About a month after Mr. Townsend became the owner of nearly half of a new and flourishing western city, he sent an agent out to examine the condition of things there, and to take charge of certain improvements it was his intention to begin forthwith. The agent had been gone a little over six weeks, when the following letter was received from him:
“Dear Sir:—After some considerable difficulty, I have, at last, succeeded in finding ‘Eldorado.’ No one, in this part of the country, had ever heard of such a place. When I showed the plan of the city, and map of the surrounding country, people shook their heads, and said there must be some mistake. But, by the aid of a State surveyor, who knew rather more about matters and things than the common people, I was able to find the exact place which, with some of the natural advantages, as that of a water-power, for instance, which have been assigned to it, is yet as wild and unbroken a spot as I have met in these wild regions. I learn that an actual survey of it was made about a year ago, and the whole tract purchased for a hundred dollars, and thought dear at that by those who did not know for what it was designed. Of the railroads that are to run through it, only one is commenced, or likely to be these ten years, and that will not pass within sixty miles of the place. In a word, sir, not the first spade-full of earth has been turned in this beautiful city of ‘Eldorado,’ nor the first tree cut down. I fear that you have been most shamefully deceived. I will await your reply to this letter before returning home. Very respectfully, yours, etc.”
“Forty thousand dollars more as good as cast into the sea!” said Mr. Townsend, with forced composure, as he read the last sentence of this letter, and comprehended the whole matter. “Fool! Fool! Why did I not send the agent before I made the purchase? Was ever a man so beside himself!”
As soon as the mental blindness and confusion that this intelligence produced, had, in a degree, subsided, Mr. Townsend began to think whether he could not save something by a forced sale of his interest in “Eldorado.” But the idea of selling, for a consideration, something that was utterly worthless, he could not exactly make up his mind to do. While turning the matter over in his thoughts, it occurred to him that, perhaps, Cleveland, who might be ignorant of the precise state of things, would not hesitate to purchase back the interest in “Eldorado,” if he could get it at five or ten thousand dollars less than he had received for it. With the intention of making him the offer, at least, Townsend called upon the sharp-witted speculator, who received him with unaccustomed coolness, and seemed to feel uneasy in his presence.
“Don’t you wish your interest in ‘Eldorado’ restored?” said the merchant, with as much coolness as he could assume. Cleveland compressed his lips tightly, and shook his head, while an expression that Mr. Townsend did not at all like, crossed his face. The merchant returned to his counting-room, without saying any thing more on the subject. A few minutes after he had come back, one of his clerks handed him the morning paper, with his finger upon a paragraph, saying, as he did so,
“Have you seen that, sir?”
Mr. Townsend ran his eyes hurriedly over the article pointed out by his clerk. It was from a western paper, and read as follows:
“Eldorado.—We were shown, a day or two since, the plan of a city with this name, located on the L—— river, in our county. The two great railroads that are to cross the State, in opposite directions, were made to pass each other at right angles in the centre of this town, although neither of them will ever come within forty miles of it. Streets, squares, churches, public halls, and all were there in beautiful order; and extensive mills were shown erected on the river. All, or nearly all of them, the person who had the plan expected to find; and we gathered from him that one third of the town of ‘Eldorado’ had been sold at the East for the handsome little sum of forty thousand dollars—not much for the third of a splendid city, we confess, but rather a large price for a part of ‘Eldorado,’ which still lies in primitive forest, with trees of a hundred years’ growth, rising from the very spot where the public halls and pillared churches are made to stand.”
“In a word, this ‘Eldorado’ is a splendid fraud, but only one of a thousand that are daily practiced. We warn the public against it; and we can do so with the belief that our warning will not be disregarded, for we happen to know that there is as little chance of a great city, or even a small village, springing up in this out of the way spot, as upon one of the peaks of the Rocky Mountains.”
After he had read this, Mr. Townsend understood the meaning of that expression in Cleveland’s face, which had struck him as peculiar. He had, doubtless, seen this paragraph, and learned therefrom, that the bubble he had helped to blow up, was ready to explode. Of course, he didn’t want “Eldorado” property at any price.