The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-29
DANIEL HOGAN,
Corner Broughton and BARNARD S+ree+s

hind his paper, which when he had
gone L opened up and read therein:
The Book says, Not a hair of your
head shall perish Therefore to live
always is simple matter: Never have
your hair cut" There was another old
man who wanted money to secure a
patent on a new kind of refrigerator.
the popularity of which was that it
needed no ice; but again the climax
came with a man who offered to sell
me all the rights and titles in a patent
for a "horseless Sleigh"
So there are the persons with queer
things to sell. One man wanted to I'M
load on me a thousand shares of stock
in a phosphate mine on the West (D
Coast of China. woman came one
day to borrow money to relieve a tenn
porary difficulty, offering to give as
security lease that she said she held
for 10000 acres of oil land in Cuba
There have been men with books and
music, organs, furniture and lamps, up
holstery and fixtures of all kinds APP
propriate to use in church. OF all this
class the most unusual was a man
who wanted to sell to the trustees of
the parish, for a thousand dollars, a
plot of ground which he assured me
would be an ideal spot for a private
cemetery; it was in the most extreme
southwestern corner of the state of
Texas.
Incidentally, there are those queer
attempts to use me as a medium
through which to do business with par
ishioners. Men whom l have never
seen or heard of come to ask me for
letters of Introduction to secure posi-
tions from men who know them as we'll
rather as little-as 1 do Men repre-
senting churches, institutions, hospi-
tails. schools, colleges and what not,
come in droves to ask for opportunity
to lay their needs before the
/ congregation at Sunday service and
beg for collections. One man came
once to beg for list of names Of pew
holders so that he might ply his bust
ness among them, the business being
the raising of Angora cats and pet
! dogs. There was one man, a clergy
! man in former days, who, having
| failed in his profession, had become
! a butcher; on the ground that he had
| once preached in this pulpit long ago.
| he wished me to announce this to the
people and solicit their patronage at
his butcher shop. Following close on
this, but even exceeding it in degree
/ of absurdity, was woman who, haV-
ing seen better days, but being now
compelled to earn a livelihood. had
taken up the industry of raising chick
ems for sale on a farm in Jersey She
came to me once with 700 circulars
each bearing pictures, pounds and
prices of her fowls, and asked me to
have these distributed by ushers in
the pews on Sunday morning.
Finally, there are those persons who
come on personal business interviews
with the clergyman himself Chief
among these are book agents; next in
order of persistency are representatives
OF life insurance companies, and fol-
lowing these men with schemes to sell
you foreign cloth with which to have
your clothes made up by home tailors.
Last of all, and at the same time most
persistent of all agents who approach
the clergy and least of all known
among the laity, is the solicitor of
this or that Sermon Factory" So
called, who offers to prepare for you
by order, from Sunday to Sunday.
your two weekly sermons. Truly. as
the Frenchman once replied to his
friend who assured him that TT takes
all kinds of people to make a world"
l. too. could say Yes; and they are
all here"
But, besides this group of queer
cases, there is that other-a still larger
| group-of fraudulent ones. The repre-
sentative of this group may be most
appropriately styled 1.-The fellow with
a story" The stories that they tell
vary in detail, but on the basis of
some leading feature in the plot NAV
all be reduced to about these Ave;
! First, there are those who saw thew
have been sick; are just out of the
hospital, and are in need of money
to buy clothing, food or medicine. Sec
ondly, there is the man who Is bound
for some point and wants money to paw
carfare; the point may be Ave miles
| or five thousand miles away The
story may be that he has for a long
time been out of work but has the
| offer OF job at that place II he can
only get to II, or that in travelling
/ thither on his own account he has
been robbed or lost his pocketbook or
ticket. Thirdly, there is the man who
| is out of work and consequently ont
! OF money. but has found an oppor-
| tunity to go TO work all of a sudden
If he only had money enough 10 "toln
/ the union" buy a uniform, get clean
| linen out of the laundry lift his kit
| OF tools from some pawnshop, or often
| even 10 pay in advance his first weeks
board bill. Fourth. there IL the man
| who tells tragic tale involving pen.
ury. introducing threats Of Violence
or hints at suicide. Fifth there ar.
bogus solicitors for societies, schools.