Show n THE BLESSING OF BRAINS A ICf son or rorldly WisIGm FrOlU Uc Story of YOSCI1h oneof They Were silting nround the grate in subject our of caravansaries discussing the monopolies the other evening when the subject turned < on the ware house i system as practiced in various parts of the country by which a farmer armer ithnnfti I Without the facilities of storing his own grain the is charged a high rate for storage in elevators or given a low price for the ffinf After several had spoken on the subject one old < > gentleman leaned back in his chair and said Ever since the beginning of the world history tells us there has been an elevator system and those who took the precau tion to gather in the crops have always succeeded after a while in finding a profitable market Take for instance the history of the ssyen years famine in Egypt Where will you find a more beautiful and illus trative pastoral than the story of Josenh Ion remember Jacobs family of twelve sons the youngest > a bright beautiful lad n sold to a passing caravan of Ishmael ites journey mg through Canaan tothe land of Egypt The eleven brothers returned home with the ensanguined coat of the boy and told a gauzy story of how he had been devoured bv hungry lions f < Well 1u T ° seh was carried to the me IUpUll Ul jijrypt and became a servant m the house of a gentleman named Poti phar who occupied the honorable position of prime minister to the king and lived m a sort of Nob Hill mansion Before long the captain of the guard discovered that the young man had a good deal of sabe and in the language of today Joseph thenceforth stood in with him and became overseer of the house Mr Potiphar became so confident in Jbshpli that he left all he had in Josephs hands and he knew not aught he had save the bread which he did eat Mrs Potiphar put up a job on Joseph and he was cast into prison Now in the same tank with Joseph were a butler and a baker and the presumably had a sort of nightmare on account of the in digestible food given them Joseph was fortunately able to make an interpreta tion of their dreams which satisfied some body and the baker was pardoned out the district attorney and judge signing his petition probably even as in our day and state 4 I Then the king had a dream which worried him greatly and proved too much for the abilities of the wise men After communing with himself for sometime I some-time the butler went to the king and gave him a pointer on Joseph who was sent for to unravel the tangled fabric of the great kings dreamno doubt caused by a curtain lecture after a cabinet meet ing or a late repast on boiled lobster and Sonoma brandy Joseph came and explained that the kings dream was intended to convey the information that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine cold turkey today feathers tomorrow 11 The king thought Joseph was a pretty smooth chap and became a convert to his theory and subsequent events proved that an ounce of forethought is worth a hundred weight of hindsight From out of a herd of common bondsmen this young Hebrew sprang to the altitude of a prime minister and prince of the land of Egypt the grandest monarch of the I mi wrii VH VJJU The subsequent history of Joseph shows that a man of brains and ability can always make circumstances that wifl place him in the front rank of affairs and all that Joseph required was the opportunity oppor-tunity to prove himself equal to the emergency 1 presume it was a glorious fourth of March when Joseph took charge of thc ship of state As soon as the inauguration inaugura-tion was over he took oft his coat and began be-gan issuing orders for elevators From the Nile to the Nubian desert he established estab-lished storehouses and gathered in the grain of all these seven long years The king was on to the game and let the young Israelite have his own way in the matter The shipments to English ports were lllwe may even suppose that the creaking treasury vaults gave up their silver dollars anti were turned into elevators ele-vators H But it dont help the socialists for at the end of the seven years Joseph had a corner on the market and the people who had not been fortunate enough to have their dreams interpreted by him found that the elevator system was a monopoly The king of Egypt has autocratic power and there was no governor to call an extra session to squeeze taxes out of the elevator company Vhat a glorious triumph The pro diction of Joseph came true With him In the family there was no necessity for a local signal bureau to prognosticate All was in readiness for the grand squeeze of the shorts Joseph was so to speak the combined Jay Gould and I Vanderbilt of the age I In the first year of the famine I suppose sup-pose the usual spring rains had failed to connectcame the subjects to the elevators ele-vators and besought an opportunity to transfer their shekels to the coffers of the government in exchange for grain to sustain sus-tain the lives of their wives and little ones The next year no better off they i offered up in lieu of the money which i I they had received of Joseph for their grain the asses the sheep the camels I and the horses for food to eat And they got it The third year having no money or live stock they offered to Joseph mortgages on their homesteads preemptions treeclaims soldiers homesteads home-steads all their real estateand he out of the fullness of his heart gathered them in The fourth year these hornyhanded subjects who during the seven years of plenty had reveled in the luxuriance of the times came with both hands up and I begged for an opportunity to become I bondsmen And Joseph accommodated and them The next year their wives daughters were taken in and the grass widowers returned to their desolate hearths The sixth year having given everything they had on earth above up transferred to Joseph all or beneath they I their rights titles and interest in the machine ma-chine notes they had left unpaid during the years of plenty He accepted the situation and again took them in Finally in the seventh year thero vao nothing left for him to put up and the whole Q caboodle went into bankruptcy the general This of course was before I bankruptcy law was repealed by Congress Con-gress During these years of prosperity t oi the wjien Joseph was living on the lat I bloom land and had taken to himself a family I enjoying a growing ing wife and was bad those who he dill not forget ily C7ht to effect his downfall in the days f sought First his brothers came to him I of ore recognized them he filled when he and 11 and sent them home them up with gram messages to the with kindly rejoicing aged father But they knew not why lavIshed upon attentions were these them Joseph didn1t gne that away them a he The next trip however gave told them who he WaS and feast I great cautioned them not to tell the oM I but Canaan They returned home to Canaan with man reports which to the old gentleman seemed1 and he determined miraculous au hedetormjned seemed nuracmuiw 1 tower and into in-to down on a junketing go There was no trouble in secur veaticate Arrived appropriation in < r the necessary approprm satisfied that the rived there he was that the perfect and elevator system was 0 < 0 grain system could be had but lie was a little mystified as to how he was singled out from among the farmers as one iilto gether lovely Jacob however knew when he had a good thing solie fen upon Josephs neck and rejoiced and examined the various storing places and ware houses He Pronounced the grades feet and was so well satisfied with per the arrangements of his most beloved son that he offered no objection to dockage or loss in m transit Altogether I think he was more contented than the ordinary farmer who had to pay cash or its equiv alent for what they obtained from Josephs corner You see > gentlemen it makes all the difference in the world whether the cir I cumstances are in your favor or not If you had each been the father of a Joseph and your Joseph had been bright enough to have interpreted some ones dream that wheat would have ruled so low last winter auel money been 80 tight and that after all that war would be declared between Russia and England von might have got the bulge on the market and cleaned up a fortune through a Josephs kindness Joseph seems to have been the mascot of his time History fails to inform us what became of Mr Joseph after his fourteen years experience in working a bonanza but the presumption is that he was in a condition to turn the public warehouses into private elevators and 1 retire from business with money to Juan HI draw from this story the conclusions that as long as there are ingenious and farseeing minds there will be monopolies and that thore who arc possessed of brains energy and goaheadativeness will be able to sit alongside of capitalists or as a friend once expressed it Sit down with kings when he held aces ItSan Francisco Call |