The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-03-09
of the Great Upper Wood River Mining Region
Yovne NAN, De nonfsT.

Y0vne Man. Be HONEST.
Uncle Jouas Catches His Brisk Nephew
Initiating Hin.
II am on the turf now," said a
flashy black-eyed young man, still
in his teens, to an acquaintance
whom he met at the Guttenburg ra-
ces. II am out for money and ev-
erything goes"
"When did you quit your uncle's
hook shop?" asked the boys ac-
quaintance.
LAS week, We'n'sdy. He fred
me out for trying to work one Of his
own games. One of the funniest
rackets you ever heard of, and I'm
just sore enough on the old man to
give it dead away. The old man
was going up Center street one day
last summer, and he stopped in q
secondhand tool shop to see a
friend. While he was there he got
monkeying with secondhand sig
nal box. It was little cast iron
thing with the word police on the
front and brass button on the top.
When he pressed the button it set
a lot of clockwork going in the box
and made as much noise as an
alarm clock. He was stuck OH the
thing and bought it for a half. /
asked him what he was going to do
with it and he said he would stick
it up on the wall and ring it if any
teughs tried to make trouble in the
shop. Well, that's just what he did
with it. He screwed it up in plain
sight behind the counter and fas-
tened wires to it to make it look as
if they went somewhere. Then he
took some bronze paint and touched
up the letters so that nobody could
make any mistake in reading them.
I don't believe he thought of what
a great graft the box was until he
had it up about week. Then he
made it useful for the first time. A
young fellow came in with a dress
coat wrapped up in newspaper and
wanted five cases on it. Uncle Jo-
mas held the coat up and sized it
up with the fellow that was trying
to soak it. The coat was big enough
for two like him and the old man
says: "Dot's a nice coat. Ees id
your own?"
"Betcher life," says the young
feller.
"vait till I call my brudder," !"
says the old man, and he turned
and jammed the button down hard
on the signal box. The young fel-
Ter just gave one glance at the box
and he shot out of the door and left
the coat behind. He ain't been seen
around there since. After that the
old man gave me to understand /
was to come along kinder slow any
time when he rung the box, so that
if people didn't scare, they would
take it that the call was for me, and
then he would consult me about the
goods that were offered. He worked
the call on a man with a gold watch
next day, and the man snatched
the watch out of his hand and
skipped. After that he was more
careful, and when a crook came
in with a fine ring a day or two
later, he laid the ring down out Of
reach and touched the button, say
ing that he would call his son and
get his opinion about the stone.
The crook looked at the call box
and ran his eyes along the wires
which ran toward the front of the
shop. Then he began to swear and
made a jump for the side door.
Next day a nice looking fellow
came in and described the ring:
and said that it was stolen from
him, and that he had cornered the
man who stole it and learned where
it was.
"All right; will send for it, !"
says the old man, and then he
touched the button again.
II will come in again in half
an hour" says the nice-looking
young feller, and skips out the door.
Did he come back? Nav. Well,
the old man worked the new snap
every chance he got, but sometimes
he got fooled, and then | had to
come to the front and be consulted.
always askin: did you ring, sir?"
One day when the old man was out
to dinner a feller come in with q
stud. Itwas a real bug and I wanted
to win it. So I sprung the call box
on him. He shot out of the side door
and / dropped the stud in my
pocket. Two minutes later my nm
Gle put his hand on my shoulder,
and two big tears ran down his nose
as he told me he was sorry that be
had found out that was not hon
est. He gave me a calking old lee.
ture on honesty being the best pol
icy. and told me that he had been
watchinp me from the back mart of