anted was a little help; he said he had a great deal of property
in New York State, and that if he could raise some money, he could make
a very profitable speculation on a lot of wool which he knew about. He
told me that if I would give him my notes and acceptances to a certain
amount, he would secure me with the obligations of Henry Martin, one of
the best farmers there was in Dutchess county. He also gave the names of
several merchants in New York who were acquainted with the rich farmers.
I called on them and all spoke very highly of him. I thought, there
could be no great risk in doing it, for my confidence in Frank was very
great. I thought, of course, this would insure my claim of eighteen
thousand dollars, but it eventually proved to be a deep-laid plot to
swindle me. Frank had no notes or accounts that were of any value; they
were all bogus and got up to deceive his poor old father and others. He
had no property shipped to South America. It was all found out, when too
late, that he had ruined himself by gambling and bad company, often
losing a thousand dollars in one night. He was arrested, taken before
the Grand Jury of New York, committed to jail for swindling, and died in
a few months after. He ruined his father, who was a very cautious man,
ruined three rich farmers of Dutchess county, and came very near ruining
me. It was a sad history and mortifying to a great many. I was advised
by my counsel, Seth P. Staples of New York, to contest the whole thing
in law. I had five or six suits on my hands at one time, and it was nine
years before I was clear from them. What he owed me for clocks, and what
I had to pay on notes and acceptances and the expenses of law, amounted
to more than _Forty Thousand Dollars_. Nine years of wakeful nights
of trouble, grief and mortification, for this profligate young man!
There never was a man more honest than I was in my intentions to help
him in his troubles, and I am quite sure no man got so badly swindled.
Every clock maker in the state would have been glad to have sold to him
as I did. This young man was well brought up, but bad company ruined him
and others with him. This life seems to be full of trials. In latter
years I have remembered what an old man often told me when a boy.
"Chauncey," he says, "don't you know there are a thousand troubles and
difficulties?" I told him I did not know there were; "well," he says,
"you will find out if you live long enough." I have lived long