The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-20
STAR.
STORIES OF THE STREET.

Paul Kruger Pretoria, S. A." drawn
across page on the Ryan hotel register
few nights ago, in a reasonably legible.
but strikingly defective hand, furnished
the basis of some interesting operations
by clump of curious travelling men.
Although they had but read in TIE
morning papers that Paul had anchored
his ship off the shore Of Europe, they
could not Danish the conviction born Of
a thirst for sensation, that the hand
which inscribed that name was any other
than that OF the celebrated president Of
the Ill fated republic in the TransvaaI
They talked the matter over among
themselves and consulted the clerk
Still their faith was strong; nothing had
yet developed to shake it an inch from
its original height Yes, it must be Paul
Dom Paul. come to be protected by the
benign influences Of the Sanity City
where, he had heard, his three country
men had been most cordially received
So. thoroughly imbued with the idea
off went this batch of drummers in quest
for the missing "Oom" They were given
an accurate description of the man who
wrote the name and it tailed with what
they had heard of the original Paul. 1t
was agreed among the travellers that
if this had been perpetrated upon them
as joke by one of their own number
he should be submitted to the severest
courtesies the fraternity had to offer.
At length the clique of eager hunters
ran acrosss what they believed was sure
ly the object of their search. There was
the tall, stately block hat, the rugged
old figure which only a man named Oom
Paul Kruger could exhibit, and best of
all the quaint old face with a big streak
of kindness running through it, and
hedged in on the south by q luxuriant
growth of genuine lamb.equins, the very
thing which characterized the sturdy old
South African from John Bull, with
his Dundrearies. There could be no mis-
take it was Paul and all were anxious
to greet him first and give him the word
of welcome fer which he had come.
Their joy could not be told in words !;
neither could their temperatures be
measured by cold storage thermometer
when at last the supposed Boer had
spoken.
"Git away out of here, you cusses
you; I amt bothering none of you all
and I'll be hanged if I'm going to take
any Of your COMPOUNDED sass They
quit. Every fellow looked at his nearest
neighbor. The air was thick with mutual
agreements relating to keeping secrets
and such things
The old man had come to town during
the day to trade off some butter and
eggs for cash and was waiting for the
neapolis.
The perpetrator of the joke. it is said
managed to survive.
Thev were from Chicago. They said
they were, and they acted it. =
They were jubilating-about what. no
one could guess. They defied any one to
ascertain But they were strictly tenn
perate citizens. They said so them
selves.
why" said one of them, as he de
canted a bottle of bourbon into the
usual glass, that's small drink" pois-
ing the bottle again as he spoke. THAT
isn't more than three-quarters of an
inch. In Chicago, you know, we measure
whisky by the inch. One night we went
out to see how many inches it would
take to get a man full. This was down
at the viaduct on Clark and Twelfth
streets. We drank sixty-six inches, and
we were all full
And the rest of the party Gid not
venture single doubt