The Washington times., 1920-05-09

The Man Who Never Took Chance.
It's long name, but short story.
He lives in little Jersey town and for
years has committed every day to New York
and come in contact with all the blandish-
ments of Wall Street and breathed eight
hours day an atmosphere charged with the
talk of easy money-and still they call him
The Man Who Never Took Chance.
For years they laughed at him, not openly
but quietly. When Jones made 81 500 in
Anaconda, and Smithers took $500 out Of
Steel, and Harry Halt bought Packard out
of what he made in General Motors, the Man
Who Never Took Chance simply sat stolidly
in the fve-twenty-eight every night and
listened to the stories of their winnings.
When the. war came it seemed that every
man in that little town was making q fortune
out of War Brides-everybody except The
Man Who Never Took Chance.
There seemed to be something wrong with
him. He had as good job as any Of his
neighbors, lived in the same sort of house,
ate the same sort of food and dreamed the
same old human dreams Of ease and independ-
ence, and still-he ReVer took chance
Then the Arabic went down, and the mar.
ket went down with il, and Harry's Packard
went, too, and what few automobiles remained
were run more on credit than on gasoline
But the world is full of chances
The oil boom came, and the town went
crazy, like thousand other towns poring
over blueprints and prospectuses, and gush-
ing over gushers that had not yet begun to
gush
The place began to buzz with cars again,
and this time Harry bought two, one for
himself and one for the Missus, and all the
women wore Fifth Avenue hats, and every
body was just exuding money-everybody'
except The Man Who Never Took Chance.
He not only made no money out of oil,
but got no sympathy from those who did
they just dismissed him as hopeless, and even
his two daughters called him an old poke
Then two things happened.
The oil boom ended-and the town took
a tumble--to The Man Who Never Took a
Chance.
Seven cars disappeared from view, seven.
teen commuters, more or less, grew silent on
the fve-twenty-eight, and one of them,
Smithers, was ruined, wiped out by avarice,
and to-day owed his brokers as much as they
had recently owed him. He was the hardest
hit of all, for some six months before he had
bought the finest site in the town. and the
roof on the house he had built there was still
fresh with the paint when the crash came.
Now it happened to be the one site of all
that The Man Who Never Took Chance had
coveted, and daily his heart had gone down
as he had watched the walls 60 up shutting
him off forever from the only spot he had
ever yearned for, worked for, dreamed of
and struggled silently some day to build on
and own.
Then Smithers came to him, not because
he thought he could get help from The Man
Who Never Took Chance, but because he
couldn't go to anybody else-they were all
broke, too.
He had spent $4,000 on his house, and
had to sell it.
He said: "IW let it 90 for SCI, OOO."
The Man Who Never Took Chance said:
"IU give you SIS ,00O."
He was still not taking chances!
Smithers argued, stormed, swore, pleaded
but sold.
Then the new owner spent $4,000 in fit-
ting it up and moved in.
REALTY ASSOCIATES IN
(I.I51aI J,l|y1 81 Mass