News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-02-28
HUNGRY JOE BEATEN.
A Farmer from New Jersey Dimes With
the BuncO Man and Loses No Money.

A patriarchal farmer stepped from the
ferry-house at the foot of Liberty street,
New York, few days ago, with a grip
sack in his hand and, stopping in the
midst of the mud and the profanity of
the drayman, gazed open-mouthed at
the long procession OF slowl y-moving
carts and wagons of every description.
He was not lost in wonder long, before a
short, stout, neatly dressed man with
another gripsack collided with him, and
blurted out:
''Hello, Burt, old man! How are
you ?"
emmy name isn't B-Burt; it's
HARRY Ma-a-son, and Live in Mid
dle-tOwn," stammered the farmer
An apology and the short man disap-
peared. The farmer continued his wav:
suffered at the baggage boys at the
corners; leered longingly at the whisky
stores, and was about entering an eating
house when up rushed tall, fine-look-
ing man with a long, black mustache.
and grasping the farmer by the hand,
exclaimed:
'Why, my dear Mr.. Mason, when did
you get in from Middletown %
"O-o--who are y-you ?" demanded
the surprised farmer.
And then the fne-looking man ex-
planned that he was an intimate friend
of Mr. Robertson, the ce-president of
bank at Red Bank, and how he had
met Mr.. Mason at his friends office last
summer-he thought last August. The
farmer didn't exactly remember meeting
the gentleman, but he knew Mr. Robert
II
lowed in which the farmer was aston
ished with the familiarity of his new ac-
quaintance with the towns along the
New Jersey Southern. After dinner,
which confirmed the growing intimacy
the farmer was asked if he did not wish
TO buy some good Kentucky stock.
That he had a friend living in Thirty
second street, who was the agent of one
of the large stock-raising. farms there,
and that he could get heavy discount
on any purchases. The farmer be-
thought him that he had come into town
for that purpose, and acquiesced with
considerable earnestness to his new
friends suggestion.
The trip uptown was made, and the
farmer was ushered into q neatly fur
nished office, whose walls were elab-
GRATED decorated with chromos of we'll
known horses. The young man at the
desk welcomed the farmers companion
as ''Joe. old man," and an exhaustive
conversation ensued in relation to horses.
Letters and so on were showed to the
farmer, and a visit was made to a stable
in an adjoining street to see some of the
stock. The farmer saw and coveted and
asked the young man what he wanted
for the pair of heavy-limbed Normandy
horses. The answer was one-half, 500
down, and the rest when he got the
horses. A return to the neatly furnished
Office, and the terms seeming satisfac-
tory, Mr.. Mason drew out his wallet and
laid down ten SO bills; a receipt was
given and he turned to go out, when he
saw the young man wink affectionately
at "Joe."
The farmers suspicious were instantly
aroused and, turning on his heel,
grasped the money, which was still lying
on the desk, and drew a heavy Colts
revolver. Clutching "Joe" by the collar,
he placed the muzzle against his cheek
and suffered:
81 w-want you to s-sh-ow me d-d-ow-
down stairs. This th-thing is lilo
loaded"
"Joe'' said nothing, but followed by
the cooked revolver, led the way down
stairs. Mr.. Mason went to police head
quarters and told his story. He was
informed that "Joe" was known more
widely under the sobriquet of Hungry
Joe. '-NeaO York Tribune.