vistas here and there.
That millpond had been named Lake
Como.
If a man gets a charter to build a
dam he can keep or sci lit. The man
who owned this one would sell, and
bought The town was holding its
breath to see what I was going to do
with it, when 1 made q contract to
have it torn away.