The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-03-11
TACKLED THE WRONG MAN.

A young man of Canton who does not soil his
hands with any great amount ofmanual labor, but
as general thing depends on his cheek and wits
for whatever he may need in the way of drinks,
cigars and spending money has been in the hab-
ii of hanging about town and picking up acquaint-
ance with those whom he considers verdantenough
for his purpose, generally succeeding in interest
ing such inexperienced parties to greater or less
extent, and in wringing from them drinks, cigars
or stray dollar or two as their cOncet and conf
dence measures out. Last Saturday afternoon this
young fellow approached asix-foot clover clipper,
whom he had never seen before and with the con-
fident smile of an old acquaintance extended his
hand, shook, and said:
"Hullo Sam, what are you doing here? Haven't
seen you for two years; Lord a mighty, Sam,
never expected to see you out here in Ohio, but
suppose it's all right Did you ever settle hatscrape
you got into up in Pennsylvania
"Wot scrape heyl guess yer got the biggest kind
of advantage over me, stranger; l never was in
any scrape; Col darn it, never mind seein' you
afore. Chaw me if / do. You from Pennsylvany?"
Then the young man winked and continued:
Don't mind me Sam, I'll never tell on you, and
| don't think the police here ever heard word of
it; may be they did though don't know; but then
they'd hardly know you, cause you've let those
whiskers grow out and that kind O. disguises you;
l heard once that you would have to go up to the
pententiary, but then never believed it; but the
thing amt all quiet yet, cause heard from there
the other day, and they said the police could ge'
no clue to you; but then Il won't tell EN- that
seen you"
Say, Col den yer pelti lOokee here now; do
you think I'm d-n fool, hey? cause hainr I've
stuck calves afore now."
"Yes know, understand Sam; that's all right;
Iwont give you away; you needn't be afraid ofme
tellin, on you, cause l amt that kind of o gas
lamp! but you'd better keep quiet, and maybe
Say who are your What's yer name? Where
did you ever know me- anyhow"
me? Why I'm Tom Smith; used to live near you
in Pennsylvania; dontyou remember the Smths2"
Then light stole in the brawny countrymans
eye and he put out his hand, sent little stream of
tobacco juice across the pavement and said
"Yaas, knowed Smiths; well swear, Tom. I'm
glad to see yer; puther there, and shake" and as
"Tom" put his soft hand in the hard paw Of the
Granger that paw began to close; the sharp young
man began to tremble at the knees; tears came in
voluntarily to'hs eyes, and he tremblngy said; 81
thought you was another man." But the grip con-
tinued to come down, and, as "Tom" got on his
knees, the big man spoke:
Eyer cryin cause yer glad to see me, amt ye
Well durn my skin, Tom, I'm powerful glad to
find out who you are; shake some more" and as
he put another pound onto the pressure, the young
sharp yelled "for Gods sake lemme go: thought
it was another man; it's all mistake" The Gran
ger didn't let upjust then, but when he did, that
young mans hand looked like fresh blood pud-
ding, and the Granger caught him by the ear and
said he guessed 1t was mistake after all Then
the young chap wrapped his hand in handKer-
chief and told his friends he'd had II caught in a
steel spring trap