The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-27
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AN ADVENTUROUS ETHICS.
Crooked Work Doesn't Pay Is the
Conclusion He Reached.


From the New York Sun.
yes" said the ticket seller, as he leaned
back in his chair to rest during a lull In
the line of excursionists, "there are differ
ent standards of morality and all of that,
but let me tell you one thing; it is never
worth while for a man to steal small
sums, and I've come to the conclusion that
even the big lifts never pan out as one
wants them to.
What made me think of that? Well,
don't know. You see, I sit here for hours
sometimes without doing much, and then
have to think. Perhaps those brass bars
in front of me suggest thoughts of moral
ity and such things. At any rate as I
was going to say, it is hardly worth while
to do any crooked work. I've been all
over the world-Mexico Cuba, Texas, Cal
ifornia, South America, and all around
and I've come across more shippers and
crooks than you could shake a. stick at,
and every one of EN- is a miserable cuss.
I've seen 'em haul out their rolls of big
bills like nabobs, but there's always some
thing lacking in 'em. l never saw one
that wasn't scared of his own shadow
Why, only last year 1 ran across Blank
down in Buenos Ayres You know he left
this city with a couple of hundred thou
known him from away back, and his son
was my chum for a while. He was stand
ing in front of a cheap saloon down there.
and looked at him for some time before
1 went up to him. Say, when / struck
that chaps shoulder with my hand he
gasped and looked as frightened and
white as If he had seen a ghost
Oh said 1, 4 know you, my man.
and he tried to put on a bold front and act
as if he was offended. But didn't take
his bluff at all, and he soon quailed. Then
l asked him in to have a drink to steady
his nerves and to give some rest to those
| restless hunted-like eyes of his Then he
offered to pay for the drinks, and came
near kicking him out into the hot street.
Why, [ could no more have drunk off his
money than nothing. Poor. miserable, de-
| luded fool, He came back here and gave
himself up few months after-couldn't
stand it any longer. Partner, that's no
life for me.
"Oh, I'm no angel. told you that be-
fore. I've done some crooked things be-
fore this but tell you / have been sorry
every time. The biggest deal 1 ever made
brought me in something up in the thou
| sands, and although it was done in what
| they call business tell you l always re-
member Ii with regret. The only consola-
ton that I have is the fact that the job
| wasn't put up on any one man, but on a
| blasted British syndicate, and besides, We
| did the work so well that it was some fun
in seeing them get fooled out of their
money. 1t was out i'm the gold mines
| down near the Mexican border-never mind
| just where. My two pardners and / had
| worked our blamed old claim until we had
got sick of the business, and we had about
| decided to clear out, because the ground
| had all been worked out. You see, most
| of the claims had were all disused Spanish
ones, and mighty few came there. Finally
4 l. 4
noW-thought of a plan to line our pockets
| for a while He had learned that this
| blamed Britishers syndicate had an agent
| looking around and snoopin' around for
a good bargain. We put our heads to-
| gether, and that night we shotgVnned the
claim.
"Oh, you don't know what to shotgun a
claim means? I'll tell YOU It's simple. You
| get a muzzle-lo loader and load her up pretty
| far and tight and then ram some Of the
| finest gold dust you can procure down the
barrel. Then lamp the whole thing down
| hard, stand off a few yards from the
walls. and let her go. Why, man, take
| that decomposed quartz and you can blow
| the dust in so as to fool the best of ex-
perts. OF course, you have got to do the
| thing in artistic shape 1 knew the trick
and L did the shotgun act to perfection.
! The upshot of II all was the Brtisher
| snapped up an offer. Good jingoi he stood
| no more cHstuCe VI tifAAS VII thdt cidih
| than a SNOWFALL in hades-that's the way
Nesbit put it, as we were going along on
/ the road the next day with our pockets
filled up with British gold. His money
was as good as any ones f3ma 1--WE were
more or less drunk on part Of it for about
| two weeks.
THAT was common trick. II wasn't
| half as good as the one 1 heard they
| played on a Chinaman down near there
| just as We struck the diggings. There
| were several old Cinnamon down there
raising beets and cabbages, and one Of
'em had piled up something like $4,000. A
man named Hawkins had a claim near the
| Chinaman's quarters, and he resolved TO
fleece the pigtail. He kept caring in
good soil on the sly, and the way he
sprinkled bought dust around there was
a caution Then he took a partner In
| with him for bluff and they kept work.