St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-12
SNATCHES OF STORIES.

| Poker stories are always in demand, and
| pretty good one was told at a Saturday even
! ing session OF the Apollo club not long ago.
| Six friends for an evening sat down to
| social game of draw and several hackers had
! been 'cracked' amid considerable excitement
and changes Of money and checks sleek.
| looking citizen at one corner of the table
| had gotten the worst of one or two of these
jackers and expected square deal had moi
been given hiui. Accordingly he prepared
little surprise part which begun by buy
| ing new stack OF chips. Pres
emily he got four aces dealt him
| when, by careless motion, his arm
| struck his chips and scattered them over the
| floor and into his lap. He bent down and in.
dustriousy picked them up but a side glanc,
told him the ruse had taken; the other play
ers were trading cards and putting up hand
He was very innocent when his checks hae
been Strengthened out, and took one care
with cheerful resignation. A half hour later
when handful of tens. forty miles of ra,l-
road" had Teen downed and the entire party
cleaned out he cashtd in and told the story
*x*
John Flanagan, the capitalist with a spec
ulative turn of mind. who is wont to appear
on the streets his shirt-seeves apout Ter.
years ago was marble-cutter and had q
shop, or rather marble works. ON First avenue
south, near Fourth street. He has cut many
''hie Jacit, and ornamented many a head
stone with Angels wings, although very few
of his acquaintenceS of today are
aware of the fact. A good story,
which has the merit of being
absolutely true, is told upon him. He once
received an order for a gravestone to be de-
liyered at Maple Grove, upon which the fol-
lowing inscription. an ancient bit of doggreI.
was to be cut:
stop, gentle stranger, as you pass by;
AS you are now so once was |.
As am now, so you must be,
Therefore prepare to follow me-
When the stone had been cut it was boxed
up and shipped to it destination by freight
By an error it went TO Maple Plain instead of
Maple Grove, and laid on the platform at the
depot for several weeks One day To-
cal marble cutter came along and
seeing the stone out OF curiosity kicked off
the crate and read the Inscription. He then
went back to his shop, and getting his tools.
chiseled the following addition to the inscrip-
ton:
ITO follow you we're not content
Until we know which way you went"
| He nailed the crate together again, and
went away perfectly content that a certain
rival marble.cutter would some day find life
burden. In the course of time the railroad
company found the stone had been
| missent, and delivered it at Maple
Grove where it belonged Flannigan
was notified Of its arrival, and went to the
| village graveyard for the purpose of setting
it. He was accompanied by the widow who
when the stone was ia place, mournfully
raised her veil and read over the ms .ription
when she came to the last two lines her air of
pensve sorrow disappeared. She was the
maddest woman Flanagan had ever seen.
He endeavored tie explain that he did
not cut the offending coupet. 1t was
| 10 use and the only thing to be done was to
| take up the stone and replace it with another
| properly inscribed. This Flannigan did at
| some expense and trouble. but be wondered
| for some time who it was that had changed
! the inscription. and about two years later
| found out, when a workman whom he had re-
Gently hired, got to telling of a good joke he
| had once played on a marblecutter at Maple
| Plain.
~
Judge J. E. Flanagan, a younger
brother, now a broker in st. Paul, also learned
| the trade of marble cutting and wandered
| South in search of work. He ''struck iob''
at Nashville, and was told by his employer to
cut the name Of Sarah B. Smith in raised let
| ters on granite monument. He had lust
| nDished the given name when his
| employer looked over his shoulder and asked,
| How in thunder do you spell Sarah?'' The
/ Judge looked and saw S-a-h-r-a plainly be-
| fore him. well. all you can do said the
employer. lis to chip off those letters and cut
| the name in the stone" Flanagan wasn't
| sayn' word He quietly ODE ed instruc-
tions. or rather worked away with that i'm
preston until an hour later, when
some one laid hand on his shoulder
He looked up and saw his employer pointing
to the inscription again with an expression Of
mingled disgust and wrath. There it was for
the second time, deeply cut in the granite,
''S-ah-r-a.'' Without a word the ssiudee''
laid down his chsel and MALL and, putting on
his coat, sadly left the marble ward. He cut
marble no more. but soon after made up his
mind that he could do better as lawyer, in
which profession he embarked