Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1912-10-04

enu Inc natives have that. Every
Inlng nj for white man to eat IL
tinned. You've got to buy 1t when
the ship lands. You've got to he
government Johnny, a missionary or
native, otherwise you live on money
from home or the French deport you
Tor a. convict. That's Clarks garden
OF Eden. | got the facts at a tour
lists joint uptown So. there + amt
l can't live If don't go; / cant go:
| can't live If could go! Nice. com
portable bunch Of alternatives that
l had little money, but a court down
In West Virginia skinned me out of
1t. Now I haven't enough to pay
doctor That's why | shook my head
on the floor while ago"
You mean" said Randolph Mason.
"a legal decision rendered against you
in suit at law"
Not bit of it," replied the man:
I mean what / say-skinned out of
it. l had no lawsuit. / was standing
in crowd Of rubes before a court
house when the blindfold lady STEP
ped out with a little shell game and
lifted my wad.'
This" said Mason, sis the jargon
of cab driver. What do you mean ?"
I'll cut it out" replied the man,
Il will begin over When my father
died he left me ten thousand dollars
in bank stocks. 1t paid a dividend of
about four per cent, and no taxes.
Being naturally smarter than my
father, / at once determined to take
that money and get ffch / sold the
stock, pocketed a check book and got
busy. One bright morning, in a little
town on the Monongahela river,
commissioner was selling tract of
land before the court house. In my
hunt for good things / happened by
accident to know about that land. It
is a rough mountain tract, not worth
ten dollars an acre; but it is under
laid with the Pittsburgh vein of coal,
standing UP eight feet thick, clean
and solid like ledge of sandstone.
A corner or the land comes down to
the railroad and there is little mine,
opened and operated by the old farm
er who lived on the place. He had
pole-tipple, wheeled the coal out by
hand, and got off about car day.
The tract contains some two hundred
acres.
81 stepped up to the commissioner
and inquired about the sale. He told
me that the owner was broke and the
court was selling the land. I inquired
If the coal was included and he said,
Yes: from the sky to the center of
the earth Then I asked the bid.
When he answered fifteen dollars, I
nearly threw a fit! Fifteen dollars!
The coal was worth two hundred an
acre. Now, I had been knocking
about the coal country for good bit
and was no greenhorn. l knew that
knew what it was worth. The court
was selling the land, SO there could
be no doubt about the title. I would
not have trusted any dealer about
land title If it had been a private
sale; but here was the court-the old
blind lady herself-selling the land,
so the game was bound to be straight.
1 bid twenty. The commissioner call
ed it a moment. and big man, out
a little way in the crowd, with nose
like your elbow, bid twenty-five. let
the thing hang to see If there was an
other bidder; then, just before the
going bid thirty. Nosy looked me
over, snorted and finally bid thirty
five. and five more, / said. He
stamped around for while and final
ly lifted it to forty-five.
"'All right, Nosy,' said to myself,
I'll just throw good, stiff blum into
you and end it. An five', said, an
five more every time you raise It.
He looked at me for a good minute.
".You're damned fool!' he said,
and then he walked out of the crowd
Nosy was right about that; but
didn't know it 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.
ssWhen got home and opened my
package, l had as nice box OF saw
dust as you ever saw. The old girl IN
the blinkers had double-crossed me
like an expert. No street fakir could
have cleaned smoother job. MY title
to this land proved to be only lie
estate. 1 hunted up a lawyer. he
said that q court did not guarantee
a title when it sold land. ! remember
his language-it cost me money and
shall always remember 1t. He said
THE doctrine of caveat emptor OBJ
tanned at judicial sales: the purchaser
bought at his peril That Is. Your
ewes are your market The court
sells land through It's officer to the
public. sells the title for a good one
takes your money: and, If the title IS
defective, you are stuck, you cant get
your money back. The old lady comes
out to her door and sells you pig
in A poke. If there's no pig in It, the
Jokes on you. If it's somebody else's
Mig the Jokes still on you. I've peen
nm against the shell and the little pea
the fve-dolIar bill and the soap Dox'
the glad gent who knew my uncie
Ephraim in Potunk. and all kinds OF