Year: 1875




Flsker, Montague Montague business, declared by
the two elder partners to be most promising had been
opened Fiskervle about two hundred and fifty
miles from San Francisco and the hearts Of Fsker and
and the elder Montague very high. Paul hated
Fisker horribly did not love hs uncle much and would
willingly have got back his f6 900 had he been able But
he was not able, and returned Of Fisker Mon
tague Montague not altogether unhappy as he had
succeeded obtaining enough OF his back income to
pay what he owed TO Roger, and 70 live for a few
months


1t is not long before we have Mr. Fsker in England.
HIS object is to interest English capitalists and raise
money for the building Of a. new railroad in the United
States The scheme IN question the grand proposal
for a South Central Pacific and Mexican railway, which
was 10 run from salt Lake City thus branching OF from
the san Francisco aud Chicago line and passing down
through the fertile lands Of New Mexico and Arizona
into the territory Of the Mexican Republic, by the
CITY Of Mexico and the Gulf at the port Of
Vera Cruz Mr. Fisker admitted at once
that it was a great undertaking, acknow
edged that the distance might be perhaps
something 900 miles, acknowledged that no COM
putaton had or, perhaps, could be made as to the
probable cost Of the railway but seemed to think that
questions such as these were beside the mark and
childish The object Of Mr. Flsker, Of Fsker, Mon
tague Montague was not to make railway to Vera
Cruz, but to float a company. It clearly his idea
that fortunes be made out of the before
a spadeful Of earth had been moved If brilliantly
printed programmes might avail anything with gor-
geous maps and beautiful little pictures Of trains
ming into tunnels beneath snowy mountains and com
ing out Of them the margin of sunlit lakes, Mr..
Fisker had certainly done much.


A COMMERCIAL SUCCESS.


Mr. Fisker succeeds in interesting in his scheme a
man by the of Melmotte, who is the most conspi
cious character and figures largely than any other
in the book In one sense Mr. Memotte might be said
to be in company with all the commercial world for
there was no business to which would refuse his
operation certain terms. Fisker was, perhaps not
man worthy Of much thought He had never read
book He had never writte9 line worth reading He
/ had never SAID prayer He cared nothing fOFhgman-
ity He had sprung out Of some Californian gully,
was perhaps ignorant Of his father and mother,
and had tumbled up in the world the strength Of
his own audacity But such he was, he had
sufhced TO give the necessary impetus for roll
ing Augustus Melmotte onward into almost
unprecedented commercial greatness. When Mr.. Mel
motto took his offices in Abchurch lane he
doubtedly great man. but nothing great when
the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway had be-
only established fact but a fact established
in Abchurch lane The great company, indeed, had
Office Of its own, where the Board held but every
thing really managed in Mr.. Melmotte's
mercal sanctum. 0beyng no doubt, some inscrutable
law Of commerce the grand enterprise, 'perhaps the
grandest when you consider the amount Of territory
manipulated, which has ever opened itself before
the eyes Of great commercial people," Mr..
Fsker with his peculiar eloquence observed through
his nose about this time meeting Of shareholders
San Francsco-had swung itself from California
TO London turning itself to the centre Of the CONNER
cia world the needle turns to the pole till Mr. Fisker
almost regretted the deed which himself had done And
Memotte only the head, but the body also and
the of it all The shares seemed be all in Mel
NOTES pocket, so that he could distribute them he
would; aud il seemed also that when distributed and
sold, and when bought again and sold again, they
back Melmotte's pocket Men contented to buy
their shares and pay their money simply Memote's
/ word


Through his position head of the London Board of
directors of the company and by show Of enormous
wealth. which he Is supposed to have gathered together
in similar enterprises all the world Mr.. Melmote
is received the best of English society enterains
prime ministers and peeresses and obtains seat in
Parliament where his ignorance Of parliamentary usages
and forms Of address render him at ridiculous
His first attempt at a speech in which he fails utterly
/ is followed by aosecond effort, made when he
! drunk, after which he is given third opportunity.
He is finally detected in swindlng operation in
regard to some property that he has pur-
chased from an impoverished lord he forges
signature and, finding discovery imminent,
he poisons himself with prussic acid, after having
made savage assault upon his daughter, who refuses
to release her hold upon money that he has in
vested in her Then, OF course, the railroad bub
bic bursts and London society discovers that it has
opened its doors to swndler Of whose origin il was
entirely ignorant and admitted his vulgar wife and
derbred daughter into its sacred circles Mr. Fsker
tires to America, taking Mrs and Miss Melmotte with
him. The latter whose prospects Of brilliant matri-
monial alliance we're wrecked when the railroad TO
Vera Cruz exploded he marres the young lady's ten
scity holding her fortune in spite other fathers
forcible arguments having awakened great admiration
in his commercial soul


AMERICAN WIDOW.


Mr. Paul Montagues suit to Miss Carbury has pro-
ceeded but slowly, owing to a former engagement con-
tracted with American widow before the opening or
the story He had travelled with her from san Fran
cisco TO England and she had been very good him in
Illness distress Of mind and in poverty; for he had
been almost penniless in New York When they
landed at Liverpool they were engaged and
wife. He had told her all his affairs had given her
the whole history Of his life; but she had told him little
or nothing Of her life, but that she a widow
and that she was travelling Paris business There
are various about this lady, who rejoices
IN the name ef Mrs. Hurtle Some people
did not quite believe that there ever had
been Mr.. Hurte. Others said that there
certainly had been Mr. Hurtle and that to the best Of
their belief he still existed The fact however best
known of her was that she had shot man through the
head somewhere in Oregon She had not boen tried for
it, as the world Of oregon had considered that
the circumstances justified the deed. Every.
body knew that she very clever and
very beautiful; but everybody also thought that
she very dangerous 1t not until Paul
Montague had been time engaged 10 this lady that
these rumors reach his He then decides upon
breaking his engagement, and writes her TO that effect
She follows him TO England and endeavors 10 hold him
TO the bond but he, who has not only become alarmed
at the prospect Of possessing wife so dexterous
in the use Of hrearms but has also Heta Carbury
in the meantime, refuses TO be persuaded He has
ascertaiRed that Mr. Hurtle still existence though
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