28 



Baumt 



Miller: 



You invested your money during the time you were the 

 sheriff? 



Yes. I invested it — I had a little bit prior, I 

 practically used all my savings except my home and 

 a service station which I had bought while I was in 

 the post office, and a few stocks which I had bought* 

 As a matter of fact, I started buying stocks in '29» 

 a few, and then in '30 a little bit more, very, very 

 frugally, but I bought them on margin and I was rather 

 in trouble because as they kept going down I tried 

 some way to buy some more and finally I was about 

 to lose my stocks, so this particular year — I 

 think it was *33 — they were just about to close 

 me out* Vhen 1 got my month vacation as postmaster 

 and X took my wife, we went to San Leandro, and with 

 the Negroes and the Mexicans and the Portuguese we 

 picked currants for 200 an hour each* We worked 

 Sundays and every day* and everybody there laughed 

 at us, with a big Packard car, and wondered how 

 people in a Packard car would get down there and 

 pick those currants and stay. The man said, "You 

 won*t last for two days, Mister, * and finally when 



