The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-06-12
PAINTED PUPS.
A DOiSFNHcIer Tries 20 Sell" n CRlifOr-
utg banker.

A DO5SF"tscIer Tries 90 "SeIl' n CRIifOr-
| utg Banker.
A looking individual presen-
| ted himself at the Bank Uf California
and demanded to see Mr.. Kalston.
From the dress and appearance Of the
man one would scarcely he led to sup
pose that he came in for the purpose of
engineering a financial negotiation. On
! his r; ght arm, however, was large bas.
| ket of remarkably fine and small spot
ted pups, whose heads stuck ont in all
| directions from the edges Of the basket.
He advanced with a quick step ard
moved within the sacred and charmed
circle where thousands and thousands
of clinking gold tweDties iostle and
make music with their fellows. But
the noise occasioned by the clink of
wealth did not seem to attract his atten-
ti0n, and without seeming to think that
the place on which he stood was "holy
ground" he walked into the private Of
fee of the millionaire and deposited his
basket of spotted bull pups on the floor
with the remark "There's them pups,
RalstOn." At the sight of the canine
beauties the eyes of the banker glis-
tened with pleasure, and he leaned over
to inspect them. Then the pup-fancier
turned the basket upside down, and in
an instant the whole litter were run
ming over the soft carpet and gamboling
with delight.
"Now, Just look at 'em," remarked
the man, waving his hand over the
group; " the finest strain, barrin' nun,
that iver yelpei in this town, you betch
er. Now, I want to sell We the whole
lot, and KNOWN that you're little hard
up, and strugglin' TO keep a large fam
lily runnin', I'll put 'em down where you
can reach 'em without straightenin'
your elbow. How much for the lot,
the whole of 'em, just as they are ?"
"Well, Jack" replied the money
king, "you know how I'm situated now
times mighty hard stock down
money market depressed, and this new
issue of greenbacks, you know, takes
the uuderpinning out of things, you
know"
YES" replied the dog-seller, with
deliberation, 81 took all
'em things into consideration, We see,
and concluded 1 wouldn't put the
screws on We very heavy on that ac-
count. I'll slam the price down and
chuck We the whole lot for, say, a
a" Here the man paused and hest
tated, while he looked the banker in
the eye and seemed to wait for him to
say something. There was an unpleas-
ant pause.
"Well, said Ralston, "I guess the
price you named is about the thing, |
don't you ?" turning to n Chronicle re- |
porter on his right, who had been wait
ing for some time to negotiate trialng |
loan of 100000. The reporter thought |
30 too.
"Well, all right, SO that the whole |
lot of these bull pups go for the
low bedrock price of $50"
Seventy-fve dollars Why man,
such sum, in these tin es,f six spot
ted pups Amt you joking?"
"Now, look here" pleaded the dog
trader. /" If you can get any such as
them for the same amount of coin I'll
pay for 'em and eat um raw; yes, eat
um raw"
"But dogs, my man, amt in the de-
man they used to be. Dogs are quite
common now, you know, and getting
cheaper every year"
"That's so, for the common. breed o
pups; but for this yer kind of spotted
pups, not snatched up on every bush
.he finest strain, as / said before, barrin'
lun, that ever wagged his trotter Ill the
own, for coin-all the coin you can put
up, p" roared the man, quite excited.
81 know but these spots are not
regular spots are they? But it strikes
ne there is something of an artificial
cast about these Spots" and with re-
deliberation the banker lifted
,ne on his knee and began to examine
l with great deliberation with a magni-
such as are generally used rs
counterfeit detector. "It strikes me,
lack, these spots are dyed-put on with
brush"
The dog-fancier did not remain after
his announcement, but got down on
he floor and began to scramble about
lnder the chairs after his spotted pups,
which he caught, and replacing them in
Iis basket, started Off "Hold on,
ack," yelled the banker, laughing
eartilv, "you go over and sell these
ups to Sam Butterworth, and I'll pay
on all he does for EN-" Sam But
erworth Do you s'pose Sam Butter
yorth don't know a painted pup the
minute he sees one? / tried him about
alf an hour ago, and he sent me round
D you"
In another instant the man had van
shed, taking the painted dogs with
i'm.