‸Put this, 1 time, in Buffalo Courier Express, & Censor, & ‸Advertiser & Union‸ also in hand posters in Fredonia. S L C.
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$5,000 Watch Stock for Sale.
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I desire to sell $5,000 of stock in the Independent Watch Co., of Fredonia, N.Y. Lest the possible purchaser pay too much & afterward upbraid me, I will lay the facts bare before him; then he can buy wittingly. Some t Two or three years ago, some persons n called the Howard Brothers (given names [blank space inserted here] ) ‸born &‸ reared in Fredonia & known favorably known to everybody there, conceived the idea of getting up a watch-manufacturing Company. There Their ciphering & prophecies were specious & plausible, & the stock was promptly subscribed by the confiding villagers. It is not unlikely that the Howards intended, from the beginning, to unload profitably, in due time, leaving the rest to save themselves as best they might; at in any case, what is not unlikely, but certain, is that they [did] presently unload a large portion of their stock—offer‸ed‸ing ‸to sell‸ me $25,000 of it, I to allow them to control & vote upon it several months & until after the un app next ensuing annual meeting (!) And next, they ‸Company‸ declared a dividend—not from earnings, therefore unlawfully, & consequently laying themselves heavily liable—& on the strength of the fresh confidence thus created by this sign of (apparent) prosperity, they ‸Howards‸ worked off nearly all the rest of their stock—taking ‸most‸ any description of property for it that offered. The Howards are virtually out, now, & fortified with fresh capital wherewith to push their patent medicine business; ‸and‸ the rest of us are ‸still‸ in—but we ‸most of us‸ do not know how [m] to make watches or manage watch factories. Therefore, I desire to withdraw. Persons wishing to buy make me an offer (an exorbitant one not required,) may address
S. L. Clemens, (Mark Twain)
Hartford, Conn.
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MTBus, 198–99.
Provenance:
See McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenance.
Emendations and textual notes:
did • [a small ‘x’ appears in the right margin after ‘did’; possibly written by Webster]
m • [partly formed]
