But since my return I've been warned
that I mustn't call Chicago West. That was as far as
I went. I had some business there, or thought I had.
When my father died, that was in 1884, we found
among his papers a lot of bonds of some corporation
purporting to be chartered by the State of Illinois.
Our solicitors wrote several letters, but they could find
out nothing about them, and there the matter rested.
Finally, last year, when I decided to make the trip,
I recollected these old bonds, and took them with me.
I thought they might at least pay my expenses. But it
wasn't the least good. Nobody knew anything about them.
It seems they related to something that was burned up in the
Great Fire--either that, or had disappeared before that time.
That fire seems to have operated like the Deluge--it
cancelled everything that had happened previously.
My unhappy father had a genius for that kind of investment.
I shall have great pleasure in showing you tomorrow,
a very picturesque and comprehensive collection of
Confederate Bonds. Their face value is, as I remember it,
eighty thousand dollars--that is, sixteen thousand pounds.
I would entertain with joy an offer of sixteen shillings
for the lot. My dear father bought them--I should not
be surprised to learn that he bought them at a premium.
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