The San Francisco call., 1898-01-30
A SIMPLE {
 SON ( OF ITALY. (
0 o 0 o o o o o O c

o O o o o o o eao presided over by a flaxen haired individ- ual commonly known as Charlie the Ieuton,' on account of his origin The porter. who takes care of that nortfon of the building, has no name at all that anv one has ever been able to discover. so Is referred to as the "Dago." The "Dago,, Is a firm believer in the possibilities of the Little Louisiana lottery. and never allows month to pass without taking at least one shy at the game He is con sidered by Skinner and Charlie to he rather simple sort of a fellow. and ie consequently made the object of many practical jokes, which. somehow or other nave never yet turned out exactly as the two perpetrators figured they wouId These miscarriages of their attempts to be funny have never been ascribed to any cleverness on the part of the ''Dapo as 1t was considered impossible that so unsophisticated a being as inc intended victim of their plans couId possibly have the. cunning to cjrcurn- vent two such wise persons as his tormentors. A little circumstance that occurred the other day. however, has rather shaken their faith in their own acuteness and the simplicity of inc ''DaGo." The "Dago" had purchased 9 ticket in the lottery. and with his ac- customed faith in human nature had shown it to his friend ''Dutchman." The day of the drawing this untutored child of sunny Italy came out to the front of the cigar stand to clean up. as usual. and as he set about the work he handed the man behind the counter a list of the win hing numbers that he had Just received telling that person to glance over 1t and see if there was anything doing, as he himself had not yet had time to look The first number that Charlie sought for was the one he remembered to have soon on the "Dagos" ticket. and as soon as he cast his eye down the column and found that 1t had drawn an approximation prize of s he began to figure on the bull luck of some people who haven't enough savvy to come in out of the rain. Have l anything there. Charlie?" asked the ''Dago." as he continued to push the mon over the floor. Not thing, old man answered the willy German but I hate to see you come out at the short end every time. and a little bet that Skinner and I made yesterday may give me 2 chance to help you out. A fellow came in here and said that every ticket in the city had been sold and that we could not purchase one for love or money. We bet him $l0 we could. Now, if you keen vour mouth shut about the matter we will give you S2 50 for your ticket. which is no good to you now" The transaction was made and the 'Dago" went inside. Ieay- ing Charlie and Skinner laughing over the way they had fooled him at the small expense of S1 9 apiece.
 Just then the lottery agent came by and the ticket was passed over to him for collection. This ticket Is worth nothing" said the seller of chances '.The last number on this is 6. and the approx imation number is S." Charlie and Skin ner grabbed the list given them by the "Dago" and found by careful inspection that the last figure of the fatal number had, by means of a little ink, been changed from a to an S.
 This story got out because the "Dago'' was so simple that he could not keen his mouth shut about the transaction. as directed to by the knowing Charlie