Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1914 — LOVE AND RAT-TRAPS [ARTICLE]

LOVE AND RAT-TRAPS

By CLAUDINE SISSON.

There wasn’t a citizen of the village who was not ready to admit that Heftty Gregg was a smart young fellow. . ' /'You keep your eye on Henry. He Is bound to be a rich man some day,” they would say. The young man was engaged to Eunice Rathbone, and had been for a year. People -were wondering why they didn’t .get married but no ore guessed the true reason. It was because Henry was too* smart. At the age of twenty-one he had been left SI,OOO in cash. He was then teaching the village school. He had once bought a hog for $3 and sold it for $5; he had bought a horse for $25 and sold it for S3O: he had bought sls worth of geese feathers from the farmers about arrtl shipped them to the city and made a profit of $7. Therefore, he felt that 1e had a fight to class himself as a financier, and to resign his school that he might devote all his time and energies to speculation. The ex-schoolmaster had “devoted,” and six months had gone by when on one of his courting nights he found Eunice looking very sober and evidently troubled in her mind. When he had begged,, her to tell him what was the matter she answered: “It’s a matter I don’t want to speak about, but I feel that I must. It is about our getting married.” »> “Yes’” “I am asked almost every day when the event is to take place.” “Well?” “I cannot answer, and folks have come to regard it as strange.” “But it is the understanding that when I am $3,000 ahead of the game we are to wed.” “And that leads -to another matter, Henry. You cannot doubt that I love you, but I am going to talk plainly to you. As a school teacher you were a success: as a financier you have been a failure.” “What right have you to say that?” he asked as he flushed. ■ “You began your financial career with a thousand dollars. How much of it have you left?"

“You mean how much have I made, don’t you?” mean to_£ay that you haven’t got two hundred dollars left!” “See here, Eunice —!” “Don’t bluster, Henry. There is a general opinion that you are a success, but I know better. As your pledged wife I have a right to know certain things. As I said before, you are a failure as a financier, ah<T the first step is to admit'it.” Henry sat with very red face and sulked. “You are a moral, upright young man. You have a very good education. You are spoken of as smart. You started out with little worldly experience, however, and too much confidence in yourself. You argued that because you had made money on a hog and one or two other things you were a financier.” “I’ll not take that talk from any woman!” said Henry to himself, “You did not consult any of the business men Jiere,” continued the girl, “nor did you ask my advice. You just went ahead with a feeling that you knew it all. You bought wheat on a margin for a raise when there was no logical reason to look for a raise. You invested In silver mine stocks that had been published as a fraud. You put money into other things without serious investigation, and the result is—the result.” “And you don’t want to marry a failure, of course?” said the lover. "You are not a failure. You have failed in only one thing. Ninety men out of a hundred do that. You may yet be a success as a financier if you will be content to accept and follow the advice of a conservative person. “As for instance?" * “I am that person!” “Oh, you are a financier, are you?” “Mighty funny that I should have heard nothing about it. I thought you might have fifty dollars laid by, but never had a. hint that you were speculating;” “There’s a matter I never told you about, Henry, and I haven’t been disloyal in keeping it a secret. About the time we became acquainted an aunt and left me $2,000. I wanted .to a’dd to it, of course. I have a cousin over at Enfield. He had jpst started a dairy, and wanted me to put in as a partner and enlarge the business. I went over there and spent a week posting myself. I investigated the business from every point, and then I invested my money.” “And how much did you lose?” “I can sell out today for $3,700.” “But your cousin has been the business head.”

“On the contrary, he has done*the work while I have done the planning, or most of it. I wasn’t going to say a word to you till the day we were married, but it seems that the time has already come. I want you to show yourself and others that you can make money Instead of losing it” ; "And I am to go into the dairy business?” "Not at all. lam going to sell out and furnish you the capital to carry through a scheme. We shall be partners and divide the profits fairly. If we lose I shall pear the loss.” There are plenty of people who can recall the rat epidemic that swept over the middle west a number of years ago. It covered five states, and

it knocked rats for fair. It was fatal in cities, town and among the farmers. It was a sort of cholera that took a rate off,within ten hours after he was attacked, and sne single night ..in the city of Chicago sixty thousand of the long-tailed went to their doom unwept. Farmers who had been bothered for years suddenly found their barns and corn cribs freeof the pest, and there was great .rejoicing. The rat-trap manufacturers and the makers of “death on rats,” fourtf thCffiselves without customers, and the traps that hadebeen in use were laid aside to rust and.be of no farther use. ‘Five manufacturers in a single state made all the traps sold in five states. Six months after the epidemic ‘started the five manufacturers had either gone into bankruptcy or had shut down to wait -for, a new crop of rats. It was predicted by various naturalists and . doctors that the epidemic would run for five years, and all this and much more was in the papers and had been read by Miss Eunice Rathbone. As she read she saw a financial opening ahead of her. The. first thing- to be done was to get a long lease of those trap factories. The second was to buy all the stock on hand and add to it; - .: — The third was to be ready to rush the market as soon as the epidemic was a thing of the past. These things she told her lover in their talk that evening, and there wasn’t a point that he did not scoff at. They quarreled and made up again three or four times over, and at last it was settled that he should become her agent instead of her partner. A week later he was making his lease of the first of the five factories and within a month he had them all. The owners felt that providence had sent them a fool arid they hastened to close with him on his own terms. No one seemed to doubt that the epidemic would last the full five years, as predicted by the wise men —no one but the young lady who was taking a risk that no men would take. “Why should it last that long?” she asked of her lover. “No epidemic among humanity lasts beyond a season, and at the rate the rats are dying off the .disease will soon have nothing to feed on.” ‘ “But if .they are all gone of what use will your traps be?” was asked. “Some will escape the epidemic, as human beings do, and in a year or less there will be as many rats as ever. Keep a few hands at work in each factory. Keep stock boxed up and ready for shipment.” That epidemic appeared in a night and disappeared as suddenly. It lasted less than seven months, though it was estimated that several million rats fell by the wayside. For a month what rodenta were _ left oyer were very modest about showing themselves in public, and then from every point of the compass a fresh crop came pouring in. They came singly and in droves. They came by the highways and by train. They came by land and lake and sea. There were old rats and young rats. There were rats from New York city, and rats from Frisco They came down from Duluth, and they came up from New Orleans. They filled the of the cities and the barns of the farmers, and ijjiey were more voracious than the other lot

And a cry went up from five states for rat traps—wire traps—wooden traps—any old sort of trap to catch a rat. And the five factories worked day and night and sent out traps by the thousand, and there came a day when the owners made liberal offers to have the leases canceled, and Miss Eunice could say to her lover: “We have made SIB,OOO clear profit from rats, and I think w-e are entitled to call ourselves financiers.” As the young man did not answer she queried: “Are you not satisfied?" “I was wondering about something. Do you "think a good financier makes a good husband?” “The best (sort, I believe!” And they were wed a month later (Copyright, - 19137 by tfie'McClure New? paper Syndicate.)