The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1916-12-05


stored in the healthy life of the hills
we felt dragged out and tired. Five
hours sleep in two days is not enough
was up a few minutes before the
rest, and l sat in front of the hotel
baslllng In the sun like lizard.
Talbot appeared last, fresh and smil.
ing. Breakfast finished, he took us all
with him to the new brick building.
After some business we adjourned
once more to the Arcade. There Tai
bot made his report
wish | could remember 1t and re.
peat It to you verbatim. 1t was worth
1t. But cannot, and the most i can
do is to try to convey to you the sense
Of that scene-wc three tanned, wealth.
er beaten outlanders listening open
mouthed to the keen. competent, self
assured magician who before our eyes
spun his glitteling fabric. Talbot
Ward had seized upon the varied pos
sibillties of the new city. The earn.
ings on his first scheme-the ship store
houses and the rental of the brick
building on Montgomery street, you
will emember-amounted net the first
month l believe to some $4,000. With
his share of this money he had laid
narrow margins on a dozen options.
Day by day, week by week, his op-
eratlons extended. He was In wharves,
sand lots, shore lots, lightering, plank
roads, q new hotel. Day after day,
week after week, he had turned these
things over, and at each turn money
had dropped out. Sometimes the play
thing proved empty, and then Talbot
had promptly thrown 1t away, appar-
emily without afterthought or regret.
AS fast as he acquired dollar he in
vested 1t in new chance, until his in
terests extended from the Presidio to
the water front Of the inner bay. These
interests were strange odds and ends.
He and a man with bis own given
name, Talbot II. Green, had title In
much of what is now Harbor View
that Is to say, they would have clear
title as soon as they had paid heavy
mortgages. His shares in the CONNER
cial wharf lay in the safes of bank
ing house, and the dollars he had
raised on them were valantly doing
duty in holding at bay pressing debt
on precariously held water front equi-
ties. Talbot mentioned glibly sums
that reduced even the most successful
mining to n chids game. The richest
strike we had heard rumored never
yielded the half of what our friend
had tossed into n single deal Our
own pitiful thousands were beggarly
by comparison, insignificant, not worth
considering.
or all the varied and far extending
affairs the Ward block was the flower.
Talbot owned options, equities, proper
ties, shares In all the varied and nu-
merous activities Of the new city, but
each and every one of them he held
subject to payments which at the pres
ent time lie could by no possibility
make. MORTGAGES and loans had suck
ed every Immediately productive dol
lar, and those dollars that remained
were locked tight away from their
owner until such time as ne might
gain possession of golden key. This
did not worry him.
"They ere properties that are bound
to rise f. value" he told us. "In fact,
they arc ;oing up every minute we
sit here talking. They are futures"
Among ether pieces. Talbot had been
able to bug the lot on the Plaza where
now the Ward block was going up.
lie paid percentage down and gave
mortgage for the rest Now all the
L. oil
other interests he was putting into the
structure That Is why | rather fam
clfully alluded to the Ward block as
the flower OF all Talbots activities.
Building is the one thing you have
to pay crsh for throughout" said Tai
bot regretfully. Labor and materials
demand gold. But see my way clear,
and first class, well appointed busi-
ness block In this town right now is
worth more than the United States
mint. That's cash coming I'm for you
regularly every month. 1t will pay
from the start four or five times the
amount necessary to keep everything
else afioat, Jim Reckett has taken the
entire lower floor at thirty thousand.
The Offices upstairs will pay from
thousand a month up, and they are
every one rented In advance. Once
we get our rents coming In the strain
Is relieved / can begin to take up my
mortgages and loans, and once that
is begun we are on the road to Million
aireville"
Once more he recapltulated his af-
fairs--the land on the Plaza, two hun
dred thousand; the building, eighty
thousand; the Harbor View lands, any
thing they might rise to, but nearly n
quarter million now; ten thousand par
value of the wharf stock already pay
| ing dividends; real estate here and
! there, and everywhere In the path of
/ the clty's growth; shares in new ho-
tel that must soon touch par; the plank
rood-as we jotted down the figures
and the magic total grew such trifling
little affairs as gold mines dropped
| quite below the horizon. We stared at
Talbot, fascinated.
And then for the first time we learn