day, his choice was approved by the committee, and I had the anonymous

satisfaction to know that arguments and choice were wholly mine. In the

recasting of the plan which followed, my part was even larger; for I

designed and cast with my own hand a hot-air grating for the offices,

which had the luck or merit to be accepted. The energy and aptitude

which I displayed throughout delighted and surprised my father, and I

believe, although I say it whose tongue should be tied, that they alone

prevented Muskegon capitol from being the eyesore of my native State.

Altogether, I was in a cheery frame of mind when I returned to the

commercial college; and my earlier operations were crowned with a full

measure of success. My father wrote and wired to me continually. "You

are to exercise your own judgment, Loudon," he would say. "All that I do

is to give you the figures; but whatever operation you take up must be

upon your own responsibility, and whatever you earn will be entirely

due to your own dash and forethought." For all that, it was always clear

what he intended me to do, and I was always careful to do it. Inside

of a month I was at the head of seventeen or eighteen thousand dollars,

college paper. And here I fell a victim to one of the vices of the

system. The paper (I have already explained) had a real value of one

per cent; and cost, and could be sold for, currency. Unsuccessful

speculators were thus always selling clothes, books, banjos, and

sleeve-links, in order to pay their differences; the successful, on the

other hand, were often tempted to realise, and enjoy some return upon

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