The Daily Texarkanian., 1894-09-12
A BLUFF THAT WENT.
How Lucky Insurance Man Won a
Gold Watch and In
creased Salary.

creased Salary.
They were telling stories among
themselves, as "knights of the
grip" in their hours of ease and
idleness are ever wont to do, when
one of the party, a "fat, jolly
knight, of goodly proportions and
genial countenance, opened up on
an insurance friend of his, who was,
he said, engaged as travelling agent
for a certain prominent company,
and favored the crowd with the
following unique story of the afore-
said friends experience:
He, the insurance agent, was
down in the central part of the
state on some business of trifiing
Importance. In fact, the business
chat took him thither was of such
trifing Importance that he finished
it in few minutes and then went
into one of the larger cities of that
section to spend few days with an
old friend.
His old friend made it so pleasant
for him that week slipped by al
most before he was aware of it,
when he realized that the officials
at headquarters would want to
know that he had been doing some
thing. In order to make an APP
pearance of doing something the
travelling agent got aboard the
train one day and stopped at the
first good-sized village on the line.
There he got off the train and can
celed all the policies of his COM
pany on the grounds of insufficient
protection against fire, and then
got on the next train going in the
opposite direction, returning to his
old friend for few more days of
revelry.
After leaving the city he spent a
week in the southeastern part of
the state and then returned to Chi
cago, and with misgivings that his
nigh old time and consequent neg
lect of business had been heard of,
and that his head might soon be in
the basket, When he learned that
the general agent wanted to see
him as soon as he returned, he felt
certain that it was al over with
him. With wildly beating heart he
sought "the old man" in the inner
most recess of his private Office
with the intention of resigning and
saving himself the disgrace of dis
missal, but once in the presence of
the head of the department he lost
his nerve and the power of speech
at the same time.
The "old man" received him COR
daily even effusively-and bade
him be seated.
THAT was great stroke of
yours, said the general agent.
The travelling agent hung his
head in a shamefaced manner. The
'old man" attributing this to mod
esty, continued:-
YES, sir, great strokel Saved
us at least $2OO,oOO I called the
attention of the directory to it, and
they voted to present you with this
as a slight token of appreciation of
your perspicacity and close atten-
tion to business, and he took from
his desk magnificent watch and
chain. "We also decided to increase
your salary 25 per cent
The astonished travelling agent
accepted the watch with stammer-
ing thanks, and then, making his
escape, sought ,one of the head
clerks with whom he was on init
mate terms
"Say, has anything happened
down at Jayville2" he inquired.
eyes, was the reply,
What was it2"
"The whole town was burned
last week. Hadn't you heard Of
it."
He had not heard of it, but he
had heard of an old proverb to the
effect that only an i'll wind blows
nobody good.
The Modern Beauty
| Nh ,.ityau ~, road Good ,,l a,,oebt,a