The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-04-04
TWAS AN ELABORATE JOKE
Young Business Man Who UnwittiDgly
Paid for a Wine Supper.
Arrested on an Alleged Affidavit for Provoke"
and Induced TO Pay q Fine That Was
Never Assessed.

In the private supper-room of the d emf
son House. last evening, o party Of gentle
men witnessed the happy elimination of q
joke that originated on All Fools day. and
had been in process of working itself out,
wish the expert attention Of two or three
~well-known gentlemen, until the hour
spoken OF.
Possibly there are not two men In this
city who are better friends than q
certain young business man and q young
lawyer. Both are genial, pleasant gen.
tlemep, and have more friends than
they can count. The business man is good
humored. and sometimes his excellent
spirits become SO irrepressible that he
must needs play a little joke on some of
his friends. The lawyer often found him
self the sufferer from these practical jokes.
but. being good-natured, took the fun at
his expense in good part, although for the
past two years he has been aDxiously
awaiting the time when he could retaliate,
with good measure thrown In. Therefore,,
he bided his time, and it came on April /.
the day of all Others on which to play q
good joke.
1t seems that the business man
had had a few words with
some person not long ago and hot words
had passed between them. When this
came to the ears OF the lawyer he seized the
opportunity to play a joke, and On April l
he drew up AMI affidavit purporting to be
signed by the person with whom his victim
had had the trouble. charging the latter
with provoke. The next step was to let
Constable Gloss into the secret, and q war
rant was drawn up for the arrest of the
business man on a charge of provoke. The
warrant was filed in Justice SmOck's court
and that gentleman thought the intention
was to make a bona fide arrest and that the
affidavit was also bona Tide.
The morning of April 1 the warrant was
placed IN the hands of another constable.
who was not in the secret, and he pro-
ceeded to the young mans Office TO effect
his arrest. When he made known his er-
rand the former ~laughingly remarked that
he must be joking. But the constable
didn't have his joking clothes On and he
soon convinced him that he meant bEsi-
ness. The warrant was read and he
was placed under arrest. His first
neSt and Gas he 20 p GoosSis Ti To t his ai iaw-
yer's office. but failed to find him
in. Then he repaired to Justice
the hearing of the case until the following
morning at IL o'clock. and kindly allowed
zancc. A short time after he got back to
his Office his partner, not knowing of the
joke being played or of the arrest, but
wishing TO have some fun with him, called
him up from the Bates House and imIta-
ting tho voice of the person supposed to
have made the affidavit for provoke, told
him he would like to see HIM at the Bates
House that evening. This puzzled the
business man very much, In view of his
arrest, and early in the afternoon he re-
paired to his attorneys office to have q
consultation.
The lawyer protested to be very much
surprised and declared the whole thing
must be o joke.
N it isn't O joke; / saw the papers and
they were all right"
IF thai is the case.n said the attorney.
1.-The only thing to do is for you to have
this man arrested for provoke. You have
as good a case as be has"
This step having been decided upon. they
went to the temple of justice on DOgberry
Row and the affidavit was made. The con-
stable was instructed that the other gen.
tieman could be arrested that evening and
be brought into court the next morning
when the victims case came NJ.
The next morning the latter went to his
attorneys Office for another consultation.
He was told that the other gentleman had
gone before the court and pleaded guilty,
l will tell you how you can settle your part
of it," advised the attorney, with little
expense and no notoriety. You 60 over to
Squire Shocks office with me and plead
guilty to this charge OF provoke-0
But Pm not guilty" exclaimed the
young business man, growing temporarily
indignant at the thought.
of course yon are not guilty. but You
don't want this thing to get IN the papers;
So %sd # y 20 pie plead d.s guilty. H., no H record will BE be
throw off his fee. and it will only cost
You &c."
The young man succumbed to this argu-
ment and pleaded guilty. Afterward his
attorney said: Now. just pay me So and l
will settle the matter up and you won't be
bothered any more" The unsuspecting
friend promptly wrote out q check for Sc
and passed 1t over to the attorney, who
slyly handed 1t to his typewriter and told
her to go to the bank and get it cashed at
once. This was done.
The matter settled, the joker decided to
give O champagne supper ut the Denison
last evening and invited q number who
had aided HIM in .perpetcatlng the
to the invitation and at 6 O'clock
last evening an even dozen Jolly
fellows gathered about q long table in the
ordinary at the DenisOn. The young bust
ness man was in o particularly good
lieved he had but q few days before been
under arrest and had settled the case by
paying the court SO.
When the supper had progressed far
enough for everybody to be in an entirely
brought up to a climax. and. amid the
laughter of the party. the victim was in
formed that the champagne was being
served at bis expense-,with the
to settle bis All FOOLS day arrest. He was
equal to the occasion and enjoyed the fun
as much as anybody around the table. He
said he had never even suspected that his
arrest was q hoax, and that it was the best
joke he bad ever seen played.
The Joker Climb has been added to the