Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-07-14

| ana NO, SIR, or hat, Sir? when ne
| speaks to you, and he whips of his car
the minute lady steps into the Office
if he should happen to have it on"
And he's neat as a now pin, shabby
as his clothes are" said Gus; land he
has a well-developed bump of order.
You can tell that by the way he's al.
ways picking up and putting things to
| rights here in the office"
| Monday was pay day at the Office.
Every employe, from Corky up to the
colonel, received his salary in a small
| white envelope, with his name and the
amount of his weekly salary written on
| it, and Corky's envelope had a smaller
sum in it than any other envelope in
| the office. Billy, tie business man
ager, always made out the pay roll, and
| put the money into the envelopes.
| Sometimes it took two thousand dol
lars for the weekly pay roll, and Billy
| would sit down before his desk with all
| of that money before him in bank bills
| and shining piles of gold and silver
coin. Corky would look at it sometimes
and fall to thinking of what he would
do with it if all of that money belonged
| to him. He thought of his mother, who
| who worked beyond her strength at
washing and ironing to help CorSy
| feed and clothe four helpless little
| brothers and sisters. He thought of
the leaky, rickety old house in which
they lived, away out on the outskirts
of the city, near the river. where the
land was low and damp and I'M
healthy. He thought of the ragged
clothes his mother and little brothers
and sisters had to wear, and of their
poor and insufficient food. He thought
of how he would change all this if those
crisp bank bills and the piles of gold
and silver he saw every Monday be-
longed to him.
But he would have endured far greater
poverty than he had ever known; he
would have stood on a street corner
begging, with his cap in his hand, be-
fore he would have taken even one of
the dull red coppers on Bflly's desk.
Old Gus was right when he said
one day that he believed Corky was
as straight as a shoestring when it
came to downright honesty" So he
did not look at the money with cOvetous
eyes nor with single wrong thought
in his heart
Billy was late in getting to work on
the payroll one Monday. Several per-
sons had been in to see him. and it was
noon before he sat down to his work.
with the money and envelopes before
him. All the other employees of the
business office but Corky had gone out
to dinner. Billy had filed one or two
of the envelopes when clerk from
1.,r- a. lie
the next corner came into the Office and
said:
Say, Billy, Mr.. Raynor wants to
see some one right away about running
a full-page advertisement in to-mor-
rows paper. He says he'd like to see
you about it."
Now a full-page advertisement did
not come to the Republican every day.
and the opportunity of getting one was
not to be neglected, therefore Billy said
at once:
"All right, Holmes; tell Mr.. Raynor
that I'll come right around and give him
figures on it." Then he said to Corky:
Just keep your eye on this money
while I'm gone, will you, Corky? I'll
be back in few minutes"
Very well, sir" replied Corky, with
his usual politeness and readiness to do
anything he was asked to do.
Billy'S desk was in a corner of the
room farthest from the counter. and
there was no railing on this counter, so
the desk was in full view from any part
of the Office.
Billy had been gone about five min
utes when man came into the office
and asked for copy of the morning
paper. Corky handed him paper. but
the man did not go out after he bad paid
for it. Corky did not notice it, but there
came a sudden CLEAN into the mans
eyes, and his lips parted as he glanced
toward the desk on which the payroll
money was lying. He drummed on the
counter with his fingers for a moment,
then he glanced backward over his
there were few passers-by at that hour.
Suddenly he asked:
Are any of the editors in?''
mo, SIR" replied Corky; they do
not come around until about three
o'clock
We'll, has this office job-printing
department."
YES sir"
sis the foreman in?''
Il think he Is, SIR
Would you be kind enough to tell
him that | would like'to speak to him
about big lot of printing!"
The foreman of the job-printing de-
partment was called out to the business
counter almost every day to give esti-
mates on orders for work. and there
was nothing in the mans request to
arouse the least suspicion on Corky's
part. He was an absolutely honest
boy, and wholly unsuspicious of others |
The job department was on the same |
floor as the business office. but was !
separated from it by small mailing |
room and n narrow hall. with a door !
opening into long alley.
Corky was in this hall, with his hand |
on the knob of the jobroom door, when |
he suddenly seemed to hear Billy say
ing: Keep your eye on that money.
Corky," and Corky's hand dropped sud-
denly from the job-room doorknob. He
turned quickly, and ran through the
and into the business
office, just in time TO see the
H.