five per cent. This "wiseacre" from Minnesota, who had worn the custom threadbare of making his own price, bucked right square in the harness when he found out how much it was going to cost him, even having the audacity to declare that he would purchase those lands before he got through for one-half the price named by me, and as for any commission—well, a few hundred, in Smith's hoggish way of thinking, was plenty good enough for me.
Mr. Smith, together with A. R. Rogers, vice-president of the C. A. Smith Lumber Company, Fred A. Kribs and Bert Davis, head cruiser of the corporation, had accompanied me to Humboldt county, where we made a personal investigation of the timber, railroad and other equipments included in the deal, after which we returned to San Francisco, where Mr. Smith called upon Hooper Brothers at their office, with a view of purchasing the tract. Smith talked the matter over for some time with the company, finding all the fault he could in the way of pointing out the difficulties of maintaining, manufacturing and disposing of the lumber, and finally made the Hoopers the liberal offer of $450,000 for the property, or exactly one-half the amount asked for the plant in the first place! One of the Hoopers later reprimanded me severely for bringing a person of Smith's calibre to their office and consuming his time with such a man, whom he termed a four-flusher, with no intent of making any purchase. Needless to state that Smith did not secure the lands, or any portion thereof. This valuable tract was sold later, and within two years, to the Santa Fe Railway Company for $1,500,000, or an advance of $600,000 over the price I offered them to Smith, and today these same lands could not be purchased, at a conservative estimate, for less than $3,500,000, from which it will be seen that, had he accepted my offer—made something like six years ago would now be richer to the extent of fully $2,000,000.
The other deal, involving the Vance properties, consisting of several thousand acres of redwood timber, a sawmill, shingle and shake mill, eighteen miles of broad-gauge railroad, with several miles of laterals, locomotives, logging cars and full equipment; a steamer and several lumber schooners, also including the Vance hotel in Eureka, and 1200 feet of waterfront, I offered to C. A. Smith as a whole for the lump sum of $1,000,000. At the time of making this offer to him, Mr. Vance had a prospective purchaser on the ground in the person of A. B. Hammond, who was very anxious to secure the properties. But as I had been given a Page 299
