Columbia Spectator Volume 8-10 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 Excerpt: ...money, as we have hinted was the case; but in our heart of hearts we prefer to think that Miss Boggs fondly loved Mr. Bilkins because he had money, and married him because she was over head and ears in love. Mr. Bilkins inherited his wealth (which was variously estimated by his friends, who knew nothing at all about it, at from sixty to a hundred thousand a year) from his paternal ancestor, Bilkins, Senior. Up to the outbreak of the late war he had lived, and expected to die, a clerk in a country grocery; but a few days before the crisis above mentioned he came into possession (as payment of a bad debt) of the cargo of a coasting schooner, then lying at Yonkers. Upon investigation he found the cargo to be a mixed one; composed of flaxseed and horseshoe nails. From this point is to be traced the rise and growth of the influence of the House of Bilkins. Bilkins, Sr., sold the commodities for a comparatively enormous price. Having had a taste of the sweets of speculation, he thereupon deserted the homely but sure pound-weight and paper-bag policy, for one of margins and per cent. In this he prospered. 'Tis true he must either prosper or do nothing, for he was secured against loss of all save the product of flaxseed and nails, for the simple reason he had nothing else to lose; upon his death his only son, Algernon, came into his large fortune, and, after a few years of idle life, bestowed it and his estimable self on Miss Boggs. One evening, early in December, Mr. Bilkins and his loving spouse were sitting, one on each side of the fire, looking into the glowing embers with spirits of deep contentment. "My dear," said Mr. Bilkins, withdrawing his gaze from the English cannel ($20.00 per ton) to contemplate the physiognomy of his wife, "I've an idea...