The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-05
THE COIN TBLLER'S
 LATE ATONEMENT,

LATE AT0NEMENT.
 Continued from Tenth Page) into an expansive grin, and he chuck led geefully for a full minute before answering my query whereupon he said:
 " oh, yes, 1 savy heap Chinaman fusnem An. Pulle near all Chinaman catchee that nem. My nem,' he added by way of example, him An Fat
 :" But the Chinaman I want, l eX- plained he buy certificate to-day send China. You savy him?'
 '" 'Catchee clitifcate thlee hun ed fifty dollah? inquired the Celestial as- tutely.
 '" Yes, yes, he's the chap l eagerly rejoined. Do you know where he is?'
 :" Oh, yes; he go China!'
 " Gone to China Why, man. he buy certificate only half hour ago.
 T saw was the comfortless as- surance. He go to China bou' ten sec onds ago.
 Ten seconds ago! l echoed, gazing WEuly uOWn tlle StTSSl w IilNA NttS him sone?
 Pa way go lailload, pa way go ste 'mboat.'
 Yes but which one railroad? l persisted desperately.
 '' No savy him. One lailload-two 1ailload, ale sem Chinee.
 My hopes of ovef'talsing the wrong ed Celestial were rapidly dissipated. One chance only of returning his money to him now seemed open to me.
 '' See here Fat said confidential ly, depositing a coin in his yellow palm, by way of holding his interest. You tell me all you know bout this China boy, will your
 He scrutinized the coin critically for a moment as if to satisfy himself as to it's genuineness, then trusting It into some hidden pocket within the folds of his baggy pantaoons. he ran his littl eyes suspiciously over me and asked:
 'Whalla matta China boy? You detective, like catchee fo' get China eh?'
 No, no; not that" I protested aversely I China boys friend-got money belong him-like pay him savy%
 Wy you no poy fo' him gone?' was the still skeptical rejoinder
 s"Whereupon I told him the story of the certificate, explaining that I wished to send the amount in my possession to the owners address in China, The suggestion, however, elicited no enthu siam from An Fat
 !" No can do,' he declared with con vincing brevity.
 |" But why not, I persisted You know China boys name and where he's gone, don't you?
 " oh, yes; him nem An Sin, an he go China. But China not sem like Meli- can town. China ale sem big countlee.'
 T accepted this latter statement as incontrovertible and went back to the treasury. What to do with that BIO was the most difficult problem l. ever wrestled with.
 Finally an idea struck me. I would put another $10 with that of the China mans and take the entire sub-treas- ury force out to dinner. It was the Dilly way l touu CpiIttiNS NitiFbS tp rid myself of that beastly roll of silver
 "So l gave the dinner but every dish on the board seemed branded with the accusatory legend 'Ah Sin.
 That night I had a dream. thought I had been cast among many tribes, whose manners and religions were alike perplexing and diverse but none were so vile as the Christian. He 1t was who had reviled me without cause and robbed me of my earnings. And when I had returned to my own land and found that the Christian was seeking to SOW the seeds of his re- ligion among my people I was wroth in my heart, and made a VOW that while I lived my hand should be raised against him and my voice against his 
 Early the next day I communicated with a foreign missionary association and pledged myself to pay each quar- ter throughout the remainder of my life an interest of 10 per cent. per month on that $10 deficit, the amount to be applied solely to Chinese mis- sions, Therein lies my one hope of some day reaching my unintentional victim and of convincing him that all are not like the one he may nave mistaken for an example of the creed St Louis Globe-Democrat.