Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-08-01

His surprise Mt the Discovery That Things
Are Not What They Seem.

His surprise Mt the Discovery That Things
Are Not What They Seem.
| RdV.
'.It Is queer gang had out two sun
DAYS ago, )" said the engineer OF a ntue
steam-launch at Greenwood lake. Iney
were all well-dressed New York boys, ana
so quiet looking that you would nave
taken them for Sunday school eonfmlttee
hunting for a place to hold picnic. put
after they started they turned out to DC the
most comical lot of frauds l ever met All
of them had fancy canes, and there was
where the biggest part of the maud came
in None of the sticks were what they
pretended to be- The first thing saw 10
astonish me was when one of the party saw
a ground hog sitting up on rock. CUM
he said, and another fellow snapped canes
with him. He just pulled the ferrule nom
the end of the cane and fooled with the
handle for a second Then he aimed at
the grounding, and bang went the lnno-
eent-looking cane. He didn't hit the
grounding, but he made him jump and
skip into his hole pretty quick. Mean
while the fellow that traded canes with
him fiddled with the ferrule OF the
other stick and turned it into a
fishing pole, with which he began to
troll from the stern Of the boat. was be-
ginning to think L had dry crowd ont
with me when / happened to observe one
of the most sanctimoniOus fellows IN the
lot taking long pull at the head OF his
cane. That's the kind of a cane for me,
said to myself, and then began to look
for other pecuEarities in the sticks. L made
up my mind that they were all trick canes
one way or another and that at least hall
of them were hollow and contained some
thing comforting But was not prepared
for the next development. A sickly look
ing young fellow in the party made re-
mark that the view was very fine down the
lake, and commenced TO unstrap field
glass case he had hung over his shoulder.
He took out a plain looking opera glass,
mOnkeyed with it for minute, and then
raised it to his face. / wouldn't have
thought anything about it if l hadn't been
watching for something new, and noticed
the other fellows looking at him and smil-
ing, but was surprised when | saw him
put the thing to his mouth instead of his
eye, and 90 through the motions of drink
ing. Then thought he was fOOling, but
when one of his chums took out his watcI
and took little silver-plated
drinking cup, one of the telescoping
kind, out of the case, l made up
my mind that the Opera-glass was new
tangled whisky flask, was assured of it
when the owner handed it over to the
fellow with the cup, and | saw him pour
I -, / 9TH m
and it was very good stuff. was not
much surprised when one of the dadeS
opened his cane at the band and sprang a
cigar out of it like cartridge out OF n
magazine rife, nor when he opened q cap
on the silver head of the cane and took out
a match, but was watching man who
had an alligator skin bag hanging at his
side, and was taking great care OF 1t. he
had heavy wooden cane that looked as if
it might be split in three or four pieces,
and was anxious to see what it was for.
All of a sudden he asked me to stop for
moment near boat in which an old fell
low was comfortably sitting in an arm
chair Ticking q fly rod. The young fellow
set his bag on the edge of the boat, lifted
up cap on top of it and another on the
end, touched a button and then said all
right, 20 ON l didn't know what to
make of it until we landed, and then |
found out that he had Il whole pho
tOgraph gallery in the little bag. He
turned his cane into y three-legged stand
and took pictures of the boat, Of the
crowd, and Of me. didn't see any of the
pictures, though, because he said it
wouldn't do to expose them to the light.
| guess he was afraid to show them for fear
they were not good. l was prepared for
anything after that except the real surprise
/ got next Ole of the boys had fiat bot
tie in his pocket, and when he took it out
surely expected thatit was going to turn
into something else, or prove to be some
thing different from what itappeared TO be.
1t was one OF those leather-COyered pocket
TASKS with metal top and
cup, He qnscrewed the top very
carefully, and kept my eyes on him. |
also noticed that the other fellows were
watching him, and l really expected to see
either fireworks or an electric light come
out of it. He pulled the metal cup off the
bottom, of it very carefully and slowly,
and then poured out q drink o. plain,
everyday whiskey. was badly fooled,
because | didn't tkink any man in the
party had anything about him that was
what it appeared to be, and if any OF them
had pulled out gilt-edged RraYer-hook |
should have expected TO see 1t turn into a
faro layout, with deal box and deck Of
cards"