Hale bought
all of old Judd's land, formed a stock company and in the trade
gave June a bonus of the stock. Money was plentiful as grains of
sand, and the cashier of the bank in the back of the furniture
store at the Gap chuckled to his beardless directors as he locked
the wooden door on the day before the great land sale:
"Capital stock paid in--thirteen thousand dollars;
"Deposits--three hundred thousand;
"Loans--two hundred and sixty thousand--interest from eight to
twelve per cent." And, beardless though those directors were, that
statement made them reel.
A club was formed and the like of it was not below Mason and
Dixon's line in the way of furniture, periodicals, liquors and
cigars. Poker ceased--it was too tame in competition with this new
game of town-lots. On the top of High Knob a kingdom was bought.
The young bloods of the town would build a lake up there, run a
road up and build a Swiss chalet on the very top for a country
club. The "booming" editor was discharged. A new paper was
started, and the ex-editor of a New York Daily was got to run it.
If anybody wanted anything, he got it from no matter where, nor at
what cost.
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