Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-22

rattlesnakes, plus half a dozen lean CO.
votes.
''Pendleton-With the assistance of the
stenographer and passing cowboy
now organized himself as the Morton City
Development Company and decided over
the entire ten thousand lots to IL. He
was now ready for his final coup-and
this was it:
TO about twenty thousand individuals
scattered throughout small towns in the
east he addressed letters on the ornate
letter heads of the development company
stating that as the owners of a large
amount of property in Morton City, they
desired to bring its advantages to the no
tice of eastern investors. and hence had
determined to give away limited num-
Der of valuable lots to permanent cltl-
tents of eastern communities. and that
, the recipient of the letter had been desiS-
mated as among the fortunate few. Moth
ing was asked, saving that the owner Oh
the lot would as far as he could con
VenientlN do SO. tell his friends OF MS
good fortune. on the back OF the letter
was a plat of the city, showing d piece
of railroad land and a government reser-
walton adjoining: upon il the lot that the
company had determined TO present To
the fortunate recipient was checked on
The receiver of the letter was asked II
he cared to take the property. In re"
weeks the rural delivery man was over
worked delivering answers. Nine out OF
ten of the writer's grabbed al the chance
to get something for nothing. Pendle-
ton now got out his blank deeds and set
to work with his clerk filing them out
with the names of the happy grantees
and affXing the name and seal of the
company Finding he was swamped with
the job, he sent to Denver for an assist
ant clerk, who came down and pulied
off his coat without asking any ques-
tons saving as to salary.
The deeds for the ten thousand lots
made out. they We're inclosed In en-
velopes together with ii letter from the
company consratulating the grantees
and urging them that if they wished 10
protect their titles they should have
their deeds recorded. On the back OF
the letter, it ran. was a schedule of the
fees for recording deeds in that county
and here is the milk in the cocoanut-
and the fee for recording that deed
would be $40, Then the deeds and let
tiers were mailed to the lucky beggars.
of course. there were some wise ones
who. on receiving their deeds and read
ing the little joker about the S4.10 Fee
winked at the scenery and chucked deed
and letter in the fire; but the great
ma iority fell for it, even many that felt
they were being chiseled out of that
S4lO. for. as Pendleton had no doubt
figured they had swelled around to
their neighborS about their prominence
and advertised the fact that they had
been given d lot in booming western
town and to 'crawfish now would be
to admit that somebody had picked
them out as suckers.
Anyhow. it was an incredibly short
time before Pendleton had gotten back
deeds and money for every lot-a tidy
little sum of $4,000 Then he and his
had gotten up a violent
affair in moments of Ieisure-set to
work copying the deeds in the county
records and remailing the original
deeds, duly stamped as recorded, to the
grantees. This done, Pendleton packed
off his record books to the clerk of the
from which Morton county had
been cut off, sent in his resignation to
the governor and prepared to pay his
help and shut up shop.
But here he struck snag. The
fluffy haired stenographer took her pay
and blushingly thanked him for a 500
bonus. But the hired man, when offered
his agreed wages. and also the same
bonus. sourly pushed it back at Pendle-
ton.
Come again. he rasped to that man
of genius. do you think I'm going to be
with d measly 500. while you
get away with all that swag you've
suckers out of? Come
across with $4,000 or I'm in Denver by
tomorrow morning reporting you to the
United States authorities for using the
mails to defraud.'
Pendleton reached for the inkstand.
but the hired man was out of the door
and flying across the prairie railroadward