Sunday morning globe., 1901-08-25
A. FAIRY Tale
We Have Read Somewhere in The
Dim Past
OF HOW TRAINED GRASSHOPPERS
Robbed The Cash Boxes Of the Old BOb-TaIled
Street Cars The Man Who Trained Them
for the Business Made a Snug income
Until the Boxes We're Changed An Old
Conductors Story.

did you ever hear of a grasshop-
per helping a man to steal?' said an
ola street railway conductor to The
Globe well, | remember in Denver
Col, several years ago there was a
street car driven who learned the trick
and then resigned, deyoting all his
time to providing street car men with
bugs OF the required size and strength.
I'm those days bobtail cars were
used In when every passenger depos-
| tied his own fare I'm a cash box at the
front This driven, or conductor, I'm
! trying to pull out coins with wire and
other things had but little success.
One day he was ooung with a grass
| hopper and noticed the fierce clutch Of
1 its front feet when he tried to lift 1t
| by its hind legs. The thought struck
| him that he could use the insect to rob
the cash box of his car and he tried it,.
| IL worked to a charm. The conductor
held the hind legs of the bug and push
ed 1t head foremost down through the
coin slot. .dr. Grasshopper flung his
front leet around wildly, feeling for
anything to clutch, untl. he reached
the little pile Of coins and grasped the
first one he reached so firmly that
bug and money could both be with
drawn.
This conductor worked his money
box so hard with grasshOppers that he
was cautioned about the small receipts
Of his car Then he decided that his
opportunities as a driver were too linn
tied, and he resigned He caught
lot of the biggest hOppers, and even
trained them He found that a little
practice i'm picking up nickels dimes
and quarters made the bugs much
more intelligent, and they worked fas-
ter After getting in a supply of thor
Oughly well-posted hOppers, he inter
viewed the street car drivers all over
the city and offered to provide them
with a supply of grassh0ppers, war
ranted to pull a coin at every attempt,
for a certain amount daily. In few
weeks the receipts of the DenYer rail
roads fell off about thirty per cent,
and the officials were nearly crazy, as
they could discover nothing I'm the traf-
tic conditions to justify such state OF
affairs.
In the meantime the inventor of
the grasshopper scheme was rolling in
luxury He had nearly 100 clients,
each Of whom paid him from 90 cents
to a dollar a day. He got so much
wrapped in his scheme that he claimed
he could pick out big grasshoppers
with large, intelligent though rather
protruding eyes and bulby heads, and
after course Of severe training could
educate them to a height of efficiency
which made them pick up quarters in
stead of nickels or dimes. He charged
a u
the conductors told me that they really
would grab the biggest coin i'm the
bottom of the box and leave the nick
els until the quarters were gone
"They would begin on the nickels
next, however. and leave the dimes
until the last. because I'm spite of their
university education they could not tell
that the smaller dime wae worth more
than the larger nickel.
"The great pet of the grasshopper
trainer was one big bug which could
spit tobacco like a canal boat captain,
and looked as If it could swear as
hard as It wanted to- That old man
said he had thought this hopper that
a dime was worth more than nickel
One day, after il had been thoroughly
grounded in arithmetic, he said he
was giving it its usual afternoon spin
down through the coin SLOT of a dummy
cash box he kept at home to train the
bugs. The big grasshoppeT pulled out
The quarters one by one and never
made a move for the other coins until
all the 25-cent pieces were safely
cutched I'm his claws and removed to
the outside. When all the quarters
had been removed the Old man put the
hopper back to get the dimes. He said
it gave him a sort Of sly look as he
pushed its head through the coin slot.
Holding it's hind legs, he let the in
sect's fore feet touch the pile of nickels
and dimes remaining I'm the bottom of
the box.
"The prize bug did not promptly
reach for the nearest dime and grip it
IN its strong feet. The old man was
Mortified to see il apparently about to
return TO the paths OF ignorance, but
he waited and watched. He told me
that his pet bug deliberately pushed
away nickels and scraped together
dimes until il had three right under 1t,
and then it put its toes under the bot
tom one, and, hugging the three coins
bo its breast, looking around as II to
say, All right, pull away
when he got the bug and the three
dimes out OF the box and put them
down on the table that old man told
me, the grasshopper dropped the coins
and then hoped around in a glad,
proud way that brought tears to his
eyes.
1T sure was a great Scheme but IL
was toe good to last. All the spoilers
the company put on could not discover
how the robberies were committed 1t
did look pretty bad to see drivers be-
ginning to wear silk hats. red neck
ties and buttonhOle bouquets while on
their cars, but there was nothing really
criminal i'm that Most of the mefr
soon got TO hiring hOstlers to do the
stable part of the work, and they all
got into such luxurious habits gener-
ally that several had to retire on rath-
er modest fortune because their
health suffered from me exposure TO
the weather. II was plain TO be seen
that the deficit in receipts was due to
robbery on the cars, and after a long
palavar the directors decided that It
would be best to employ the smartest
detective they could find. They had
to send East for one who was way up
on the street railway stealing, and
they got the best That fellow was a
wonder. He took hold as soon as he
lit in town, and the first thing he did
was to have the cash box taken Off the
first car that turned in. The detective
carried It away and examined II care
fully, every part Of It, He tried all
sorts Of ways to get the two niclSels
that we're left after a trip through the
business section OF the city and
transaction In the suburbs by the drlv-
err and his bug, but coulu not get any
ming In the slot that would take out
the coins
Then he opened the thing and close
ly Inspected the inside. In a minute