The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-01-02
DEADBEATS.
The Man Who Likes to Read, But
Never Wants 10 Pay.

There is a tendency among mean men all
ever the world to endeaYor to get something
for nothing Hotel, saloon, restaurant and
bar keepers, railroad and theater managers,
editors Of newspapers, news-dealerS, fruit
sellers, confectioners, are all to their sorrow
familiar with tire respectable deadbeat who
wants to get something for which he does
not intend to pay, says the New Orleans
Picayune. Editors know the doctors
and lawyers-professiGnal men who think
it is unpr0tesSiOnal to advertise their bust
ness-who are willing for the information
Of their victims to have news items Of their
coming and going published free in the
papers. Managers of sO-caled charity en-
tertainments actually attempt 10 hold up
managers Of newspapers, in train-robber
style, aud make them stand and deliver
free advertisements that will make the
managers of so-called charity entertain
ments seem to be noted anthropists. aud
make the managers of newspapers seem TO
be fat chumps.
Every day fruit-stauds are pilfered by re-
spectacle samplers OF fruit-not including
policemen-who pick and eat ana do not
purchase. The peanut rooster and dealer
on the corner is robbed Systematically every
day by eminent men, who possibly hold
Office and would dislike being called thieves.
1t is presumed they think three or four pea
nuts, more or less, Is no loss. But when
twenty-five men within an hour have taken
each three or four peanuts the poor dealer
is a quart out, with NO money to show
Tor the goods he has parted with. He
has been forced to take refuge In little
paper bags 10 preserve his peanuts and
the honor OF those who would steal small
quantities. The persons who pretend to
sample candies, and while at that nibble
Sweetmeats and pinch cream chocolates
are known t. the police, but con lectiOneTs
prefer TO suffer loss rather than to appear
as prosecutors. But the most hOpelesSly
mean men are those with literary tastes and
dishonest habits who make readlng-ro0mS
of news-stores. The man who sits in
billiard-TOomS to watch games is not
marker.
The Mobile Register has been saying:
Did il ever occur to you that the chief merit
of a picture paper lies in the pictures?
Also that when you have looked at the pict-
ures you have gotten pretty much all you
want out of the paper? Well it is fact.
Yet many people are unmndful OF this
when they enter newsstore, the place
where papers are exposed upon the count
ers. They very carefully examine all the
pictures in the papers, and even go SO far
as to read all the interesting news in the
latest numbers Of the daily papers.
They are satisfied They have consumed
the cream of the goods, but as they have
taken nothing tangible away, they do not
think they have done any wrong The
thought does not come to them that the
papers are exposed for sale and not for
gratis lending, but that thought comes 10
the newsman. and comes hard. He does
not object to the casting Of glance upon
his wares in order TO determine what snail
be purchased, but he groans in spirit when
he notes how many persons read his papers,
ont have no intention OF contributing a cent
toward the payment OF his rent his lights
and his postage account.
While Mobile may nave dozen of such
dead beats, New Orleans has hundreds of
them who examine the picture papers and
skim over the leading journals OF the coun-
try every day in news-stores without
spending a cent. George Ellis, near the
P0stotiiee. has in his store long tables hold
ing excellent asSOrtmentS of current litera-
tuTe. Some mornings long rows of news
neudS stand there like soup-eaters at free
lunch table. One OF them once said to him
that he should have stools about for the ac-
conmodatlon OF his visitors who wanted to
look over the papers. The deadbeat has
no gall. 1t simply occurred to the mind of
that particular beat that stools would be
great convenience, ana he suggested them.
News-dealeTs in hotels of the West man
age more shrewdly. They have their papers
protected by wire screens, and the fiend who
handles paper there buys IL. There is a
case on record OF man who said lie could
not afford TO take the daily papers. A morn
ing and evening paper containing all the
news he wanted would cost him cents
day on subscription. Well, sir, that man
used to smoke three 10e-ent cigars and take
three 15-cent drinks of whisky every day
spending rs cents per day on stuff that did
him no good, and yet he could not afford to
take the papers. III he valued common hon.
esty ne could not afford to steal his reading
by r0bblng the poor news-dealers who are
trying to make an honest living,