Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1912-09-06

Il
landowner whom Balduc could induce
70 sell. the money to be paid when his
deeds We're made to the railroad CON-
pany. The strength of the plan lay
In having the entire county in shape
Tor direct transfer to the Great Lakes
railroad. So large a bait could not
IalI OF success, nor was there any
moral wrong in foisting these worth
less mineral rights on the company.
The directors of it were notorious
land thieves; hair-shirt was due
| them.
Jean Balduc was convinced and
elated. He would gladly have lent his
aid to the scheme without compensa.
| ton, out of interest in the people of
the county; but here was Barnsfield
about to reap enormous sums from
the venture. and he might as well
have the money which was offered
They agreed, then, that Barnsfield
should pay him one thousand dollars
for every landowner who made a
deed for the mineral rights under his
land, the money to be paid when the
transfer was made by Barnsield to
the Great Lakes Railroad company
There were thirty-four of these men.
Balduc's popularity, the reputation
he had established with the people
and his prestige as county treasurer
gave weight to his words He went
back to his people, assured them that
he had investigated Barnsfield's plan
and that it would certainly be carried
out. He had seen the very surveys for
the road, the estimates, the profiles
| Finally he secured the deeds of nine
teen OF these recalcitrant landowners
! The others could not be induced to
| sell. Barnsfeld marked their names
off his list, expressed himself salts
fed with the matter and put all his
deeds to record. The county, now at
the gateway of it's fortunes, rejoiced.
/ A great mass meeting was held in
| the court house; a vote of thanks was
| awarded Jean Balduc; he was carried
to his home on the shoulders of his
admiring fellows; tar-barrels were
burned on the hills; horses were pa
raded; the local papers ran their cleo
4
Then came the gray morning, and
/ the gradual rising of the sun. The
minions of Barnsfield vanished.
Months passed, and no engineer of
| the Great Lakes railroad sighted his
transit into Huron county. No carts
were trundled across her rivers, no
italian came to make a footpath for
the iron beast; but, instead, little
man in spectacles arrived from Mar
quette and staked out a shipping wharf
at Plymouth for the Lake Shore
| Steamship company. To inquiries he
| replied that Barnsfield wished to take
| the copper out of Huron county, and
| the steamship company must have a
| wharf from which to load it. Copper!
The county sat literally with its jaws
/ agape. But was this merely another
| subterfuge of Barnsield? It was not.
| A little later a well-known superin-
tendent from the regular mining
| region came with workmen and I'M
covered the copper-bearing strata 1t
| was copper territory! The whole
| county richer than the Indies!
/ Jean Balduc stopped here in his
narrative, drew down the muscles OF
his face until his eyes narrowed to
| pale Sits He crushed and ground
1 the flaps of his coat pockets in his big
| hands. His mind was evidently
crammed with incidents-vivid, crowd
| ing Incidents: A food of indignation
~poured over Jean Balduc. He was
| cursed, waking and sleeping, as with
/ a Roman anathema. Even Barnsfeld,
| chuckling in his den in New York,
| goaded him. He would pay the nine
teen thousand dollars when the deeds
were transferred to the Great Lakes
| Railroad company-if he were living
then.
Exile was the only solution. Jean
| Balduc determined to close up his at
fairs as treasurer of the county, come
to New York, collect from Barnsfleld
| the twenty-eight thousand dollars
which he owed Huron county for taxes
| on his mineral rights, transfer 1t to
the county. and then settle his own
affair with Barnsheld. After that, II
he got away, he would go back to the
Jacques Cartier river; but he would
likely not get away.
Have you. seen Barnsheld? SAID
Randolph Mason.
yes. replied the man: Il went to
him yesterday to collect these taxes
and he tried to beat me even on that
He was hard up, he said, he had no
ready money; but he would give me
bonds of the Empire Copper company
if / would take these bonds at par
and turn over the tax receipts to him.
I refused. and he asked me to come
back today at one o'clock"
Randolph Mason turned to me-
sWhat are these bonds WORTH" ne
said.
They are not listed on the stock
exchange" answered; but there is
3 curb market for them at seventy
! Ave cents"
Randolph Mason walked over to the
win5ov and stood looking out ct the
heavy snrw-aakes driving against the