The Eugene guard., December 20, 1924, Image 18

Paaro Eight
THE EUGENE GUARD
Saturday Evening,' Ecccnili,
CAPPY RICKS
By Peter B. Kyne
He Preaches the Gospel of Non-Destruction
Well, Kddie," nid Cappy RiekH to
liiM itiMiirMice broker. Ktlli Rinith, an
tho hitter enleml ilic Hiljcvwatcr dub
mid slid into hit iilHre at th rmiuil
tublp. ,nflir JS jeaiV holdiuff a
K nn If-' HKainst you, 1 find it in niy
liouvt tliia morning to forgive you."
"How c-omeV Mr. Smith answered
lightly.
"How abort )fi the memory of man'
Cappy d'clai'Hl, looking jitnnidy up
wind n if be would fain call atten
tion of tho AlmiKbty to n defect in
ihft hitter's handiwork. 'I aiippoan
you've forgotten that way bark in VMi't
.tou plaeed a couple of hundred thou
miiiiI dollarH worth of fire iiiMuram-e
for tb(i Sjui Kraiieiwco retail yard
of the Kirks Logging & Lumbering
emupuny."
"I have, truly. Cappy. And why
Hot? Ono cannot clutter up one'
mind with ancient history any more.
(linn one can clutter up one'a office,
with record more than 10 years ol;l.
The l.MVt annul of my office went up
in Kuioku in Jill.., and the 11H5 rec
ords will do the name in IOL'.j."
"You don't know a thing about your
own liusinesH, Kddie. Your JOOri rec
ord went up in xmokc on April 18,
1!NMi, when Snn Francisco was do,
Kt roved Ity fire." I
"Itigbl us usual, Cappy, AVell, !
whHt about itil" !
"In VMCt you placed our lumber
yard insurance with a smear of (Jer
nian fire insurance companies, and
when our retail yard burned in April
l!HHt, those German conipauicH you
llaied us in just naturally welched
on us. You will recall, Kddie, that
we didn't get a bean on that insur
ance," "Seems to me I remember dome- j
thing abouL that," Mr. Smith mur
mured and turning to .1. Augustus
liedell he asked the latter how he
thought the La Kollctte campaign was
getting along. Hut Cappy was not
to be denied.
"Ion't try to change the subject of
conversation,' be commanded. "As a
matter of fact, you wouldn't try to
change it if you didn't suffer from
that terrible habit, of burning your
records every 10 years. You'd know
better.
Kb. What's that?"
"So you arc interested, after all.
Well, Kddie, get an earful of this.
When we went to war with Germany
the alien property custodian grabbed
all the property of all the Germans
lu night, lie has sold most of it for
chhIi and now he hns a lot nf cash
on hand and, of course, before that
rash ran go into the treasury, all just
claims of American citizens against
He throw Amos Prlngle out of the store just In time to be struck by a
bicyclist who was going by at full speed.
Germans or German companies must
be adjudicated. The VMM fire insur
ance claims nf San Franciscans
against thop.e short sport German iu-
Mii'ance companies are now to be con
sidered, as you would have observed
if you had rend your paper carefully
this morning."
"Great snakes, Canpyt Can this be
possible?" ,
"Not only possible, but true." '
"And have you your old policies and
proofs of loss on hand to prove your
claim ?"
"I haven't, but Skinner lias. You
may safely play Skinner as ono who
never loses hope and never destroys
anything. The Ricks Logging & Lum
bering, under SkinnVr's management,
has always maintained a safe deposit
vault, in a local bonk. It's as big as
the First Presbyterian church, nnd
for years I've been after Skinner to
nlear out the worthless junk he's ac
cumulated there, cut down the space
und reduce the annual rental. He
out-gamed rae, however, and finally
1 grew weary of the annual Bcrap and
let him have bis way. Now, just to
prove he was always right, Skinner
showed up an hour ago, dusty as a
miller but with an 18-year-old file of
insurance papers that are worth their
weight in thousand dollar bills. In
that one trick Skinner has justified
that abnormal rental for the next Jinn
dred years."
"I hope you apologized to him,
Cappy," J. Augustus Itedell cut tn.
"I certainly did and when he sat
down and commenced figuring coin
pound interest on' our claim at 7 per
cent for 18 years, I felt like writing
I a book and dedicating it to bun. in
deed, as matters stand, I tt'nk I shall
i name a ship after bis wife."
f 'J 'here was a silence in the Bilge-
water club for a minute following
i Cappy 's remarkable statement. Then
j I'lyswes Grubb murmured: To him
that hath shall be given." .
j "Say, look here," the old gentleman
; shrilled, "if I have it's because it's
i coming too me. Kternal vigilance is
the price of librety. Fin sitting on
top of the world because in the day
of the harvest I worked 10 hours at
my office Instead of eight and did an
hour's solid thinking before I went to
bed early and an hour's solid think
ing when I woke up rcfretdicd jn the
morning. One nf the things I never
had to think about was wba,t a plagued
fool I'd been the night before. My
mouth has never felt like an empty
lime barrel."
"U is the privilege of the aged to
preach to the younger generation."
T.'lysses rubb jabbed back. "One of .
these days I expect to see you the
author of a book entitled: How I
Made and Kept My First Nickel or
How a Young Man Can Becoina n
Millionaire."
"I'll give you one of the principal
rules right now, Ulysses. It isn't
original. Bismarck, coined it. 'Damn
ed fools write letters and wise men
keen them.' ' In other words, never
commit yourself in writing. The man
agers of those German insurance
agencies wrote us letters, and because,
in his youth, I had impressed upon
Skinner the necessity for keeping let
ters, he kept these. They are all ac
knowledgements of the legality of our
loss and an apology for not being nh,le
to pay them because of orders from
tho Berlin office, Ulysses, wo win
iu a walk."
"I wish T had known about this fn
1017." Kddie Smith mourned. "I
would have advertised for those Ger
man insurance claims of 11)00, bought
them for a mere song and cleaned up
on them now at a hundred cents on
the dollar, plus interest." "
"There .was no reason why you
shouldn't have known about it," Cappy
snapped back at him. "There was no
law against considering the mattcrf at
any rate. ' In fact, about a year ago,
when I read in the papers that the
mixed claims commission was making
awards to the relatives of folks
drowned when the Lusitania was sunk
by a German submarine, I thought of
tho jab the Germans had given mo
away back in ItHHi, so I wasted a two
cent stamp ami wrote the alien prop
erty custodian at Washington, inquir
ing if we stood a Chinnman's chance
to collect our old insurance claims if
there should be anything left in the
kitty after morot pressing claims
should have been paid.
"He wrote back and his answer was
so encouraging that I put some ad
vertisements in the local papers of
fering to pay five ccntH on the dol
lar for all proved claims against the
defaulting German and Austrian fine
insurance companies, doing business
in San Francisco in 100t. It would
surprise you, gentlemen, to know the
number of people who hesitate to part
or 20, 1024.
with old aud apparently worthless
documents. I bought nearly a mil
lion dollars worth of claims, including
those of several members of the Bilfc'e
water club "
"You unholy old man," cried J. Au
gustus Bedell. "1 sold your repre
sentative mine!"
"You did for tur cents on tha
dollar, my son," Cappy glanced whim
sically around the table. "Strange,
the luck some folks have," he jeered.
"Comes of doing a little thinking aud
tukiug a chance." 1
"You'll have to pay income tax ou
it," Kddie Smith warned him hope
fully. "I shall be so grateful to my philan
thropic country that the payment of
the tax will be delirious joy compared
with what you birds feel right now
because you didn't do what I did," !
Cappy retorted. He glanced around
the company. "I don't suppose
there's anybody present," he contin
ued, "who isn't carrying an unsatis
fied judgment against some horse thief
that's swindled him out of a just ac
count." All present nodded. "Then," Cappy
continued, "take a leaf out of the book
of Amos I'ringlc's life. Amos came
to work for the Hicks Logging and
Lumbering Company when he was
fifteen years old. at the munificient
salary of five dollars a week. When
he drew his first week's salary he
got it in the shape of a five dollar
gold piece, so he took it to the mill
machinist and had the latter drill a
neat little hole in the coin. Ever after
Amos w.ore that five dollar piece
as a watch charm, andVis faris any
body could ever learn it was the first,
last and only five dollars he ecr
wasted. In his twenty-second year
Amos had au altercation with the
son of a man who owned and oper
ated a small gents furnishing .goods
stole in tho town where we had a
saw-mill at the time. They quarrel
ed over a pair of suspenders. Amos
declared the haberdasher was trying
to sell him a two-bit pair of suspend
ers for fifty cents; one word borrowed
another and the haberdasher's son not
only hit Amos early and often on
the jnw but he also hung a mouse
on the l'ringlc eye. Ho then threw
Amos Pringlo out of the store just
in time to be struck by a bicyclist who
was going by at full speed.
"Well, Amos wasn't very badly hurt
but he said he was and stayed in bed
a month to prove it. He did have one
rib broken so he claimed internal in
juries, aud as we Jiad no .X-rays in
those days, he got away with it. When
he could get out aud around he sued
the haberdasher's son for damages
and although public opinion was in
favor of the defendant, the judge had
a strong sense of equity, the lawyer
.Amos hired put up a wonderful fight
nnd Amos received a judgment for
.fi'-'.nOO. His lawyer had worked on
a percentage of the gate receipts,
so when at the end of fivtryeara the
judgment remained unsatisfied he
wrote the experience off to profit
and loss, while Amos hired a new
lawyer who kept the judgment alive
but was careful to say nothing about
it, Thirty years Amos waited, renew- j
' u. ii,.1.,it Arorv five vears. but
keeping the news to himself. Mean
while the haberdasher's boo had de
veloped iuto the Tich proprietor of a
department store and last year Amo
attached on his old judgment and col
lected with costs and seven per ceut
interest for thirty years, which proves
that the watched pot occasionally
boils."
"The lawyer, of course, never got
his share," Ulysses Grubb suggested.
"Unfortunately he did not, Ulys-
Cappy smiled after the lasinou
Mr.
of a cat that has just awallowed
canary. 1
"What did you get out of it
Itedell linked suspiciously.
"Ii got a laugh and fifty per, cent
of the judgment," Cappy replied. "
I knew Amos and I knew the judge of
the local court, who told ine of tin:
old judgment Amos had just renewed.
So 1 huuted up the Jnwycr and bought
his claim for fifty dollars, and my
lawyer intervened in time to make
Amos come across with fifty per cent
of the winnings, whereat Amos bad
heart failure and died with no heirs
and the state got the wad he's slaved
a life-time to accumulate."
T
THOUGHT BURGLARS; SHOT
IIYNKS, Cal.. Dec. IS. 1- F. Mum
mer and- Raymond Capps left Mum
mers' store hero late last night to
investigate a "tip" that a burglarly
was afoot nearby. They came upon
two deputy sheriffs sent out from
Los Augeles to investigate the same
burglary report, and before either
pair could be convinced that the oth
er men were not burglars several
shots had been exchanged and Mum
mer fell critically wounded. Capps
was also seriously hurt and C. W.
I Hi won, one of the deputies was shot
through the elbow.
WHEAT PRICE HIGH
MINNEAPOLIS,, Dec " UK Cash
wheat here today passed the $2.05
tr.ark, some fancy consignments sell
ing close to $2.10. Wheat, May deliv
ery, climbed to $1.73 1-8. while De
cember sold as high as $1.68 1-2.
LONDON, Dec. 111. UP) London
;s minus 3,000,000 rats that formed n
large section of the rodent population
Just year. The merciless assaults of
a rejuvenated city and the ardor of
several hundred professional rat
catchers are nespousible.
In the war days, when all pi Lon
don's rat catchers changed, their-ultimate
object from the rat to the Ger
man, the pests multiplied unhampered
and after, overrunning their natural
lr unts in the poorer sections of the
city bordering on the river'eventually
infested the older stores and office
tuildings in the city and West End.
Like many other evils which were
rooted in tho war it has tnkeh several
.sears of post-war effort to again get
them under control.
Extensive building operations which
.tro being undertaken involving the
tearing down of many of the city's old
buildings, has robbed the intruders of
their abodes. The newer brick fire
proof structures taking their place
.ffer no asylum to tho wandering rat.
During the destruction of a row of
buildings in Keg en t. Street the rat
catchers of the city of Westminster
were kept busy for several weeks
basing and killing rats as they ran
from. the streets and alleys. The rat
catcher and his assistants sent in a
i ran tui tin-, " U-
liilhug (or each wer Pi.J
'i'llft Mifiviti. .
camber, have al,noI " d7ipl u,
.Vial labors (he ,,".' 10 latir ...
ifrmiuated water-to,, ""
I mU-a which for
:he old buildm. ..;"Ine Win.
J-u. With ,h ,2 W
i i.d mortar the bu, i " 01 br.,4
l''ln-e and ordinarily ,. "''is
fruitful pi... T w '?'.,
.er have been lin,int017"' "
liMUid discovered bv r.. " ' "n
."B army aervue i I,ii Ir.
s only sprayed about Vh. re "'lui-l
(.tains, but it has t,ich ' ,t,l
one whiff is .uffu-ien, ''p -:
In less limit three yr.arH : , ' b":.
possihlo to entirely ,, ,
area of this pe5(, "le loo
. . ' ""tn inm .... I
r.r. ..."
torh-a and shop,. There",! I
:iH of these men ami the, k'
stroyed about a ,mina t
rats dunus the lust year TJ bal'
i-atvhing corps of the Idon i""
oii(th and a host of volant,, I b"r'
liolder, have ne,,.tc,, S'j
million and a half. It P '
$.-iOO,000 to war on the IV,. !"rl'
the last year. '"""i
Hall's Catarrh
a , claim f
- . . rUu. system or Catarrh or rw I
aejs caujed bv rrak "'wutaf.1
' SoUIr, dmuiiu hrnntr,
P.J. CHENEY &CO..Tokod
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