Show A SALT COMPANY OUTWITTED A Millionaire Hires Out Gains Admittance to 1 the Mine and Buys Adjoining Property I Special to THE HERALD Examiner Dispatch1 CANADAIQUA N Y Dec 25 William H Smith a millionaire interested in coal and salt mines has a bill of G against the Retsof Salt Mining company of New York Livingston county for two days work as a common laborer in the Retsof mines The bill will probably be disputed but Smith doesnt care for acting upon the knowledge trained during the two days he took his place with the laborers in the mines he had purchased a valuable bid of salt territory which promises to net him a handsome profit Smith presented himself to the officers of the Retsof company the other day and asked for work He was engaged as a common laborer at 130 per day and sent down into the mine On the third day he pleaded sickness and was granted a day off He was well enough however to drive to the farm house of L H Gray who owned a valuable tract of salt territory which tho Retsof people had been negotiating for Smith said he was an employee of the Retsof company and asked Gray what he would talse for his land Two rundred dollars per acre for 40 i acres was the reply and the words had hardly been uttered when the indisposed miner pulled 510000 in bills from his overalls over-alls to bind the bargain An agreement als bargin agcement was drawn up whereby Gray was t transfer trans-fer his entire estate for O and Smith returned to the shaft and announced that he had recovered from his indisposition and resumed work underground Gray happening to meet an officer of the Retsof company on that same day remarked that he had finally concluded the bargain with one of their men The explanations which followed were not calculated to put the letsof people in good humor They called the men up from the mine in order t allow Gray to identify the party of the second part of the sale he had consummated consum-mated When Smith was pointed out he was promptly discharged The Retsof people were chagrined over the way they had been outwitted and were willing to raise Smiths ante but it was too late The millionaire culprit received his dismissal dis-missal philosophically and in extraordinary good humor In business like way he presented pre-sented a bill for two days labor at the office but it was not honored He told the I Retsof people that he was abundantly able I to stand it that he was coiner to sink a shaft on his new purchase at once and start I in opposition Smiths achievement is looked upon as a clever piece of business as well as a good joke He had been approached on the subject sub-ject of investing in western New York I salt lands but had never been satisfied in regard to the prospects of the profit Tho I Retsof people guarded their interests so I closely that he could get nothing from them so in the garb of a common laborer I he secured admission to the shaft and i learned all he wanted to and secured valuable valu-able property adjoining just as the Rets I of people were about to close negotiations for it Smith is extensively interested in coal and oil lands in Pennsylvania The land he purchased from Gray is believed toe > to-e the richest salt territory in the western New York regions regons |