and a half per cent. a month, and six per cent. per annum, could
hardly be compared together. He sat down and began to figure up the
result of the one operation in comparison with the other, and found
that while his investment in ground-rents yielded only three hundred
dollars a year, five thousand dollars, at two and a half per cent. a
month, the rate at which he had made the operation just referred to,
would yield fifteen hundred dollars per annum!

From that moment he became dissatisfied with ground-rents as an
investment. As quickly as it could be done, he sold, for one
thousand dollars, a piece of real estate, and, depositing the money
in bank, looked around him for good paper to shave. He did not have
to look very long. Borrowers quickly presented themselves, but no
one got money except on the most tangible kind of security, and at a
ruinous interest. Careful as he tried to be, Wolford was not always
successful in his operations. One or two failures on the part of his
borrowers, made him acquainted at a magistrate's office, where he
acquired another new idea upon which he improved.

"If you wish to invest money safely and profitably, I will put you
in the way of doing it," said a petty dispenser of justice to poor
debtors, rogues and vagabonds, aside to the miser one day, after he
had given judgment against a delinquent borrower.

"How?" eagerly asked Wolford.

"A great many cases of debt are decided by me every week, on amounts
varying from one to fifty dollars," replied the magistrate. "As soon
as a judgment is given, the debtor has to pay the money, find
security, or go to jail, In most cases, the matter is settled by