r."

"How so?" I wished to hear in what way the man who was himself, as was
plain to see, a good customer at somebody's bar, reasoned on the
subject.

"He does not add to the general wealth. He produces nothing. He takes
money from his customers, but gives them no article of value in
return--nothing that can be called property, personal or real. He is
just so much richer and they just so much poorer for the exchange. Is
it not so?"

I readily assented to the position as true, and then said--

"Who, in particular, is poorer?"

"Judge Hammond, for one."

"Indeed! I thought the advance in his property, in consequence of the
building of this tavern, was so great, that he was reaping a rich
pecuniary harvest."

"There was a slight advance in property along the street after the
'Sickle and Sheaf' was opened, and Judge Hammond was benefited thereby.
Interested parties made a good deal of noise about it; but it didn't
amount to much, I believe."

"What has caused the judge to grow poorer?"

"The opening of this tavern, as I just said."

"In what way did it affect him?"

"He was among Slade's warmest supporters, as soon as he felt the
advance in the price of building lots, called him one of the most
enterprising men in Cedarville--a real benefactor to the place--and all
that stuff. To set a good example of patronage, he came over every day
and took his glass of brandy, and encouraged everybody else that he
could influence to do the same. Among those who followed his example
was his son Willy. There was not, let me tell you, in all the country
for twenty miles around, a finer young man than Willy, nor one of so
much promise, when this man-trap"--he let his voice fall, and glanced
around, as he thus designated Slade's tavern--"was opened; and now,
there is not one dashing more recklessly along the road to ruin. When
too late, his father saw that his son was corrupted, and that the
company he kept was of a dangerous character. Two reasons led him to
purchase Slade's old mill, and turn it into a factory and a distillery.
Of course, he had to make a heavy outlay for additional buildings,
machinery, and distilling apparatus. The reasons influencing him were
the prospect of realizing a large amount of money, especially in
distilling, and the hope of saving Willy, by getting him closely
engaged and interested in business. To accomplish, more certainly, the
latter end, he unwisely transferred to his son, as his own capital