The south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1879-1883, 1883-04-03
HIS PA BUSTED.
peck's Sun.

"Say, can't sell you some stock in
a silver mine p asked the bad boy OF
the grocery man, as he came in the
store and pulled from his breast pock-
ct document printed on parchment
paper, and representing several thous-
and dollars stock in a silver mine.
"Lookahere," says the grocery man,
as he turned pale, and thought of tele-
phoning to the police station for de-
tective, "you haven't been stealing
your fathers mining stock, have you ?
Great Heavens, it has come at last! !
have known all the time that you
would turn out to be a burglar, or a
defaulter, or a robbcr of some kind.
Your father has the reputation OF
having bonanza in silver mine,
but if you go Juggling his silver stock
around he will soon be ruined. Now
you go right back home and put that
stock in your pas safe like good
boy.
"Put it in the safe! o, no, we keep
II in box stall now, in the barn.
will trade you this thousand dollars
in stock for two heads Of lettuce, and
get pa to sign it over to you, if you
say so. Pa told Inc l could have the
whole trHnl; full If 1 wanted ii, and
the hired girls are using the silver
stock to clean windows, and to kindle
fires, and pa has quit the church and
says he won't belong TO any concern
that harbors bilks. What's a blk p
said the boy, as le opened a candy
jar and took out four sticks of hoar-
hound candy.
"a blk, said the grocery man, as
he watched the boy, ''is fellow that
plays a man for candy, or money, or
anything, and don't intend to return
an equivalent. You are small sized
blk. But what's the matter with
your pa and the church, and what
has the silver stock mine TO do with
it?'
Well, You remember that exhorter
that was here last fall, that used to
board around with the church people
all the week, and talk about Zion, and
laying up treasures where the moths
wouldn't gnaw them, and they
wouldn't get rusty, and where thieves
wouldn't pry of the hinges? He was
the one that used to go home with
MA from prayer meetings, when pa
was down town, and who wanted to
pay of the church debt in solid silver
bricks. He's the blk. ] guess If pa
should get him by the neck he would
jerk nine kinds of revealed religion
out of him. D, pa is hotter than he
was when the hornets took the lunch
off of him. When You strike a pious
man on the pocket-book, it hurts him,
That fellow prayed and sang like an
angel, and boarded around like a
tramp. He stopped at our house over
week, and he had specimens of rock
that were chuck full Of silver and
gold, and he and pa used to sit up
nights and look at it. You could
pick pieces of silver out of the rock
as big as buck shot, and he had some
silver bricks that were beautiful. He
had been out in Colorado and found
hill full of the silver rock, and he
wanted to form stock company and
dig out millions of dollars. lie
didn't want anybody but pious men
that belonged to the church, in the
company, and think that was one
thing that caused pa TO unite with
the church so suddenly. know he
was as wicked as could be few days
before he joined the church, but thi'
revivalist, with his words about thu
beautiful beyond, where all shal
dwell together in peace, and sini
praises, and his description Of tina
Colorado mountain where the silve
stuck out so you could hang your ha
on it, converted pa. That man.
scheme was to let all the church peo
pie who were in good standing, ant
who had plenty of money. into tn
company, and when the mine begul
to return dividends by the car load
| they could give largely to the church
and pay the debts of all the churches
an dput downlcarpets, and fresco tn
ceiling. The man said he felt that h
ha been stecred ON to that silve
mine by higher power, and his ide
was to work it for the glory Of th
cause. He said he liked pa, an
would make him vice president
the company. Pa he bit like a bas
and l guess he invested five thousan
. dollars in stock, and ma she wante
to come in, and she put in thousan
dollars that she had laid up to bu
some diamond earrings, and Il
man gave pa lot of stock to sell
other members of the church. The
are all into 1t, even the minister. i
drew his salary ahead, and all of Il
deacons. they come in, and the ma
went back to Colorado with abo,
thirty thousand dollars of good pio'
money. Yesterday pa got a pap
from Colorado giving the whole sn'
away, and the pious man has be-
spending the money in Denver, Al
Il whooping 1t up. Pa suspected som