The Indianapolis journal., 1896-10-11

out OF doors on all fours Along came the
devil and at sight Of this singular creature
stopped and scratched his head II have
lived 17.14S.962 years he said, ''but never
have seen such an animal as this and
went ca, whereupon the peasant hastened
of honey and feathers and went to claim
the money. AS rule, whenever the devil
was cheated, however. 1t was by the bar
gamer resorting TO the use of some sacred
object. "A Bible was infaliible in this re-
spect. for as every one knew. the devil
about lis person. though in default of a
Bible. &. prayer book a crucffx, a relic
was often equally efficacious. But really
shrewd man had need to resort to such
means. for the devil was such a blockhead
that almost anybody cci9.d cheat him.
There was the architect for instance, for
whom the devil agreed to plan the Cathe-
dral of Cologne, provided ne were permitted
TO have for his own the first human being
that entered after the building was COM
pleted. The Gavil waited long for payment
500 years, in factor the cunning archf-
completed until few years ago when.
presumably, the contract had expired. And
there was that other architect for whom
the Black Forest on condition that the
first living thing that crossed it should be-
long TO him. The architect drove wolf
across and thus fooled the devil who got
Tor his work only half-starved wild beast
that belonged to him anyhow.
THE DEVIL AND THE SAINTS.
Badly as he Jared when dealing with or
dinary human beings. the enemy Of man
kind was infinitely worse off when he at
tempted to contend with the saints, for
these doughty soldiers of the faith beat him
right and left and so routed and discom-
fitted him that on more than one occasion
he expressed a willingness to turn over his
job to any one who wanted it and go out
of the business. The Lives of the Saints
are full of instances in which he was out
done; never did he get the better OF saint.
and rarely of a sinner when a saint was
in the neighborhood. He was always hJ-
ing his hand some pet scheme for mis-
chief and always getting beaten. He was
routed by Benedict, by Cuthlnan and Cuth-
bert and Theophius: he was insoIent to
g. Bernard and made to pay dearly Tor MS
back talk he pushed st. Euphrasia INTO
u kettle of boiling water, but in return got
so badly sca4ded that he was glad TO peat
a RETREAT in dismay; he blew out the sacred
candles burning in more than one noly re-
treat and was punished for his trouble. In
order to carry out his nefarious projects ne
assumed ali IOrmS OF man and beast ana
even posed as an inanimate thing. He ap
peared in the shapes of lion, mouse, bat,
sheep calf and iackstones which refused to
fall properly. When he was so much in
evidence it is not strange that bargains
with him should be OF daily occurrence,
nor that as the time Of the mckless sinners
who had made contracts with him drew 20
close. they should apply to the saints
for relief. They always got it, too, for
these public benefactors, partly out OF love
for mankind, partly out of hatred for the
devil, never failed to find some way TO
break the contract and cheat the old fellow
out OF his pay. He had hard lines, indeed.
during the sanity ages and received no
sympathy, for his reputation was so bad
that any one who could felt quite at
liberty to impose on him. so he was
swindled and buncoed at every turn. 1t
has. indeed, been conjectured by some wise
men that his long run of ill-luck among
the saints, taken in connection with the
fact that the world now knows all about
him, since Daniel Defoe wrote his bio
induced q q q
ness of trading fer souls, but the recent
incident ia New York shows that he is
still al the old stand and at his old tricks
too, for nothing could be more genuinely
characteristic OF his style than to guarantee
a man protection from punishment and
then at the very first chance to turn him
over to the police.