The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1883-09-01
The Car Con ductOr's Snare.

A conductor of the Broadway cars
has been probing the meanness of hui
man nature to its very depths by scat
tering white metal counters stamped in
imitation of quarter-dollar pieces upon
the seats of his car. 1t was about ten
o'clock the other evening that he began
his experiments, and having taken q
Tribune reporter, who was the only &C.
cupant of the car. into his confidence,
he proceeded to dispose three of the
fraudulent pieces at judicious intervals
upon the Seats Then the conspirators
sat and waited.
The first flies to enter the spiders
parlor was young man and woman
no ordinary folk, but very handsomely
dressed, he being Respondent in new
summer suit and white hat, and she
gay with many ribbons and ostrich
feathers. At first they sat down di-
rectly opposite the spot where one of
the coins was lying, but after minute
or so the man discovered that there was
draught on that side, so they crossed
over They were SO richly dressed that
it was absurd to suppose that quar-
ter of dollar could be of any impor-
lance to either of them, so it must have
been purely by accident that he sat
down just beside the deceitful thing.
Then another accident occurred-he
dropped his umbrella; curiously
enough, too, it fell with the handle
right over the counter, and it is wonder
full what lot of picking up that UNI
brella took. Apparently, however, he
picked up nothing with it. for next his
coat-tails wanted arranging, and then
came lot of fumbling with his trous-
ers. This appeared more satisfactory,
for with furtive glance at the reporter
to see if he was observed, he slipped
something quietly into his breast pocket,
and the conductor smiled grimly.
Then there got in gentleman well
past middle age, looking like a clergy
man, with white hair and sleek of face.
He started to walk up to the front door
of the car, saw one of the bright discs in
passing, checked himself, changed his
mind and sat down plump beside it.
For few minutes he shifted uncomfort-
ably in his seat, glancing quickly up
and down the car and occasionally
screwing his eyeballs around in vain
endeavors to see the seat at his side.
Then with look of sublime uncon-
seriousness he took off his hat and placed
it right over the coin. His hand soon
dropped beside it, and, while his eyes
still gazed with bland indifference
straight in front of him, it gradually
worked its way under the hat Then
the hat began to heave and sway, and
to edge its way inch by inch along the
seat like a basket with a cat under
meath. Presently it stopped and the
hand was withdrawn. Then, under
pretence of arranging his neck-tie, the
old gentleman took a rapid look into
the palm of his hand, and by the light
of the lamp saw that he had been taken
in. At the same moment he saw the
conductor smiling at him and caught
the reporters eye. He colored crimson,
picked up his hat, grasped his umbrella
and bolted out of the car.
II would not have believed it." said
the reporter.
"You don't know how mean people
are until you try them," replied the
conductor, ''but it does make one kind
of ashamed of ones self, don't itP''
There was still one more piece lying
temptingly, upon a seat, but soon d
workingman got in and sat down di.
rectly opposite to it. He was a weather.
beaten, hardy. hardly-used working.
man, and his appearance seemed to in
dictate that cents were not too plentiful
with him. After little time he saw
the shining metal and leaned forward tc
look at it. Then he sat back. and Their
leaned forward again. Finally he at
tracted the conductors attention with 8
Eli, mister!'-and pointing to tbs
coin, somebody's been dropping theil
money about. There's quarter lying
on the seat there, and you'd better picf
it up or somebody'll be stealing it,
NJ =. Tribune.