Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-09-03
New York sun.

New York sun
Booze grafters?" growled the mixer
in charge of the buffet bar in one of
The Broadway hotels. Say, there are
more of them pounding the route this
year than l ever saw before. I'm
braeed by 'em this season about TWEEN
~ times a day, or the average.
The fellows that l do the produc-
ing for are not regular booze grafters.
They're fellows that need what they
come right out and ask for. There
was one young fellow came in here a
couple of years g last winter and
told me that he thought he knew of a
Mace where he could put away about
four good drinks to advantage. The
young fellow was well-dressed, but he
had no overcoat On, and it was around
zero at the time. He was shivering
from the cold and from the effects of
the game he'd plainly been up against.
He had a frank map on him and on
the-level way of handling his talk, and
T nut up the bottle of the best and told
him that / wouldn't be looking. He
pushed three big ones in in a hurry,
and then told me that he'd come on
from Chicago the week before, and
that all the rest vas M loop-the-
looms dream. He'd been buZzed for his
watch, gig lamps and oyercoat, and
when he woke up on the morning that
he hit me up for enough of the stuff
10 get him going again he was properly
shredded and ready to be packed away
In the ornamental ean There's not
much going around that gets me
WOODY, but l kind % felt sorry for this
Young fellow with the albright stack
HID. and SO / pushed my fin into the
pajams and harpooned out an ace.
"4Hey, there, buck says | to the
lad. hurl this into your vest for the
shave and the shine and maybe a doss
when it gets dark, and you'll be all
right
AZ felt a bit cheap when he shook
his head and thanked me, but l was
dead certain then that he was the
goods. He told me that he'd land back
at the home sack all right, threw one
more in, and went away.
"Well, I'd forgot all about him, when
he come a-sailing in last winter, just
before Christmas, with all the toys
that were fit to wear and enough oil
the carbons on him to make an Ameri-
can chorus girl in London look neglect
ed. He didn't have any of the bun Win
him. but asked me for a vichy and milk
and then began to kin o rubber
around to find out II | was married and
and had any kids. He yanked 1t out OF
me that | was, and then he puts the
gimlet in again and found out where
I camped my family. Then lie settled
for the drinks I'd tossed over to him
when he needed them right bad, and
went away.
"On the night before Christmas a
wagon. loaded to the roof. fetched up
alongside the curb in front Of where
live, and the two men on the wagon be-
gan to dump the stuff into my plant.
told EN- that they'd got it mixed and
that they must have got me twisted FOR
some other millionaire, but no, they
said that they had it right, n handed
me a neat Merry Christmas note for
self and family from that young Chi
cago duck. There was enough Christ
mas gear in that wagon to stock
Harlem store, and for about half an
hour the wife was looking me over out
of the slants of her eyes, trying to hg-
ure out whether | was starting a fence.
haven't seen the young fellow since,
but the kids are still playing horse
with the big stack of plumber that de
sent around just to make good for a
few little old gulps ou of the bottie
when he was so framed up that he
needed>'em the worst way.
@But | started to spiel about the pro-
fessional booze grafters. and that
young fellow of course wasn't n OF
tat kind. These buns of the race
tracks are the foxiest booze grafters
in the business. l gave one of 'em his
only the other day.. Yes, he got me
for a few, but when it came to getting
hunk I was there with the goods.
HE first pranced in here about a
month ago, bought, put up a bit OF
chin, took a look at the race ticker,
asked me If I was going out to-day
this kind of CRATER thinks he makes
a hat with the barkeep from the jump
by taking it for granted that he's a
dead game and visits the track every
afternoon-and then he passed along.
Came around the next morning, and
the next, and put up the same stunt.
On the fourth morning he shambled in
with a kalsomine O. gloom splattered
all over him.
"'Uh-huh,' says I, handing out the
-sII