Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-06-01


and Strikes sthe riou~ Mans Pocket
Eook.
Say, can't | sell You some mining
stock III a silver miner" asked the
bad boy of tho groceryman. as he
came into the store and pulled from
his breast pocket document printed
on parchment paper and represent
ing several thousand dollars stock in
a silver mine
''Lookahere," said the groceryman
as he turned pale and thought of
teiephoning to the police station for
detective, You have been stealing
your fathers mining stock, have you?
Great heavens it has come at last l
have known all the time that you
would turn out to be a burglar, or a
dofaulter, OF a robbcr of some kind.
Your father has the reputation of
having a bonanza ID a 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 Oh, no. we
keep it in a box stall now. in the
barn. will trade you this thousand
dollars in stock for two heads of let
tuce, and get pa to 81 gn it over to you
if you say SO. Pa told me l could
have the whole trunk full if l wanted
it, and the hired girls are using the
silver stock to clean the windows and
to kindle the fires, and pa has quit
the church and says he won't belong
to any concern that harbors bilks.
What's bilk?" said the boy, as he
opened candy jar and took out four
sticks of hoarhound candy
"A blk said the groceryman. as
he watched the boy, lis 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 mine stock got to do
with it?'
well, you remember that exhorter
that was here last fall that used to
board around with the church peo.
pie all the week and talk about Zion,
and laying mp treasures where the
p,ntbc ,pnnl1p'f ,rp1,u fbap, onl fIo,,
wouldn't get rusty. and where thieves
wouldn't pry off the hinges. He vas
the one that used to go home with
ma from prayer meetings, when pa
was down down, and who wanted to
pay off the church debt in solid silver
bricks. He's the blk. l guess if pa
got him by the neck he would jerk
nine kinds of revealed religions out
off him. o, pa is hotter than when
the hornets took the lunch off him.
When you strike pious man on his
pocketbook it hurts him. That fel-
low prayed and sang like an angel
and boarded around like a tramp. He
stopped at our house over a 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 buckshot.
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 a
stock company and dig out millions
of dollars. He 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.
1 know he was wicked as could be
few days before he joined the church,
but this revivalist, with his words
about the beautiful beyond, where
all shall dwell together in peace, and
sing praises, and his description OF
the Colorado mountain where the
silver stuck out so you could hang
your hat on it, converted pa. That
mans scheme was to let all church
people who were in good standing,
and who had plenty of money, into
the company, and when the miEe be-
guE to return dividends by the car
load, they could give largely to the
church. and pay the debts OF all the
churches, and put down carpets and
fresco the ceiling. The man said he
had been steered on to that mine by
higher power, and his idea was to
work it for the glory of the cause. He
said he liked pa, and would make
him vice president of the company.
Pa he bit like bass, and / guess he
invested $1,000 in stock, and ma she
wanted to come in, and she put in
81 600 that she had laid up to buy
some diamond ear rings, and the man
gave pa lot of stock to sell to other
members of the church. They are all
into it, even the minister. He drew
his salary ahead, and all the deacons
they come in, and the man went back
to Colorado with about $4,000 of
good, pious money. Yesterday pa
got "a paper from Colorado giving
the whole snap away, and the pious
man has been spending the money
in Denver, and whooping it up. Pa
suspected something was wrong two
weeks ago, when he heard that the
pious man had been on a toot in
Chicago, and he wrote to a man in
Denver who used to get full with pa
years ago when they We're both on
the turf. and pas friend said the man
that sold the stock was fraud. and
that he didn't own no mine, and that
he borrowed the samples of ore and
silver bricks from a pawn broker in
Denver. l guess it will break pa up
for a while, though he is well enough
fixed with mortgages and things. But
it hurts him to be took in. He lays
it all to ma. He says if she
hadn't let that exhorter for the silver
mine go home with her this would
not have occurred. and ma says she
believes pa was in partnership with
the man to beat her out of her
thousand dollars that she was going
| to b,iv n pair of piOus diamond aor