A CROOKED CENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12425, 14 February 1901, Page 7

A CROOKED CENT.

' • {Jfexo Torb Sun.) ' . ' ■ “ 0£ course I believe in luck,” said Promoter Pimley. “ A man’s a fool that doesn’t. The only reason that so many people scoff at it is that shiftlessness and incompetence are always using it as a masquerade. But everybody knows that one man. can crowd a lifetime of effective.work into ten years, and •luck will step in and divide the result bjr a hundred. Another chap will do a few easy things when, it’s too wet for golf, and along comes luck and multiplies what he’s done by a thousand, and people will call it by 'everything but its right name. . “I knew a half-starved Greek emigrant ■yvho happened to start a two-by-five banana stand in front of Park Street Church, Boston, because the spot was partly sheltered from the wind. The next day men began burrowing in.-the earth a mile away, and eighteen months later they opened the prin•lcipal entrance of the subway within seventy■five feet of his stand, and 50,000 passed by Itwice a day. To-day he has two stores and 'six clerks, and rides in a carriage with a purfple and gold sash across his chest when the Greeks give a parade. Did prudence or foresight, or keeping everlastingly at it have anything to do with that? Then there was poor old Sanderson, who slaved and starved 'for twelve years perfecting his mattress machine that saved the work of ten men, and ,the day after he got it straight he stepped in [front of a cable-car, and his assistant me[chanic to6k out the patents and keeps a racing stud on the royalties. : “Believe in luck? You ask my friend •Van Beek. Yes, Harvey Yan Beek of the (Western Pacific, Mexican. Central and others. Gld Van Beek, Harvey’s father, was the 'senior partner of Van Beek and Scott, cardboard manufacturers. Scott was a poor cousin to whom old Yan had taught- the business and whom he had taken into partnership. But Scott learned more things ■than the cardboard business. The old man Idled when Harvey was a freshman in college, leaving practically nothing but his ‘share in the business, which Scott continued fto run fur Harvey’s mother’. Van Beek’s estate got about fifteen thousand a year out !bf it the first year or two. Then it began to ■shrink. When Harvey was graduated he [went to Scott and asked him to take him in. But Scott was strong against it. He said ‘the business offered no sort of career for an ■ambition; young man. So Harvey went back ana began to study law. “About this time the business began to shrink in earnest. From 15,000d0l a year the Van Beek profits went down to 2000 'dol. The Van Becks made a fuss, but Scott was .too careful a business man. to ,be troubled by that. The second year HarVey was stridying law it paid them ■Boodol, so Harvey broke off and got a job in a stockbroker’s office. A few months ilater Scott sold out the business and. gave Mrs Van Beek 20Q0dol as her share of the (proceeds. He said it had dried up. Six weeks later the Cardboard. Trust was formed. Scott was president and his eldest eon (treasurer. Then the Van Beeks litigated for a few years, but there were no results beyond lawyers’ fees. Scott began to loom big in Wall Street. . “Harvey did so well at stockbroking 'that he was earning. ISOOdol at the end of two years. Then he married, an awfully bice girl, and a year later, just after a pair :of twins were born, the stock-brokerage 'firm went to pieces in the panic of ’93, land Harvey went looking for a job. Times were bad and jobs weren’t easy to find, But six months later he got into the Union (Pacific as transfer clerk. Three months ;after that the Union Pacific was consolijdated and Harvey was tipped out. He (tramped the streets for a time .and then ■struck a job as bookkeeper for a tc.wboat 'company: hours, 5 a.m. to 8 p.m.—salary, JlOdol per week. After holding this down ifor half a winter he took the grippe and iwaa laid up a couple of months, losing Ibis job' in consequence. ", “ When he got out again he was sOmejiwhat depressed. He needed a change of |»oene and ease of mind and. time to convalesce leisurely, but these things weren’t •exactly available. Instead he drugged himjself around town every day, hunting for (something to do, and at night lay awake : count ing up his debts and trying to see [ahead. He didn’t find anything to do. (Business men as a rule are not impressed by hollow-eyed, emaciated invalids. The [twins were sick regularly, and people who [knew Harvey’s wife before he was married [Would never have recognised her. ! “They began to turn, household furniture 'into bread and meat and rent. Likewise [wedding silver. People who have never [had to part with wedding silver under i«imilar circumstances have no idea what iheart-breakin gly sentimental stuff it is. iThe time came when it was all gone, and (there was not enough furniture left to fur.zush a good-sized room. Harvey might have called on his mother for a little help, but she bad moved down to her native £own in Maine, taking her two daughters With her, and they had troubles of their kwn. I '‘Harvey’s- diseationjjave and he had

splitting headaches in the back of his head. His doctor said that if he didn’t quit worrying he wouldn’t be responsible. Harvey’s landlord also expressed himself. They were living at this 1 time in a l2dcl-a-month flat, and the landlord said if their two months’ arrears weren't settled up by the first they’d have to vacate. Harvey told his wife to stop crying. He said they seemed to touch bottom, so there wasn’t anything for their luck to do but take a' change of direction. Then lie went out to take a walk—and think. Half an hour later he came back and held up before his wife a disfigured one-cent piece. ‘“I found it!’ he said. ‘I told you our luck had a change.’ “ ‘Very small change,’-said his wife, who was a thoroughbred. “ ‘ Oh, you don’t know about this penny,’ said Harvey. 1 It’s a crooked one, you see, and I found it on 'the south-west comer of the street. And when I picked it up and looked around, there was the moon shining right up over my right shoulder, and full as a goat. When a thing like that happens all you’ve got "to do is to follow it up.’ “ His wife smiled a very little. “ ‘ Will you go down to Swaitzman’s,’ she said, ‘ and tell him we’ll take the dollar he offered us for the kitchen table and three chairs and clock and oil stove. The twins are crying for their supper. ’ “ Harvey put the cent in his pocket and 1 went out. On the nest comer a man rushed up to him and wrung his hand. “‘Good lord, Van Beck, old man, is that you? I’ve been trying to run across you for three years. You look peaked. What’s the matter? Been siok?’ “ Harvey recognised a college friend, one Miller. He said he had been a trifle under the weather. “‘Well, say,’ said Miller, taking out his pocketbook; ‘ I’m awfully sorry about the time I’ve taken to pay that SOdol you were kind enough to let me have. But you seemed to have dropped off the earth. ’ “ ‘ Did I let you have 50dol?’ asked Harvey. “ ‘ Why, yes,’ said Miller. ‘ Don’t you remember?' Just before you left the law school.’ “Harvey remembered. “‘ No especial hurry about it,’ he said, ready to spring,. “‘ I guess .it’s time I paid up,’ said Miller. ‘And I’m terribly obliged.’ “ Harvey didn’t go to Swartzman’s. He went to the butcher’s, the baker’s and the grocer’s instead, and lugged the basket home himself. His "wife looked frightened when she heard the story. But her alarm did not impair her appetite. “ The next morning Harvey got her to heat an iron and press his coat and crease his trousers. “ ‘ It won’t do to let this thing get cold,’ said Harvey. “ ‘ What are you going to do now?’ asked his wife. “ ‘ I’m going in to see Scott,’ said Harvey. ‘He can give me any one of a dozen, places, and I think I’ll be able to show him that it’s up' to him, It’s a sort of bitter pill, but there are bitterer.’ “ His wife looked doubtful. “ ‘ I wouldn’t put too much of a strain, on my luck,’she said. “This wasn’t his father’s former partner that Harvey was going to see. Old Scott had died a couple of years before, and his oldest son had stepped into his shoes and proved himself a bigger man than his father. Where the old man had done shrewd things in stocks the young man juggled a whole section of the stock market. The Scott pile was already placed at some ten millions or so and climbing every day. “ Harvey cooled Ins heels for an hour in an outer office before he was let into the big man’s presence. . 1 “ ‘ H’ar’y,’ said Scott, in answer to Harvey’s greeting.- ‘What can Ido for you?’ “ The tone was not encouraging. Harvey sat down, without an invitation, gave a few unadorned facta of what he had been up against the last-few years, and said he way looking for a job and looking hard, ■ “Scott smiled and partly closed his eyes. “ ‘ And yon don’t think it’s a bit nervy to come looking for it in here?’ he said. ' ‘I believe you people were going to make the old man disgorge his stealings or hold him up to infamy. Well, that dodge didn’t work worth a cent, did it? So now it’s the old friendship game.’ “ Scott laughed through 'his nose. Harvey swallowed hard. , “ ‘ Scott,” he said; ‘ whatever the merits of that cardboard muss the fact stands that my father gave yours his start. I’ve been a sick .man for three years, and I’m in a desperate way. That’s the basis I’ve come to you on.’ “ ‘ There ore others,’ said Scott wearily. ‘l’m sorry, but, very busy.’ “ At that moment a breathless clerk burst into the room. ' ‘“Mr Reynolds says will Mr Scott come over as quick as he can,’ gasped the boy. “ Scott sprang up and hurried out without another glance at Harvey. Harvey sat still for a moment thinking of his wife’s strained eyes. Then he got up and walked idly to the window wondering what he had done with his hatl At that instant there was another interruption. The door of the . office opened, and a prosperous-looking middleaged man entered briskly. “‘Ah, Mr Scott,’he said. ‘ They weren’t sure in the outer office whether yon were in or not. Let nie introduce myself—Mr Tate, the new junior partner of Storrow r , Yan Jick and Co. Mr Van Jick asked me to see you at once, and say that, thanks to your efforts, Freylingham promises to sign ' the Consolidated Tubing agreement this afternoon. Mr Van Jick thought that you !l might want to take on a few hundred shares.’ “ Harvey was about to explain that h© was not Scott, but after a flash of hesitation he did not. Instead he walked leisurely over and sat down in Scott’s chair. What is ■ Consolidated Tubing this morning, MrTatp?’:he asked quietly. “ ‘ Seventy-six and •' opening,’ said the neW junior partner. “ ‘ It ought—ought to go up how much by to-morrow morning, if FreyHngham signs?’ “ The new junior partner looked surprised. “ ‘ Why. to 120—where it started,’ he said. “ Harvey regarded him for a full minute out of dull eyes. “‘Buy 5000 for me,’ he said, ‘and close them out at 115.’ ' ’ “ The junior'partner pulled out a memorandum book' and wrote hurriedly. “‘You have the courage of'your convictions, Mr Scott,’ he said. “ ‘ Oh, by the way,’ said Harvey, ‘ you may place those to the account of Harvey Van Beck. Yes, that will be best. Be sure and get that straight—V-a-n B-double e-k. You understand?’ " The junior partner nodded shrewdly. “‘Harvey Van Beek. Certainly. I understand. Good morning,’ “Harvey was dripping with perspiration when he came down the steps from Scott’s offices. He walked the streets the rest of the day instead of going home to luncheon, occasionally shaking like a man with the ague. At three o’clock he bought a paper, and the first thing he saw on the financial page was that Scott had taken an early afternoon train for Philadelphia. Whereupon Harvey took out his crooked cent and looked at it and then .went somewhere to get a bracer. " The next m orning he was in the shadow of the visitors’, gallery at the Stock Exchange watching the riot as Consolidated Tubing soared. At eleven o’clock, after making sure that Tait, the new junior partner, was still on the floor, he hurried over to Storrow, Van Jick and Co.’s and closed his account.

“When Scott got back from Philadelphia there was a stormy interview in the same office.

“ ‘ He was in your private office and at your desk,’ said the new junior partner, ‘ and your clerks • sent me in. It’s an extraordinary thing, hut it doesn’t' seem as though the carelessness were on this side.’

“ ‘ A hundred and ninety thousand dollars!’ shouted Scott. ‘By Jupiter, I’ll send him up for fifteen years for embezzlement!’ “ ‘ I’m riot, so sure,’ said Storrow, the senior partner. , ‘ln the first place, he has just gone abroad with his family. In the

second place, it wasn’t embezzlement. He didn’t represent himself as Mr Scott, did fie, Mr Tate?’ “‘Why, no,’ said the new junior partner. ‘There was no question about it. “‘Exactly,’ said Storrow. ‘He ordered 5000 Consolidated Tubing in his own name, and put the proceeds into his own pocket. “ ‘ It doesn’t even seem to be false pretences,’ said Tate. “‘ Well, ; what in thunder was it, then; demanded Scott.

“ Storrow, the senior partner, only smiled grimly. But you ask Harvey Van Beek what he thinks it was.”