1911 - CONTENTS - CHAP . PAGE I . JACK AND THE CHECK-BOO . K … . I I1 . THE GREATW ISHS YNDICATE … . . 3 6 I11 . Puss. THE PROMOTER … … . 7 4 IV . THE GOLDENF LEECE … … . 115 V . THE INVISIBLCEL OAK … … . 15 7 V1 . THE RETURN O F ALADDIN … . . ILLUSTRATIONS THE WISH BROUGHT ABOUT THE hlOST ASTONISHING RESULTS … … … I rontisf ce THE BEANS SCATTERED IN EVERY DIRECTION . 7 THE OGRE COLLAPSED IN HIS CHAIR … . 23 BLESS YOU, MY CHILDREN … … 2 7 A WEEKS VACATION IN LITTLE OLD NEW YORK 3 I WITHIN THE ANCIENT HOUSE SAT THE OWNER, RICHARD WILBRAHAhl … … . 3 9 BALLYHACK LAST STATION-ALL OUT . . 51 WILBRAHAM PAID BEFORE LEAVING THE COURT-ROOM … … … … . 7 I SUPPOSE I COULD SELL YOU, BILL … 79 TELL EM TO TELL MR. BONDIFELLER THAT I AM TOO BUSY TO SEE HIA … . . 6 6 87 GOOD-BYE, JACK … … … . 9 3 THE HANDSOMEST TOWER IN THE WORLD . 99 COULDNT MAKE IT THREE MILLION, COULD YOU SUGGESTED hlR. DOBBINS … . 1 7 WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING . . 121 THERES THE MONEY, SIR … … 131 POOR GASMERILDA SAT WHITE-FACED … . I37 I AM YOUR FAIRY GODMOTHE-. Q 1 GASMERILDA THIS IS THE GREATEST CINCH IN THE HISTORY OF FINANCE … … … . DERE ISS SOMEDINGS IN DOT SEADT, ALRETTY YET … … … … . THERE MUST BE SOMETHING THE MATTER WITH MY NERVES… … … . . HUMPH SAID SHE, SCORNFULLY … . THIS IS A HALF-PORTION, R, SAID SAMBO YOU RUBBED THE LAMP, I BELIEVE … WHAT DOES THIS MEAN THEY DEMANDED . JACK AND THE CHECK-BOOK JACK AND THE CHECK-BOOK NCE upon a time a great many years ago there lived a poor woman who, having invested all her savings in mining shares, was soonbrought to penury and want. She had bought her modest little home and all there was in it on the instalment plan, and here she was, upon a certain beautiful morning in late spring, absolutely penniless, and three days off, staring her in the face, were payments due on the piano, the kitchen range and even on the house itself. Moreover, the winter had been a bitter one. Four times had the water - pipes frozen and burst, and a plumbers bill of appalling magnitude had come in the mornings mail, with the stem admonition stamped in red letters at the bottom LONG PAST DUE. PLEASE REMIT. The unhappy woman was at her wits ends to know what to do. She had tried to sell her shares in Amalgamated Warwhoop, only to find that that once promising company had passed into the hands of a receiver, and that there was an assessment, amounting to four times their face value, due on the shares, so that every possible purchaser to whom she applied refused to take the stock off her hands unless she paid them five dollars a share for the service and would guarantee them against the chance of further loss. All other means of raising the necessary funds-and she had tried them all-proved equally futile. The savings-banks would not lend her a penny on a house of which the parlor floor alone was clear of obligation, and the threat of the piano people to remove that instrument if the March instalment, now a month overdhe, was not immediately forthcoming rendered that both unsalable and valueless i s security for a loan. She sat, the perfect picture of hopeless despair, in her rocking-chair, gazing moodily out of the window, thinking dreadful thoughts, and, it may be, contemplating the alternative of suicide ormarriage with . the village magnate, a miserable villain whom everybody detested, and who, everybody knew very well, had been instrumental in the ruin of her deceased husband, a once prosperous haberdasher…
