Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-06-12
I'VE meet some very strange people

I'VE meet some very strange people
II the course of day." said the down
town clerk, mus
ingly, relates the
"e'''ns en"rp' Chicago Chronicle.
The longer 1 live the more firmly
| become convinced that it takes
all sorts of people to make a
world. Last night, for instance, a
man who appeared to be well-to-do
wandered up to the desk and asked me
how much would charge him for the
privilege Of occupying one of the office
chairs until daylight. l told him that
sort of thing was not customary in this
house and offered to give him comfort
able room at moderate price, but this
he refused and insisted upon renting q
chair. After great deal ct urging
he said that he came from Vermillion,
S. D., and had $1,000 concealed in his
boot. DO you suppose for ten sec
onds,' said he, that am going to trust
myself and my money in one of those
rooms? Suppose the blasted house
caught fire? Suppose some jiggered
sneak thief managed to get into my
room while was asleep, or suppose
three or four hundred other things that
might happen where there is houseful
ofstrangers. And then, again, to tellyou
the truth, 1 don't know the proprietor
of this joint, and am not sure but that
he would undertake the job of easing
me of the cash. No, sir, all want is
place to sit down and watch that
boot. If anything happens am right
on deck and take no chances Another
distinguished stranger" continued the
clerk, "after renting room the other
night, insisted that the bellboy turn off
the light before leaving the room. He
said two friends of his had gone to
the other world by way of the gas
route, and the bell-boy's explanation
of the workings of the incandescent
light failed to satisfy him. He was
willing to undress In the dark. and the
boy took him at his word"
II know there is some poverty in the
world; great deal, in fact, although
w..t.rn, not nearly SO much
as is generally be-
lieved," writes Rob-
ert j. Burdette, in the Los Angeles
Times. "A few years ago, in the black
night of the real hard times that came
when people were trying a political ex-
pertinent which they have never cared
to repeat, and which it is not necessary
tomore particularly specify here, gen
tleman in Portland announced in the
daily papers that he would give bag
| of flour, bushel of meal, and sack
of potatoes. or something equivalent
to them, If preferred by the recipient
to any family who We're destitute, and
who did not use tobacco, or drink whis-
ky, or keep dog. He offered to do
| this for 100 families. And it is said that
he did not receive one application fo1
assistance. Things like this convince
me that there is more wealth In the
|
of hard times is kept up merely be
cause some people have got into thu
habit of it, and don't know how to stop
The drink habit isn't the only ono IL
the world that fastens its clutohe,
upon its victims with hooks Of steel
a Men are Hike the little girl who stopped
crying one day, got interested in he
} happy play, then suddenly stopped
playing and said, sweetly: Mamma
what was crying about little while
agoP' The mother told her. oh. yes!
exclaimed the little cherub, 'boo-hoo
boo-hoo! boo-hoo-oo-oo!' and cried TO
another quarter of IN hour. It becam
pleasure to the child to weep ant
,, wall"
The combined annual expenditure
OF the largest states in the union ar
less than those of the city Of Ne,