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Show RUSSIA, LAND OF GRAFTERS. To Petersburg camo threo American Ameri-can business mon to secure a gold mining concession. Thero aro 851 places Whoro gold Is found In Russia, and our friends wanted tho privilege of working ono of thoso places. First, they had to doposlt $50,000 with tho. Ministry of thp Interior as "good faith." So much for tho regular legal part of tho program. Now for tho Irregular, Ir-regular, Illegal part. They kept In their room nt tho, Hotel Europo a" bag of hard, cold cash In goldon rubles. This cash thoy doled out In Installments, Install-ments, first to this prince, then to thnt count, for ''Influonco." Each tlmo thoy handed out tho monoy thoy' wero told that their proposition had boon found good, and promises wero mado that tho concession would bo speedily granted. Each tlmo tho would-bo concessionaires con-cessionaires believed that they had accomplished Bomothlng, and each tlmo they wero dlsannolntad and had to rofltl tho monoy bag. Tho wearisome weari-some delay In tho negotiations continued con-tinued weok aftor week; technical obstacles, ob-stacles, each moro serious than the preceding one, wero brought forward; and so weeks grow into months, and tho Americans wero not ono step nearer near-er tho goal. Deciding that bankruptcy would como beforo nny kind of a definite defi-nite conclusion could bo obtained, they wont away with what cash thoy had left and an accumulated amount of disgust Tholr $50,000 wns roturnod with nil legal formalities, but considerably consid-erably more than that Bum was left' In tho hnndB of tho princes and counts. Such has been tho oxperlenco of many other Amerlcnns seeking to do bust-noss bust-noss In Russia each In sheer desperation despera-tion abandoning his enterprise Gil-son Gil-son Wlllots In Lcsllo'fl Weekly. |