St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-17
CURED OF A CRAZE,
In the Clutches of the Little Tin
Bank and Out Again.

One of these little nickel pocket saw
ingS banks, of which the street vendors
are selling so many nowadays, has been
the cause of upset:ing all the venera-
ton in which L previously held the old
adage about taking care of the pennies
and letting the dollars take care of
themselves, says the New York Herald.
Some weeks ago | first noticed the
banks. Hundreds of people were buy
ing them on the streets. | knew It was
a craze, an epidemic like the fifteen
puzzle and "pigs i'll clover" and wisely
kept away. But Dick Smith marked me
out for his victim. With Mephstophe-
lean glee he gave me one. / imme-
dlately became interested and wanted
to see how it worked. 1t was an limo
cent-lOoklng little tin tube with slot in
one end, which would admit only 10
cent piece. When full it held just s. in
dimes, and only when filled could the
bottom be pushed out and the coins be
recovered again.
Dick assured me that it was great
savings institution; that by slipping
all the dimes l got into it l would
never miss them, and be s. ahead of the
game before knew it. In fact, he led
me to believe that fortune could be
accumulated that way I'D very Short
time and without anyperceptible effort.
l caught the fever.
For week it engrOSSed all nv spare
time. Dime after dime was showed into
its rapacious little tin nav. | jingled
it in my pocket, "hefted" it and con-
Stantly watched tho progress of the &C
emulation through the holes perforated
Ill the side.
Meanwhile [ was continually incOn-
l. L. IL
would get to the ticket window during
the rusQ hours on the H." | would
recOllect that all my change was IN that
bank. and would lose my place in the
line while stopping to fish out a bill.
Such incidents forced habit of pro-
family upon me.
1t never occurred to me before that
l would consider being deprived of the
evening papers as very much of hard
ship, but day after day l suffered
agonies of curiosity TO know what was
in them. 1t did aot seem suitable
to offer neWSbOy a bill for one, and
never seemed to have anything smaller.
All the change that came my way
turned, as if by magic, into dimes.
Well, at last the thing was loaded to
the muZZle and consented to be opened
Ii came to me as happy thought to
give the proceeds of this bank to nv
wife as extra pin money. Naturally she
thought it would be very nice. too, and
received the S. bill for which L ex-
changed the handful of dimes with no
little satisfaction as the beginning of a
regular weekly custom.
When L returned from business that
day her face was as long as December
night.
She had been shopping. To absolutely
insure its safety she RETAINED from car
rying her pocketbook in her hand and
placed it in her shopping bag that hung
from her waist. In the pocketbook were
s23.6S, including the five-dOllar hard
boarded bill, five dress samples,
two postage stamps stuck together.
part of an "L' ticket and a
memorandum card. Coming from a
crowded bargain counter she noticed
that the shopping bag was unclasped.
One wild dash of the hand inside as
sured her that the pocketbook was goue.
And so after all those dimes that |
so laboriously gathered will probably go
to buy Book beer for pickpocket. If
that is the kind of luck that follows on
the heels of an inclination to save pre-
fer to die a pauper.
Lao l. -