The morning call., 1891-03-20
MEN ABOUT TOWN.
Short Stories Gathered From the
Hotel Corridors.
A Doodle Discovery That Failed to Work Out
He Spotted the spotter- Rat-Killing
Extraordinary.

"When l was in the Legislature, said A.
G. Booth as he sat in one of the Palace
Hotel chairs last night, ian incident oc-
Cured that convulsed Sacramento with ex-
element and reminds me strongly Of the
present attempt to connect certain men
with vote-buying. One afternoon, while we
were in session, it was whispered that
startling doodle discovery had been made,
and in few minutes it was the one engross-
ing subject of speculation. Some one had
fished out of monster Waste-basket in the
library an Assembly roll-call, on which
various amounts had been placed opposite
the names of certain members. RumorS of
corruption had been flying about as usual,
and one bill in particular had just been
passed. in which the railroad was deeply
interested and for the passage of which, it
was claimed, a considerable sum of money
had been distributed. 1t was Immediately
asserted that the discovery related to this
vote, aud an investigation was demanded.
1t turned out that one of the pages had been
ehployed during the session to run errands
for number of the members, and the little
fellow in casting up his accounts had placed
the amounts thus due MIN opposite the re-
spective names. The explanation was
quickly made, and the inquiry ended in
hearty laugh"
Spotted the Spotter.
The practice of employing spoilers to
detect dishonesty among employees is carried
on extensively by the Pullman Company,
but the conductors have grown SO expert in
picking out the detectives that they are
seldom caught mapping. One of PuIlman's
employees stood at the counter of the Occi-
dental last night and related an incident
which will illustrate the shTewdneSs OF the
employees in dealing with the men VINO are
hired TO watch them.
"A man entered my car at Yuma" he
said with ticket 10 Sacramento, aud for
time l paid but little attention To him. His
movements. however, excited my suspicious,
and when had a chance. | sized him up
pretty sharply. | concluded in my mind
that lie was Sp0tt5r, aud determined to lay
for him. l gave him an upper berth in the
center of tile car and waited Tor him TO re-
tire, which lie WAS late in doing. and which
tended to confirm me III my belief. In the
middle of the night | slipped quietly out,
and gaining the roof crawled nulseleSSly
along until | was directly over the man |
was watching. The ventilatOrS were open,
and peering down into the berth L could see
by the dim light that found its way in
between the curtains that lie was sound
asleep. His coat was folded up and de-
p, sited near his head. With me | had
packing-hook, an instrument with long,
slender handle. ending In sharp hook, and
which is used by railr1ad employees for pull
ing the packing out OF boxes. ThruStng
this down through the ventilator l sue
ceeded in drawing up the coat without
awakening the sleeper. quickly secured the
wallet, and hurrylng down into the car
learned from the mans papers that he was
spot.er. Thus satisfied slipped lack With
the wallet returned it TO the pocket, and
lowered tie coat once more into the berth.
| took no chances on that trip, and that
fellow Is probably still ignorant of the fact
that found him out. The fact is that the
boys seldom get caught for they are about
as flv as the spoilers. and soon get onto
them"