The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-10-14
IT LED TO REFORM.
The Thirsty Loafer Got the Wrong Jal
 of the Battery.

of the Battery.
 The manner in which reform came to the telegraph office in one certain little city of the west was interesting. To be sure, no great or radical change was necessary, for the only sin which hung over the office was the habit which lily Dayson, the operator, had of sending his messenger out with glass battery jar when the night happened to be ex- cessively warm. The boy, on return in, carried the jar very carefully, for not only did he desire to preserve the foamy contents from stopping out, but he also had to watch closely so as not to attract the attention of any one who might inform the manager of Dayson's little sin.
 One night the boy was sent forth with the jar,, and, returning, saw the day manager bending over the front counter talking to Dayson. The boy was wise, and concealed the jar in the shawods of the back room. Young Mercury did not know he had been fol- lowed by an interested person, but he had. Joe Travis, local loafer with a perpetual thirst, had noticed the pass l age of the jar with it's topping of foam, and when, after the day manager had gone, Dayson turned to the rear room to get his refreshment, he was just in | time to see Travis setting a glass vessel upon the floor. Travis departure was | immediate and informal.
 | Dayson at first was grieved. You internal thief" he cried, you've stolen my beer!'
 No he didn't, MT. Dayson," the boy called from the front. Its settin' over there in the other corner" Dayson looked and saw that the messenger spoke truly. He was puzzled
 That fellow drank something, sure, . he said. T saw him with a battery jar at his lips and-great Moses! Police! Fire! Catch him! Joe Travis has drank a jar of battery and he's as good as dead!" For the operator had now found a battery jar, empty but for about a quart of blue vitriol and some scales of copper and zinc.
 You go that way and I'll go this!' Dayson called to the messenger. Some body's got to get a stomach pump to that fool of a thieving ,loafer!" And l away ut Spcu llllO tIc ulSHl.
 He heard from Travis at the next corner. The battery thinker had whip ped two policemen and three citizens and had gone devastating down the street. Dayson thought it as we'll tc say nothing about the drinking episode until he should get into the presence of the victim. He traiied Travis, there fore.
 Overturned signs, broken windows and wildly flying lights marked the course taken by Travis. The fire en- zine house was in a state of uproar l for human comet shortly before had rushed in and had attacked the alarm bell with an axe, had blacked the eye of the man on watch, and had run of with a hose reel. There never was such a time in the history of that city. Men who never before had been whipped were whipped that night by the flying I believing Travis. He kicked in doors and yelled demoniacally for sleeping residents to rouse and fight him. He ran amuck. Dayson, with a heart full of misgivings, continued in the quest.
 They ran Travis down and rounded him up eighteen miles out in the coun- | try and forthwith lynched him, whicf was an extremely unfriendly thing tc do, but the people were somewhat fri tated Dayson was at the lower end of the rope with the others of the up. right and moral citizens and he pulled first and hardest He afterward ac- knowledged that he had been in @ colo chill until he was sure that Travis was beyond the point where he could make remarks and trace his course of de struction to it's source in the telegraph office back room.
 | But after that a strange spell of to- | tai abstinence settled down over the | telegraph establishment, which, O. course, is quite fit and proper for sucf | nstitutions.-Chicag Record.