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Page 33
"I'm not through yet, my good friend in need," Johnny said. "And
here is where I have to have your cooperation if the deal goes. I
only have $20,000 cash to put in Richard now. I figure that in an
ordinarily good sale of Richard's sons and daughters, they would
probably average $500 apiece. If I pay $50,000 for their sire and
get the advertising I think I'll get, the 80-odd head really
ought to double that amount--I'm trying to be conservative--But I
can't go to my bankers and say, 'Gentlemen, I'm paying $50,000
cash for a bull, I have $20,000 and want to borrow the balance
from you.' They would say I was plumb crazy, try to get a
guardian for me and collect all I owe them, right now. You know
bankers. There is no place in the wide world I can borrow that
sort of money, except from you. You know that."
"Johnny, let's go to bed. I'll let you have an answer before the
train goes."
Mr. McCray said he thought until 6 o'clock, then got up and got a
hurried breakfast into Johnny and took him to the station. When
the train got within about two miles of town, he said, "Johnny,
go to Dakota and look Richard over. Examine him as you never
examined a bull before. Find all about him--whether he has been
exposed to any diseases; have three vets go over him piece by
piece--Then go off and think for 24 hours. If you decide to buy,
send me a telegram saying, 'The Republicans will win easily next
election.' Buy him, get the $25,000 insurance, render up a short
prayer and draw on me for $30,000--and the draft will be
honored."
Within a week or 10 days, McCray told me, he got the prearranged
telegram, then advertised his May sale as he never had before. He
played up the $50,000 Richard Fairfax sale to the limit. The free
advertising the sale got was far beyond his wildest thoughts.
Virtually all the big papers carried it both here and abroad.
Miss Busch, his secretary when he was Governor, and who was in
Paris at the time, sent him a front page of one of the large
Paris papers carrying the picture of Richard and Johnny.
McCray sold 120 head in his May sale. They averaged $3,636--the
world's record for sales. He sold a full brother of Richard for
$23,000 and a half-brother for $7,500. He figured the brother and
half-brother didn't stand him out over $500, so if Johnny never
was able to pay a cent of the $30,000 loan, he was still even, to
say nothing of the additional prices the remaining 118 head
brought.
Let the old ex-Governor close:
"In June, I went to Johnny's sale. Instead of $1,000, they
averaged $1,750. Next day I came back with a $30,000 draft, plus
interest."
How is that for a bull story?
Good luck to you,
"Bull" Durham
THE PLAIN WOODEN CHAIR
"Old Settlers Day" address delivered at an annual celebration,
undated.
Mr. Chairman, Revered Old Settlers and Visitors:
. . . Primitive man lived in trees, where he rushed to safety at
the approach of danger. Directly, he learned to use a club and
climbed down from the trees and fought his way to caves for
shelter. From these caves he would sally forth . . . Eventually,
men began to congregate and to band together, first as a family,
then a tribe or clan and later as a nation, and in so doing they
put in practice that great fundamental truth on which is based
all progress: "In Union there is strength," exemplified in modern
times by the bundle of sticks, so well known to some of us. . .
Our early Pioneers in Putnam County followed the rules of conduct
prescribed by their predecessors in frontier life in Kentucky,
Virginia and Ohio, and followed the lines of least travel
resistance, generally along watercourses--by way of Eel River, up
Big Walnut and Deer Creeks--and thus throughout the County. Once
located, and having few and distant neighbors, and with
communication more or less difficult, a barn-raising, log-
rolling, quilting bee or spelling match was an event of some
moment and not of such common experience as to be ignored.
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