The Argosy, August 1905 — page 99: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

my fellow citizens, Tre no mish to prolong or to adorn this parable. History is a great thing. It has come to my rescue in this crisis. My proposition is this: “ In a proper receptacle will be placed three hundred pieces of paper numbered consecutively. The fortunate individual drawin’ number one gets his shirt for the ineonsiderable sum of one dollar, one half what | paid for the same. The second pays two dollars, the third three, as was the way in Egypt, and each figure thereafter represents a similar advance. In this way we may dispose of the prob- lem that confronts us. Any other way, I regret to state, an’ I keep the shirts.” The auditors of Sowders did not at once break their silence when he had concluded. They were confused, partly by this plunge into history—or fable— and partly by the mathematics pre- sented. Understanding first dawned on the individual who had offended Sowders by his reference to laundry shortcomings. “This means,’ he said slowly, ad- dressing the happy owner of the shirt mine, “that one of us pays three hun- dred dollars for the privilege of ap- pearin’ at Mrs. Senator Judson’s soirée in one of these genteel furnishin’s—am E right? ” I “The idea,” assented Sowders, seems to have percolated.” “ An’ somebody else pays two hun- dred and ninety-nine if ‘““ An’ then the seale drops,” the shirt man. He who had grasped the situation turned on the others. “ Don’t you eee;” he exclaimed, “the way he figures it out is better ’n if he’d busted up Faro Charlie? Don’t you see that he’s smeltin’ free-millin’ ore? He'll get a pile out of these shirts. It’s geometry—I can’t figure it out, but it’s geometry—an’ it’s like the frog what jumps two feet up the well an’ falls back three.” His companions stared. Some at- tempted to count on their fingers. Others made hopeless mental calcula- tions. Sowders broke in on their be- wilderment by another statement of oe assented - “It ain’t geometry,” he said calmly, ob it’s plain addition an’ some division. It means just forty-one thousand five hundred dollars to me or it means nothin’, I may remark, in this connec- tion, that I ain’t sojournin’? here for the benefits afforded by the climate or to rebuild a racked and wasted constitu- tion. But ”—sadly—‘ I had calculated there was some sportin’ instincts in this population.” The justice spoke again. “Of course we can all send our re- grets to Mrs. Judson He got no further. There was a babel of protest. It welled up vigor- ously from a large person who longed for oysters, and it was shriiled by a thin citizen who reminded eyery one within ear-shot that whatever he was he was not cheap. The objections were so general and pointed that the justice recalled his re- mark. He had made the suggestion purely at random, he said, in a thought- less moment, and in the interest of economy. But he would be the last, he averred, to eriticize the unique propo- sition made by Mr. Sowders, which was perfectly legal as well as worth atten- tion from its historical inception. And the truth was that the element of speculation appealed directly to the majority of Sowders’ hearers. Theirs was a life of chance. Chance sent them into the rock-fast hills by day; chance brought them together in the halls of Tontie by niglit. Chance was a game, now lost, now won. The pursuit of chance made the blood tingle. Chance was life, and he who brought chance in a new form was to be consid- ered. He offered something to the sport of luck. Sowders smiled faintly as the men before him were swept by the wave of chance, that drowned the minor voices of protest. He knew his market and those whe woul come be purchase. FS At ais ake Pe an hour later, a pyramid of shirt boxes rose pictur- esquely from the center of the room, guarded by Sowders. On a near-by table Faro Charlie sorted little bits of paper and placed them in a jar. And when he had concluded his task a ne. x OInicbOOkS. com