“Your work,” observed the chief, “has been very satisfactory—I may say, especially so—and it is the policy of the Banner not only to reward those who have talent, but also to keep pace with the times, and give its readers reliable information upon all questions of moment and importance. The great Northwest has been opening up for the last half century. There have been booms and counter-booms out in that country, spasmodically, for [34] many years, and a great many fortunes have been lost by ill advised investors, but I am not personally familiar with anyone who has bettered his condition in western speculations. Just at the present time the northwest is attracting, as you are doubtless aware, considerable attention, and the effort to popularize it by the western press, seems unabating. Our eastern people, even some of the oldest families of New York, are becoming poisoned with the virus of western investments. My private opinion is that instead of receiving dividends on these holdings, they will lose principal and all. “We want,” said he, “a level-headed correspondent in that western country. Mark, I say level-headed, for the reason that not infrequently an eastern man, especially if he is unacquainted with the wonderland of the west, loses his head, figuratively speaking, and becomes won over by the fairy tales of prospective wealth, as told by the average real estate boomer. “You, Mr. Gilder,” said the chief, eying Vance with great directness, “have been selected for this important position of trust. I might,” he continued, as if it were an afterthought, “modify my remarks by saying there are some places in the west worthy of credence, possessing real merit; but in nine cases out of ten, the new towns that are ringing up throughout the north western portion of the United States are, in my judgment, intangible as moonshine. In short, there is entirely too much capital flowing from the east into those wildcat western speculations, and we desire to give a series of letters descriptive of that country to the readers of the Banner, containing the facts stripped of all allurement, and dissuade them from such unstable investments as are daily being made. [35] “I deem,” continued the chief, “these few suggestions necessary for your good in governing the character of your correspondence from that western country to the columns of the Banner. I shall expect you to be ready tomorrow evening, and start on the six o’clock train. As you will probably be away for some time, it would be well for you to arrange your private affairs accordingly. 8043 Call tomorrow at eleven o’clock, and I will have ready the necessary credentials, transports and instructions.” Vance bowed his acquiescence and turned to go, when the chief said, “By the way, instead of $40 a week, your present salary, you will receive $60 and expenses, which doubtless will be satisfactory.”