Morning journal and courier., 1890-01-07


a Restaurant man Loses Faith In HUI
man Integrity.
(Ffom the New York Times]
There are several lunch rooms down town
where you may walk about and help your
self as literally as you please to the sand
wiohes, hard boiled eggs, pies and other
delicacies. When you have eaten a. many
Of them as you dare, you announce to an
engineer in charge of a machine the sum you
think you owe the house. The engineer will
believe you are speaking truthfully. Then
he will whirl crank and hand you q check,
at the same time calling out. apparently to
nobody in particular, the amount of the
check. While you are settling with the
cashier, 1t will strike you, If you are any
thing Of philosopher, that the proprietor's
belief in the honesty of all men must be
implicit.
It is almost, and If it were not for little
bump of skepticism which experience has
developed it would be entirely implicit.
But, unfortunately the proprietor has dis
covered that there are men in the world
who have pie and cake appetites but sand
witches incomes, and who cannot resist the
temptation to try to get a 50cent lunch for
10 cents. They used to succeed, too, be.
the time that the bump became old enough
to have any influence Of the mind of the pro-
prietor a young man with broad shoulders
and very alert eyes appeared In the restau-
rant And then they didn't succeed so we'll.
The young man is called by his friends q
private detective. His enemies call him q
lid spotter." It is his business to see
whether the tempted ones keep Satan behind
them or not. If they do he looks pleased.
If they do not he frowns and proceeds to earn
his salary, and this is the way he does it. A
young man wearing carefully creased troua-
ers, q cape coat, and q yellow derby hat
comes in. The private detective looks in-
tently at the trousers, and he sees that while
they are very good looking trousers they
looks at the face which comes along with
the trousers and the coat and the hat, and
his instinct tells him that the mouth there
is mouth for pie and cake. His instinct
also whispers to him that this young man
doesn't like to pay out very much for lunch
es, because if he doesn't have to he will
have more change for cigarettes for himself
and oysters for his girl. For the next few
minutes the private detective devotes all of
his attention to the young man: He doesn't
know it. of course, because it is SO unob-
trusive. The detective appears to him, If
he takes any notice of him, to be sort of
head waiter. He walks around, apparently
for no other purpose than to see that the
soiled dishes are promptly removed and that
the supply of pie doesn't give out. All the
time, however, he hovers about the young
man, carefully noting whether Satan is be-
hind or before him. Pretty soon the young
man satisfies himself, and the detective
knows that he has consumed pie and cake
and sandwiches of the total value of 35
cents, and as he follows the young man in
the direction of the engineer his instinct
,cs,, yv5hY hot Cofc 10 In
front.
"Fifteen," says the young man to the en-
"Fifteen," echoes the engineer in sing
song way, as he whirls the crank and hands
out check for Is cents.
"Excuse me-" says the detective, lyon
have made a mistake. You meant 30, didn't
your
s'No," replies the young man, looking un-
comfortable, "15 is right"
"Yes, it is," says the detective ironically.
"Mebbe don't know what you had. Go
back there and get 80 cent check and pay
it,"
Perhaps the young man will assume an
air of virtuous indignation and resent the
insinuation against his honesty. But dis
aster has followed such a course. If he
knows what is best for him he will hurry
back and get the proper check. As he is
paying it, and wishing that he was some
where else. the proprietor viii say to him, SO
that everybody can hear:
"Don't ever show your face in here
again."
eff you do, the detective will add, "rn
break it."
And the young man will go away from
there just as fast as can.
t'No," said the proprietor of one of these
butfets, the other day, ST don't have great
deal of trouble, but it pays me to keep de-
tective. When 1 adopted this plan about
four years ago didn't have one, because I
was firmly of the opinion thas the number
of men mean enough to lie for five, 10 or
10 cents was very, very small. But one day
was told by one of my boys that was be.
ing cheated by member of the stock ex-
change. wouldn't believe him, but the
boy was so positive that watched the man
myself for several days and saw that he
was In the habit of paying 10 cents for what
should have cost him 25 or 80. gave him
tongue lsshing that made him sick, and
then hired detective. I suppose on an
average we catch about one man a day, or
one every two days, at the trick. They are
generally young men or boys who, suppose,
see that I have a crowd of customers, and
conclude that the loss of 10 or Is cents
won't hurt me. But differ with them.
have no idea what the average would be If
1t were not for the moral effect of the de-
tective's presence. am sorry that my idol
was shattered, and that I have been COM
PEELED to believe, as the majority of men do,
that the flesh is weak.