Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-04-16
~plsREPuTARLE BOB.
Irregular In Habits He Yet Has Touches
of True Genius.

He came staggering down the base
ment stairs yesterday at headquarters,
the most disreputable, blear-eyed.
drunken Bob that you could possibly
see, says the N. Y. Herald. He did
not stagger far, but came tumbling
down heels over head and tried TO
sneak out of sight under the Office
desk. He had been on a spree since
Christmas, and Mr.. Hastings did not
know what to do with such a case. 1t
seemed well nigh a hopeless one.
However, he gave Bob a good cutting
and the latter curled up on the floor
and tried to sleep it off. 81 don't
know what TO do with him" said HASH
ings in despair. "I've a mind to send
him up to White Plains and pump him
full of bichloride of gold. H. seems
utterly beyond the reach OF moral
suasion."
Bob Hastings is the hardest drinker
in Mulberry street. His character and
habits are well known to the authori-
ties there, from Supt. Murray and In
spector Byrnes down TO the doormen
and clerks. They ought TO be, for
these gentlemen have seen him stag
gering about in front Of the marble
building many's the time. They all
know what a superb intellect he has
and deplore the appetite which is pull
ing him down into the gutter, and
which must inevitably land him in the
potter's field or in some equally hope
less place. There is not a cat
Oh, yes, Bob is a cat-the big, bob
tailed cat of Mulberry street.-the fe-
line John l.. Sullivan of his quarter OF
the town. Like John l.. the original
and other creatures endowed with
| genius, he has his little weaknesses,
and beer is chief among them. When
ever the alcoholic mania seiZes upon
Bob he will saunter down to the sa-
loon at the corner OF Houston street
and proceed to liquidate like any other
blood" Although he is far from Is
years of age, he does not find any diff
liculty in getting served, and the way
he will rush the growler sometimes is
a caution and an example. Often he
will stay away from home for an en-
tire week, and when he does return
the marks upon him show that he has
been indulging in his penchant for
fighting TO a disastrous degree. He
will tackle anything up to a brindle
bull pup, and | do not know that he
was ever really beaten.
Once in n while Bob will 90 a-hunt.
ing. He will catch some hapless mouse
or rat, and will proceed to have fun
with it, boxing its ears and cutting il
about to his own intense amusement,
if not that of his prey. At last, when
he has grown tired of playing with it,
Bob will kill IL with a single blow.
But do you suppose that Bob will con-
| descend to eat it? Not much! Bob il
q high liver. He likes pate de foies
gras and truffles and porterhouse
steaks with mushrooms. He does not
care for plebeian rats and mice. But
Bob is good-hearted under his rough
exterior. After killing the rat oil
mouse he will go around the corner
and look up some tramp cat who is not
smart enough to catch mice himself,
and a moment later you will see thai
tramp cat sneaking around to find and
carry off the carcass to make a tramp
cats holiday.
II it were not for Bob's disease o.
drink he would be quite an ornament
to society. | wonder if anything car
be done for him.