Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-11-12

A CONVINCING ARGUMENT.

Tho Ardor of Reporter Carries Him Into
Tickiish Debate.
| Reporters often find themselves in
queer situations and in unpleasant 10
calities while hunting for news. Their
contact with the seamy side of life, too
makes most of them skeptical and apt
to ask inconvenient questions One OF
them was detailed the other day to fol-
low up one particular clew to the iden-
tity of New Yorlz's Jack the Ripper
This, it seemed to him, was the oppor-
tunity of his life. He had long hoped
to raise himself above the level of the
many other young fellows who write
for tens of thousands of readers, month
after month, without the big world
being even aware of their existence.
So he got himself excused from
daily attendance at the office, and,
dressing himself in appropriate clothes.
applied for situation as bar
tenders assistant in several low rum
shops near the scene of the murder
Here he hoped to hear some converse
ton among the drunken seamen and
abandoned women who consorted there
which could be of use to him and to his
paper.
he had not long to wait AS he Of
fered his services for week. without
other remuneration than a chance of
learning how to pour out and mix the
poisonous liquors sold there. he had
little trouble In getting job. His
duties were to begin early next morn
ing and last far into the night. He
spent the whole day. with brief inter
walls for meals, washing glasses, rolling
kegs, wiping the bar, sweeping the
floor, watching the free lunch and keep
ing his temper, while the bartender
and the dirty customers ordered him
about and occasionally swore at him.
His heart almost failed him two or
three times, and his stomach, too, but
he wrestled down the inclination to
throw up the job and determined to
see it out.
As the night began to grow old
motley crowd gathered in the bar
room. and the bad liquor soon made
their tongues garruious. Sure enough,
the chief theme of conversation was
Jack the Ripper and his terrible deed.
The reporter pricked up his ears. All
he h card. however. was what had
already been told in the newspapers, re-
hashed in thieves jargon and badly mu-
tilated in the telling.
There was one particularly truculent-
looking old sailor, with rings in his
ears and big scar across his cheek,
broken nose and cross-eyed, who boldly
advanced his own theory of the crime,
which had been published by a writer
who had to fill SO much space or resign,
and had been sl1illfully exploded the
very next day by the same reporter.
who was now masquerading as a bar
tender. Its the same man as scared
all Lunnon, tell YER said the sailor.
with an oath. ~ knows his work, a
cross made with chalk somewhere near
the corpse. I seed it myself on the
door-post Of the room, this very day.
"But was that mark there when the
police first searched the room ?'' broke
in the reporter. None of them saw it
and they searched thoroughly. Was it
not after the body was taken away and
the public were allowed to see the
room that the cross appeared Don't
you think some one put it there for a
trick? 1 do
The big ruffian stared his astonish-
ment at any one daring to differ from
him. Slowly drawing a long, keen
pointed knife from his bosom, he tried
the point on his dirty thumb-nail, and
rising, advanced toward the reporter.
saying as he did SO: ''You doubt my
word, you young cur. You'll be calling
me a liar next. I'm not pretty to look
at, and don't wear store clothes, but
I'm a gentleman, l am. and if any
one doubts it-just doubts it a little
bit-just don't believe it, heart and
soul -"
But the reporter had fed away into
the dark street before the sentence was
completed. He never returned to ex-
press his doubts or beliefs.-N. Y.
Tribune.