Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 107: what you’re looking at

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

98 porter, the forfeiture paper was drawn up. It is not necessary to state its provi- sions in detail. a lawyer along to see that its terms were drawn exactly. In general it provided that in the event of a company being or- ganized under the auspices of the American Syndicate to construct and operate a street car line between Ponce and the port, the four Porto Rican sig- natories pledged themselves to take and pay for, at par, a definite volume of stock; and the American signatory pledged himself to organize the com- pany, convey to the Porto Ricans their shares of stock, and in the event of his failure to organize the company, to re- turn to them the five thousand pesetas, the receipt of which he acknowledged, and which they paid in to secure their future interests. It took a lot of legal verbiage to set forth this, and other features of the bar- gain. But all was adjusted at last to the satisfaction of the various parties to the agreement. Nothing remained then but to attach the necessary signa- tures and pay over the money. That formality was postponed until the next forenoon, on the alleged ground that the four gentlemen did not happen to have as much as five thousand pesetas in cash about them. It is more than likely that that was the truth, but Joe nevertheless suffered a little fear, lest the postponement be due to a desire on their part to think the matter over further, for until their sig- natures were attached to the document, they were not 1n any way bound by it. All periods of anxiety have an end sooner or later, of one kind or another, and so it may be stated, without further account of Joe’s worriment, that at ten o’clock the next forenoon the Porto Rican capitalists and their attorney marched solemnly into the office of the American Syndicate, and deposited there the first real capital that that con- cern had known, aside from its man- ager’s boundless audacity. The Porto Ricans had_ THE ARGOSY. At that, the five thousand pesetas would not come anywhere near meet- ing the numerous obligations that Joe had incurred, and some scrupulous per- sons might affirm that no penny of it could properly be used by the manager of the syndicate for his immediate ne- cessities. Both these considerations— that is, the actual inadequacy of the cash as compared with his needs, and the doubtful morality of using it as he intended to, occurred to Joe, but he gave as little attention to one as to the other. With a thousand dollars in money in his pockets he felt equal to meeting any possible emergency that might arise, and therefore gave himself no doubt that he would replace it by com- mercial gains long before the signers of the forfeiture paper could have any right to demand it. After the signing of the document there was an episode that struck Joe as extremely homelike. Pablo Vilamil, the retired merchant, suggested that the success of the new enterprise be as- sured by a libation to Bacchus. He didn’t put it just that way, and neither did he put it in the off hand American fashion, but the substance of it was the same from either the class- ical or the modern point of view, and the party adjourned to Joe’s hotel, where the landlord’s heart was glad- dened by an order for small bottles. The wine was drunk with much cere- mony, and through the dignified felici- tations and compliments of the Porto Ricans, Joe had no difficulty in dis- tinguishing the expression of their sin- cere satisfaction with the turn affairs had taken. It gleamed in their eyes, it vibrated in the tones of their voices, it fairly shook from their grandiloquent gestures. They had thought the thing over in their own way; had decided to make the plunge, and having made it, every man of them felt that his fortune was in a way to be magnified. “Well, gentlemen,” sci Joe 10 tie eo inn