The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-02-24
DEAD-BEATS.
A RACE WHICH HAS INCREASED TO AN
ALARMING EXTENT.
a Ltvery-Stable ProprietOr's Experience
Hotel and Restaurant Keepers-The
Cigar Man and Barkeeper-The
Theatre Ticket Seller.

In conversation with q livery stable pro.
prietor reporter learned that the race OF
dead-beats, instead of being extinct, has
Increased to an alarming extent 1--WE
must be very careful, he said, show we
rent our rigs. No matter how much ex'
perience a man may possess in our bust.
ness he is liable to be done up in first-clasa
style. People with every outward indi'
cation of gentlemanliness step into my
Office and ask for buggies for few hours.
Iactually don't know whether to make
them pay in advance for fear of insulting
them, and the result is / am kept pretty
busy at times notifying the police of miss.
Ing rigs. They use up the horse and buggy
to their hearts content, and when they are
through with them they hitch the horse to
some post and that is the last we see OF
our friend; yes, SIR. in our business We
meet with all sorts of dead beats, genteel
and otherwise. 1t seems to be a passion
among certain people to confidence liv.
eTyman, and those are the very men who
abuse an animal more than the best pay.
Ing customer.
The reporter next ran across an expert
mixer of drinks, and, when asked ques.
ton or two about dead beats, he smiled
and said: In our business we run across
beat every minute of the day. Some of
them ask for their drink first, and then
try to stand me off. These are of the
collecting from them, as they haven't a
copper In their pocket Others lean up
against the bar, talk about the weather,
and politics, and one thing or another;
then they confess that they are dead
broke, but feel mighty mean in theiI
stomach, and nothing but a lNtle whisky
would effect a positive cure. Do trust
'em2 No, sir; / know 'em too well for
that, and unless they ask for the drink
f3rof ffox Tpvar crnff no hest IF mo y
A proprietor of a third-rate hotel, when
asked for information about dead-beats,
told the same story as the barkeeper and
the liveryman. 1--WE can't drive them
away, said he; "they come here in droves
day after day, poorly clad, welldressed,
and all sorts of people. Of course, | al.
ways cast longing glance at their bag
gage, if l have reason to suspect them;
but one Of them played mean trick on
me the other day. He boarded with me a
couple Of weeks. and at last disappeared.
The first thing I did was to go for his
saehel, and when | examined the con
founded thing found it stuffed with old
newspapers. Oh, yes, we lose a great deal
of money in the course of a year, and only
to-day was thinking of selling out and
going into a business where / won't be
obliged to encounter so many dead beats
The man in the restaurant told the same
story. "We are often obliged to trust old
customers, simply because we cannot re-
fuse them, and the result is Trey never
come near us again. / encounter dead
beats of every kind-the man who
changed his pantaloons and forgot his
pocketbook, the fellow who puts on cos
mopolitan airs, orders almost everything
on the bill of fare and good imp Nrted
cigar His impertinence in asking for a
few days time is so astonishing that it al
most takes my breath away, and before
can recover he coolly walks out of the
room.
The tobacco and cigar man had a pitia.
BILE story to relate concerning dead-beats.
"We are pestered with them all day long.
They ask for cigars, but most OF them are
quite modest and simply request the loan
Of little chewing or smoking tobacco.
The other day came across the champion
dead beat. He was elegantly dressed, and
represented himself to be New York
drummer, stopping at the Kennard house.
and before he left my place he swindlet
me out of box of Henry Clays. never
saw him since and | don't expect ever
will. Oh, yes, we have to keep our eyes
open, or else it would be impossible to do
any kind of business.
The theater ticket-seller, when ap
preached on the came subject said:
"Dead- beats! why, the woods are full of
'em. People who have no earthly right
% ask for free admission walk up to the
box:offlce with all sorts of excuses. After
the curtain is up they come here by the
dozens with pretenses of every kind. The
man whose wife is in the theater wants to
know whether he can step in out of the
cold; then the fellow who passes himself
OF as professional, for having appeared
90 some amateur performance, and finally
the citizen who is in hurry and is look
ing for q doctor in the audience.
The reporter listened to the same story
everywhere, and finally came to the con
etusion that the professional dead-beat,
Instead of becoming thing of the past, 1:
gaining in adherents every day.