Evening star., 1921-02-27

Robert, what is the meaning
of this V. c. B. on my date
Il pad?"
'-Oh, that" says 1. tryin' to throw
It off careless. "Why they've called
another directors meeting of the
vAcuum Clothes Brush Company. It's
nee"
ITO declare a dividend" asks Mr.
Robert sarcastic.
Either that, or to make plans to
lynch somebody" says 1. LAS mat
ter of fact, Mr.. Robert, 1 expect this
is the final gasp"
"Humph." says he. hunchin' his
shoulders. We'll, it's about time.
And l don't think / care to be in at
the obsequies. I'll give you my proxy
and allow you to represent US both
at the sad rites, Torchy. Only don't
waste the whole afternoon over it,.
Very well. sir" says J.
And I'll admit he had me with my
chin down. For 1 might as well own
up that l was the Chris. Columbus
of this little enterprise. which had
promised SO bright only a few months
Gh-huh, 1t was me that run across
this Ollie Payne person. He thinks
he's a promoter, Ollie does. Any
way, he did along last September.
And somewhere he'd dug up this nutty
inventor with his wizard clothes brush
scheme.
Course. it seems silly now, but at
the time it listened good. Sounded
like winnin' proposition. Simple
little thing, too. Just applyin' the
clothes brush. AS Ollie puts it: I'VE
no longer permit dust and dirt to stay
in our rugs and carpets. stirring it
up with a broom every day. No. We
take it out by the vacuum process.
aided by an electric brush. So our
clothes, Why. We carry about the
same dust and germs for months.
\ Let's have it beaten and sucked out.
This brush will do it,
So it would. Ollie made me let him
try the model on my blue serge.
Showed me how much dirt he took out
q what / thought was a perfectly
clean suit. 1t was such a handy lit
tie thing. too. Only weighed two
pounds and you could hook it up to
any electric light socket. Course. the
hest way was to spread your clothes
on a table or ironin' board. but you
could use the brush while you had
'em on. Felt like kind of a mild mas
sage. that's all.
Accordin' to Ollie. when we once
got this on the market. there would
he one in every home, in every Of
fee, in every Pullman car. The whisk
broom would vanish from the land.
We would be clean race at last.
Germs would get Knockout. Epi-
brush would bring health and happi-
ness into a sad. sick world. and to
the few wise guys who got in on the
ground floor and bought the pre-
ferred shares-well. Ollie could talk
about nothing short of millions
fell for it. Hard. l managed to
scrape up enough to buy a block of
500 and after I'd talked to Wee she
came in for as, much more. Then |
] towed Mr.. Robert down, had Ollie
demonstrate the brush. and got him |
landed for a big slice Of the stock !
Ton thousand shares. no less. And |
money was gettin' tight at the time, i
too. !
Well. you can guess the rest. 1,
suppose. You know what perfectly |
swell chance any new development !
had Of gettin' under way this last +!
winter. with the buyers strike on and !
That hundred thousand shares wasn't |
snapped up by eager investors. And !
until at least half of it was unloaded |
there wouldn't be capital enough to |.
p warrant starting a factory and an
advertiser campaign. ]
Ollie Payne kept peggin' away at |
IT. though. Every week or so he'd |
announce that he'd sold a few hun
dred more. Just drops in the bucket |
He was always talking about hookin' !,
some of the big fsh-Standard Oil !!
people. a couple of the Steel crowd,
or somebody representa- the Morgan |
interests. But so far as ! could judge |
he never got even a nibble.
Then the assessments begun to
come in for runnin' expenses, and ,
the first shareholders Indignation |
meetin' assembled. We sure were a |
grouchy lot of tin-horn investors
insurance a,erks clothing statesmen.
an uptown dentist. delica lessen |
dealer from Sth avenue. and couple 4,
OF real estate agents. And none of !
US was crazy over droppin' our Nrtle |!
nest eggs into financial omelet |
with no fire in the stove. What !
most of US wanted was to get out !
with as little loss as possible. Some |
body had proposed that we might !
dump our stock on the curb market |
all at once. on the chance that there |