Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-01-01
A PECULIAR CASE.
A Hard DriAkeP Turned Out to Grass
in Order to Sober Him Up.

Hard Driaker Turned Out to Grass
in Order to Sober Him Up.
1t was In saloon the other night, and
Star reporter was drinking apollinaris and
other soothing sirups while the man across
the tanle was INDUCING In more tropical
luxuries. Who ives paying for the irriga-
ton was another matter to be determined
by the turn of q coin.
Were you ever in North Carolina:' in
qHired the other man, as he fished out a
hit of orange Rad or lemon peel. or some
other sort Of a Misunderstanding condiment
from the bottom of his glass
Never" replied the reporter, giving a
fine imitation Of 4 man telling the truth
without mental reservation.
Queer things grow in that state" con-
tinued the other man."
''PeaE uts, ofcr instance"
Yes. and tar and turpentine. Also men
who can drink distillery dry and still
attend to business. I know several in that
class. but the king bee OF them all Is the
richest Of them all. He makes more money
than he can possibly drink up, and the re-
suit Is that he is away ahead Of the deal.
When he gets to drinking, for he takes to
1t by fits and starts, like toad a-walk.ng.
he keeps right at it until he has to go to
bed. and then he quits He lives In small
town where everybody knows him, and
when he shows up drunk his fam
lily takes all his money away from him and
nobody in the place will let him have
liquor.
still he gets it some way and he Is very
ingenious In That regard. The slickest
thing he ever did he did during the past
summer. AS bis friends thought the sup
ply had been shut off. and when they
found him lying out in the grass of his big
door yard one morning, they thought that
was about as good a place as he could find
to sober up in. and they left him there He
appeared to be quite contented himself and
though he rolled over at intervals and
whooped every now and then, they thought
ne was getting along all right and didn't
disturb him.
BY evening he was still not sobered I'D,
and he was left out of doors all night, the
weather being dry and hot. Next morning
he was still not sober, and when evening
came and the next morning, ard he was
still under the influence, one of his friends
thought 1t was time to investigate. So he
Went to a. second-story window to watch
the man in the yard. and about all he could
discover wac that the drinker would lie
with his face IN the grass awhile, apparent
ly to cool 1t off. then roll over and whoop
once or twice and go to sleep on his back.
This was repeated two or three times be-
fore noon, and by that time the watcher
began to smell a mouse and proceeded to
investigate more closely.
He waited till the drinker was asleep
again. and sof5ly approaching he felt
around in the grass till his hand struck
something. 1t was only bit of reed. such
as pipe stems are made Of but it stuck I'D
couple of inchss through the grass and
going down into the ground on a line with
the reed. the searcher found it passing
en- through a cork and into a two-gallon jug
of whisky. buried about six inches under
the surface. In a4 minute or two he had
urearthed the now nearly empty jug. and
when Mr.. Drinker awoke again and found
that his nice Little game had been inter-
fered with, it hurt his feelings and pride
SO that he went to bed and sobered up
He never said shything about it. nor did
any ore else. but he hasn't worked the
buried treasure racket since"
Bring me CLASP of Potomac water with
the mud on the side. please" said the re-
porter to the waiter. and wondered how far
it was to North Carolina.