Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1892-05-14
ONE OF fLoReNcs's JOKES.

An Effective Corner ON small Change s~
an Atlantic Liner at Sea.
Florence was fun loving. So Is the
gentleman who repeated the following
narrative:
Several years ago." began the mar
rator, II met Florence on a Cunarder.
We were both homeward bound, and
II you have ever been away from your
native land long time, you know the
full meaning of 'homeward bound. :
Florence was in excellent spirits, and
during the voyage across the great
deep we were almost inseparable. After
having been on the sea for about
twenty-four hours we began firing of
the monotony.
I'VE had talked Of everything, until
all subjects seemed to be exhausted.
when Florence. with fun bristlinV out
all over, said in his peculiar way: Say,
what do you say to having some sport
on our own account Wen play this
ship Is New York or America, II YOU
please, and Wen corner the silver mar
ket. What say you, old boyr "A bril-.
liant idea, but can we do 1t, do you
Think Certainly, said Florence, Just
as easy as falling overheard. and much
more pleasant,
Accordingly, we began taking ac-
count of our wealth and estimating
about how much silver there was on
board. Finding that we possessed am
pie capital to corner the change mar
ket, we lost no time In beginning oar
fun. The first thing Florence did was
to sally forth IN quest of a cigar. The
lowest priced cigar on the steamer was
bought and Florence nonchalantiy
rendered a five pound note In payment.
Then IL came my turn, and If remem-
Der rightly | struck out on lemonade
and made a special request for small
change when ! threw down my crisp
bill.
''Twosman purchases and nearly ten
pounds OF silver In our possession. Hour
by hour, day and night, we worked
every part of the ship In this way. We
never had any change, but were invari.
ably provided with sovereigns. Our
silver accumulated rapidly, and La a
little while there was a general com.
plant over the dearth of change.
Sporting men would walk up to the
bar and call for refreshments and get
refused because their bills could not be
changed
Hour by hour matters became worse
until the purser dove deep down into
his lockers and extricated therefrom
hundreds Of pennies, twopence and two
penny pieces that had not seen the light
of day for years. 1t wasn't long before
all these coins were in our possession,
and at this juncture anybody who made
purchase less than pound was per
mftsed to open an account. We had
eorDered the market and Florence
weuld loll around among the passen-
geEs 10 get their views on the situation.
After hearing their complaints he would
return, and we would sit down together
and laugh over the pursers predica-
nsent.
''The day before we arrived In New
Pork we gathered our wealth together.
We each had half dozen socks full.
and when we took 1t to the purser and
requested that he give us notes In ex
change for the troublesome silver and
copper he was dumfounded at our
audacity At first he was inclined TO
get mad, but when the Joke dawned
upon him he exclaimed: Well I knew
there was something the matter with
that Internal silver but who would
have thought of you and Florence get
ting up cornerf The purser was
Obliged and kindly counted out lbs
pounds English sterling and took our
silver at par. ~ Wilmington News