MONEY TO LEND

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1586, 22 April 1887, Page 3

MONEY TO LEND

On an east-bound train the other day, writes a Watertown, Dakota, correspondent of the New York Sun, was a well-fed acd comfortable-looking man, who announced that he had been attending to business very strictly for three or four years, and that he was now on his way to the seashore for the purpose of having a little recreation. His wife was a plump, fresh-looking young woman several years his junior, who besides being fashionably dressed, had an air of business about her which is met with in the fair sex more frequently in this part of the country than elsewhere.

"Yes," the tourist said, after settling himself back in his seat in the smokers' section, " I've been attending to business mighty close. In fact I've had to. I'm a banker. When I came out to this country I had just about 4000 dols. clear cash. Down where I came from everybody said that 4000 dols wasn't enough to put in your eye. It might do to buy a home with or get a team, as far as business was concerned it was only an aggravation. I had heard about Dakota, and 1 made up my mind that I would show some of the smart menjwhether 4000 dols. capital was good for anything or not. I went west along with the immigrants, set up a little office, put out a sign 'Money to Loan,' and sat down to await custom. " 1 put my money out in small sums principally. A setler would come in for 50 dols. or 100 dols. I would ask him what he had. Well, he might have an equity in his land, or he would have some household furniture, farm machinery, or horses and waggons. I would let him have the money, and take a mortgage on all that he|had,deducting my interest, at 10,12, or 14 per cent., in advance. P»enty of them would want a little money for a month or two months, and I'd always sock it to these fellows. I've bad 10 dols. for the use of 50 dols. for 30 days many a time. A good many of the Bettlers were Scandanavians, and I could not talk to them in their own language, nor could they speak to me in mine ; but I got up a printed form which they could understand, and in this way we managed to do business very satisfactorily. " It requires a very clear head and good judgment to do banking business out here. Particularly is this true in a new settlement in the winter time. I've changed my location three times since I've been in Dakota. After a township has been settled for a while it is not much good to men in my line. When 1 have moved I have always gone into a new country. The people get along first rate for a few months, but the first winter fetches them. They have to have money, and a man who stands by ready to help them is a sort of public benefactor. I have had at one time and another, mortgages onthestutT belonging to seyeral hundred farmers, sometimes taking mortgages for sums as small as $lO orS2O. In fact, they are the ones that pay, as the men who give them are usually on their last legs, and about all you have to do is to wait and then gather in their stuff. I have come into possession of some of the best farming land in Dakota in this way. Only the only the other day I was thinking about how much I had made out here, and how do you suppose I stand ? Well, sir, I have doubled my money, and I own ten or twelve as good farms as there are in Dakota. They ueed improving of course, but the land is all there, you b»t. " Teß, I have had to take a good deal of jmuk in my day, some of it stuff' that I couldn't give away, but I took it just the same. It wouldn't bo business to let go anything that you once got hold of. Probably the funniest bargain that I ever made, though, was the one that brought me that young lady in there, my wife. She was out here'farming,' as she called it, though she didn't know a harrow from a feed-cutter. She was a brave girl, though. She had a little money and paid for her farm, but she had to go in debt for her house and machinery. That's where I got in my work. When it came time for her to make a payment she was short, aud so she came to me for money. I gave it to her, and took a mortgage on all her property, real and personal. That is the kiud of deals I like to make. If you can got one of those girls for a customer you are liable to have a farm after a while dirt cheap. " Well, when the note fell duo she couldn't pay it, and I gave her an extension at 12 per cent. I usually get 15 in such emergencies, but I took pity on her. Then that came due, and she had no money, and so I foreclosed on her. That made her mad. She wanted to make a compromise, and after a while I patched np a bargain with her, but as I repented of it I told her the place and all the things would have to be sold. A friend of mine bid them in for about the sum of my claim, and the girl got notice to leave, which she didn't do. Not much. She just stayed there, and one day when I rode out to see if Bhe was gone, she opened on me with a rifle, calling me an old shark and thief. When I tried to get some help from the people round about they intimated that they would see me hanged first, and, thunder, the girl had me. She was in possession, and there wasn't law enough in that country theß to turn her out. 1 So after awhile I came to the conclusion that I would have to reason with her. It was getting to be about time for me to climb out of there, but I couldn.t bear the idea of losing the farm. Then I got a man to negotiate

with her for an interview, and after a while I called on her making myself as agreeable as possible. The upshot of it was that I asked her to marry me, and she consented. I'm pretty well satisfied with the deal, for to tell you the truth, I would never have got that farm if 1 hadn't taken her along with it.