The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-09

imagine for a moment that one of those
barrels went back No its rightful owner
Not much. The youngsters knew trick
worth two of that, and unconsciously
played right into the hands Of the Will
aim at the plot who was by that time
having commissions of merriment In his
private office. They took the barrels
out of the alley where they had re-
ceived their tickets and hustled them
around the corner and down on to Main
street. Then seeing that the one they
sought to victimize was not in sight,
they dropped them and hustled for
home.
Seeing that nothing came Of it, some
of the holder spirits returned after a
time and sought for new worlds to con-
qner. few of the older ones, melted
privately thereto by the crafty one be-
hind the scenes, began to suggest to the
others that the barrels would look well
If placed in various prominent positions
like. the city hall steps and Harrington
corner To suggest was to act, and soon
the muddy and disreputable looking
barrels were adjoining every place of
vantage that could be found. Some
were on the street corners and others
peeped out of doorways, while a few
were perched on the steps of the city
hall and the seats on the common.
They attracted lots of interest, and
every one who saw pair of scurrying
boys legs dart up TO the curbstone and
deposit one of the flaming placard bear
ers, stopped to look and wonder, and If
that show was not advertised no such
attraction ever was in this city.
But the police soon became a factor
in the game. No one ever heard of a
policeman being absent when any kind
of barrel was opened, and even the
gRht ms q lxe1 1afl
recollections that brought the tears of
sympathy and regret to the eyes of
every copper of them ALL But "dooty
was dooty," and they began to gather
in the slaves with all dispatch. Word
was sent to the station that the barrel
trust had broken and orders were sent
out to arrest every one caught with a
barrel, on sight.
Several prominent politicians had
narrow escapes, and the arrests were
Kept down by the coppers for aud lang
syne to a single boy who was seen try
ing to put barrel on the lamp-post
in front of democratic headquarters.
He told his story at the station house,
and was let go on promising that he
would never do it any more.
The police sent word to the theatre
that the thing must be stopped, and
the proprietor of the playhouse and the
racket came post-haste to the Waldo
street temple of public morality, and
denied with solemn faces that any
thing of the sort had been countenanced
by them. With saintlike demeanor,
they declared that they would not have
had it happen for the world and that
they could not have believed that the
boys would have been so lost to all
sense OF decency as to have done this
thing.
And as nobody could prove that it
wasn't all SO, the police officialsN gent
ly smiled and remarked that it looked
like rain. Upon which the sly ones
assented that it did, indeed, and
walked out with sanity air that
would have been a credit to Ananias.
From this it may be concluded that
barrels have q peculiar effect on the
atrlcal people whereby they lose their
powers Of reason. This offers a field
for psychological investigation as yet
unparalleled.
Eut after all, no one was seriously in
cOnvenienced by the matter, except a
solitary jagged Individual who wan
dered up Mechanic street just in time
to see one OF the barrels standing in
extensively on the corner of the ave-
nue. and Main street He walked up
to it as well as his deranged compass
would permit him to steer, and peered
at the object with blind wonder
Wash thish?" he remarked, in a
manner that would indicate he had
made remarkable scientific discov-
cry 'Thish looksh like bari, feels
like bar'l I'D if it amt bari;
whatsh dom here, anyway"
Getting no response, he proceeded to
investigate. Leaning over as If he
was gazing down into a bottonless
abyss, he peered into the depths of the
receptacle He evidently saw some
thing that interested him, for he reach
ed further in. He was short man
and the barrel was deep Of it's kind.
The inebTiate leaned further and fur
ther and soon the catastrophe came
With sudden treacherous lurch, the
barrel resented the Investigations into
it's interior, and ingulfed the investiga-
tor. With a muffled howl, his head
went down and his heels up, and as
the barrel rolled over and careened off
towards the Union station, a whole
temperance lecture was heard to
emerge as through a fog from the in
terror Of the revolving combination
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