The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-22
In Strict Confidence the Tale Is Told
to the Town and All
Smile.


With joyful sense of citation.
Here's to him in dry"
Drink deep! is the cry,
health to the head of the nation
DRAYMEN FIND BOTTLED ELIXIR
In simple prose the goods and chattels
of Mr.. Cleveland have arrived and have
been removed from the Pennsylvania
station to the Slidell house, which he
recently purchased, and while portion
of the contents of the presidents pri-
vate cellar was in transit sundry bot
ties of rare wine and whisky mysteri-
ously disappeared 3f
The steward of the house among the
signing frs knows nothing about it.,
nor the hOusekeeper Not they. The
caretaker says he wots not of the ribald
tale. The signing frs are not more
solemn than these faithful sarvitors
who wait their masters coming
But Princeton knows fand laughs over
it, and the college knows and sings
of it in several blithe. stanzas which
tell how the baggage-sm smashing truck
men drank Mr.. CleVeland's health at
Mr.. Cleveland's expense.
There were, as then story relates,
eight car loads-not of wine bless your
soul, but of lares land penates and
things-and as it is What truckmen call
a short haul from the station to the
presidents new home the work of trans
fer went on rapidly
BROKEN CRATE EXCITEs THIRST
But so runs the tale-one end came
out Of crate which was being moved,
and 1t CHANGED to be on the truck OF
a sinful person.
1t was a raw day and no one was
locking. He knocked the neck off a
bottle and drank deep. 1t was rare
stuff, and before his journey was half
over he finished the bottle, tossed the
empty over a hedge, and went his
way, grooming mournfully because he
could not have such tipple daily.
When 1t had warmed his heart sons
what he recollected that of the eight
truckmen who had been hired two were
drinking pals Of his. 1t was too good
a thing to keep. He stopped, ostensi-
bly, to give his horses rest, and when
the others came up he slyly commune
Gated his secret.
They hid a store Of bottles and
are many accounts of the extent OF the
haul" The commonest mentions
fifteen bottles of wine and four Of
Scotch whisky.
GAYETY BUBBLES FROM THEIR
BREASTS
The serious business of moving a
president went on right merrily as the
afternoon wore away. Three of the
truckmen sang as they tugged at
the boxes, and we're even seen to laugh
immoderately without apparent cause.
To the soberer spirits who asked the
cause of their mirth the trio replied
darkly: -+"
"Groverll be here in a day or two.
You ask him.
Then they clatteTed down Bayard
avenue, whipping with unusual vigOr
and occasionally bursting into song,
But rapidly as they drove, their trips
to the station occupied an extraordi-
nary period, and when they returned
they were merrier than before. The
fact was that they had pulled up at
the place where they had slowed their
plumber to drink the presidents health.
If they had done no more a discOV-
cry might have been averted, for your
Princeton truckman, carries a SurprlS-
ing quantity Of liquor without disas>
ter But this was new brand. 1t
looked innocent and was not followed
by the immediate, shock derived from
the everyday truckman's tipple here.
The confusion it wrought was no less
sure.
The secret which one man had found
too good to keep was too good in
time for three. They invited few
"good fellows from the freight shed
and a few cab drivers, telling them
all to keep it dead quiet" They drank
with their guests, of course, and then
they piled some more of the president S
boxes on their carts and set out for
the house of President Cleveland.
BY the time they reached 1T the
good liquor shouted bOisterously, to the
great scandal Of a Scotch person who
unloading and
unpacking of the great mans eftects.
The gayety of the two drivers called
Fritz and "Skilly'' he found particu-
larly shocking and when they dropped
box covered with handle with care
signs his wrath and his suspicious
found voice. +z--- -
"Ye're fur" he said, severely, blind
fu'. Fine doings movin' Mr.. Clieland's
luggage. I'll report the twa O. ye."
And he did, but small effect it had
upon the mirthful drivers
Get a boord, Scotty," they said, land
we'll put " up agin' the finest booze
y ever tickled yer t'roat with. We
don't move a president only onct a
year.
They hauled no more that day, nor
the next, and little. they cared.
NINETEEN BOTTLES VANISH.
The Scotch pers9n informed the
other SOBER men aUQut the mouse OF
his suspicious, and an autopsy on one
of the boxes disclosed horrid void
due to the removal Of nineteen bottles
beyond measure, hot so much at the
loss, as at the taJgk Which they feared
| must follow.
Their fears wers 5llStified by develop
ments. The hilarious trio, having re-
viled the Scot and asked him if ne
thought there should ibe no more cakes
and ale simply bffauSse he didn't know
a good thing wien She saw it, went
| confidence.
When erDer they aenied what they
had betrayed in, their cups, and the
result was that astonishing versions OF
the story got abroad. One of them
was woven into the song which is
being hummed by the college men, and
more innocent accounts of the matter
are tea table talk in society.
Such Is the tale Of the bibulous truck
men. and 1t accounts for the solemnity
which reigns in the house under the
signing frs.
| Mrs. Cleveland, it is generally expect