The Argosy, October 1906 — page 71: what you’re looking at

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

_ A GILT-EDGED INVESTMENT. BY MELVILLE E FERGUSON. eee Working.a game on an investor who insisted on a persone investigation. = ges + = oe : = ee “Irs easier than an insurance game, owner, who was fatuous enough to ‘Dbe- = = : . and a heap more popular,” said lieve he had a good thing, built himself = a Sharkey, flicking the ashes from his cigar. a habitation on the premises, which is = = “This worn-out mine, you understand, still in tolerably good repair. That will : cost me five thousand. dollars. We in- be your headquarters. I will open offices = = corporate as the Aztec Gold Extraction here, get the investors interested, and = vse Company of Mexico—Cowperthwaite send them out to examine the property. ieee St. Clair, president- «You will take them in tow onthe spot; = ees “Huh! Say that again,” interrupted you will court investigation ; you — ait = : Denton. er show them over the mine and assist them = = # Yes—Cowperthwaite St. Clair— in taking samples of the ore. When’ that’s. yours truly. ‘John Sharkey’ they have convinced themselves of the — Se. would Yuin it. ‘Cowperthwaite St. extraor dinary richness of our claim, We" res _, Clair’ is in itself a guarantee of in-- sell out to them at a sacrifice. Sees ~ SS tegrity and respectability. We incor- “Samples of the-ore?”? Denton re- -. porate, I say, with a capital of one mil- peated vaguely. ‘“ What are you talkk= <== - lion dollars, represented by a million ing about? The minute they get away shares, par one dollar each. We issue with samples _ of the ore our philan- fe ONE hundred thousand. Two | shares to thropic enterprise is doomed.” Ss the bookkeeper, as secretary; two to the. ‘“‘ Not so,” said Sharkey, closing one _ stenographer, as treasurer; two to the eye” solemnly. “IT said you. would as- 2 office-boy; 49,997 apiece ‘for. you and sist them. Your assistance is indispen- = ; me. You put up two thousand five hun- sable. When those samples are assayed dred dollars for your share of the cost they will show something like eighty = of the property; we each chip in an dollars to the ton. Without your be- equal amount for running expenses, and nevolent intervention they would hardly =~ _~ _ then——=” run over six dollars.” * SE = * And then,” east Denton, “I go “You mean I am to salt the mine?” = - ~. down to Guanajuato, hire twenty peons. “ Your perspicacity returns, my — for a day, borrow some old rails and ties friend.” . ee from the Mexican Central, and take a Denton puffed at his. cigarette a few a few photographs for ‘the prospectus. moments in silence. : : = We show the double-track connection “This is, on the surface, really im- direct from the mines to the main line, the construction of the new stamp mill, eS and the general activity on the com- _ pany’s property. And then we advertise ee = the stock at thirty cents, and threaten cae _ to raise the price to forty in- four days. It’s a shame to take the money.” ca My dear Delancey,” said Sharkey, = “your. notions are very crude. Adver- __tising the thing properly would prove ‘y expensive. The old-fashioned way npler and cheaper. ‘Besides, it is , ates that it has once more moral,” he said finally. “The method I suggested | is sanctioned by universal = practise, and is unassailable from the legal as well as from the ethical stand- . point. Your scheme looks almost—I qualify my criticism, mind you—almost —— Ny like a swindle. Still, as it is proposed to separate only the incompetent and the = unfit from their idle capital, the project = is, in its ultimate analysis, a worthy one. = That aspect of it particularly. appeals to me. I’m with you.” — aes In the genial shade of El Palicio, facing the Union. Plaza, at Guanajuato, — three months later, -a dozen loafers — -lolled, taking in- ithe languid interest = ae comicbooks.co