The sun., 1902-01-26

past Inc Dohee. Ihen we move rikh, eAy.e'
No. we're not doing two foot more tiisn
| thirty-six miles an hour Just now" and the
conductor looked around at the three OF US us
| got bet on it2'
"The big man had risen by this time
| to get at his pocketbook, and from the
purplish look on his face thought for a
| few seconds that he was going 20 dle
| standing up. i observe that all square
jawed. cock-sure looking ducks are haro
| losers.
fifties out OF the middle compartment
| handed them over to the bet-you person.
who was lighting one Of those hoochee-
| coochee smokes, tossed his fine, hall,
| smoked cigar into a cuspidor and thrashed
out Of the compartment as II he'd hearo
that the bubonic plague ragged In there:
-He lost out, ehF said the conductor,
grinning and jerking his finger In the
direction the big man had gone and then
the conductor left, too. shaking his head
| amusedly.
manf' asked the jerky chap, folding away
the two fifties and gazing at me In rather
a hurt manner. 4 was right, wasn't II
1T wasn't up to me, and 80 only turned
II of and presently went forward, How
honest Injun glad was that hadn't taken
a piece Of the big mans bet, as had been
sorely tempted to do, TO get my twenty-five
back and little more.
.Well, this bet-you individual picked
'em right. with never a fall-down, right
through to Omaha, and by the time we
reached that dreary burg there must We
been at least ten or twelve fellows on the
train that he'd bet-you out OF punches
varying from twenty to hundred And
IL was impossible for any OF us that'd been
hauled In by him to suspect for an instant
that he was in any sense connerino' ior
he wasn't
.He simply had a DEVILS own faculty
for getting things straight and he won out
on some OF the dog-gonedest propositions
/ ever heard. For instance, he bet tele.
grapher, a chief operator at that. who'd
been punching a key for a quarter OF a
century, that he couldn't get within five
years Of naming the year In which Morse
Invented the telegraph:
sGally, wasn't iti Well, blamed II he
didn't get away with 1t for twenty-dollar
motel The chief operator took as a basis
for calculation the date upon which Morse
sent that first telegraph message between
baltimore and Washington, and so he
decided to give Morse two or three years
to've actually invented the telegraph be-
fore that message was sent.
$50 he said that the telegraph was in
wanted in ls43 by Morse. He lost out, for
Morse actually made the invention in the
wear 1s37-which the jerky man conclus-
ivelv proved-and that made the sore
telegraph man just six little old years shy
OF being right.
Again. he bet-you'd a mining engineer
who seemed TO have the whole thing at his
fingers ends and who got to talking about
the richness of Montana copper, that he
couldn't name what country came right
after the United States In the production
of copper. Nervv, that, eh, under the
circumstancesl But he picked that one
up and waltzed of with il, too.
"The mining engineer turned red when
II was put to him. but he was game enough
10 put his twenty-five to the venture. and
he said that Germany was the country.
that Spain--whod ever think o Spain
in connection with copperY-had Germany
skinned of the map in tine production OF the
metal and was next after the ntted states
In that matter and the twenty-five was
his'n lust something easy.
well. when the train began to hike
Chcapoward some Of us sufferers at the
hands OF that get-it-all bet-you man began
70 frame up and formulate a Crouch among
ourselves.
This thing said we-and most OF us
were through travellers to New York
this thing can not go on. It's too easy for
him. He is already far, far too rich. II Is
incumbent upon US. not only as men OF good
moral character and virtuous citizens OF
the Republic, but as persons desirous of
preserving our reputations Tor average
foxiness, to get some OF that good dough
back Wherefore. let us get rig n together
and devise ways and means 20 tnat end
which we did. After the conference.
having been chosen. ! walked hstlessly
into the smoking compartment, where
knew the jerky man with our money was,
smoking his Oriental fumigators aud,
sitting opposite him and waiting Tor pro-
Der interval 20 elapse, ! yawned, and then
spoke up and spake thus unto him:
Funny how these lunchroom thieves
along the road'l do travellers, isn't itl
q . Ia l.tafs arfs / Ugf
at tie last stop. where got sandwich,'
and handed him over quarter
sHe looked az Il carefully, Inspected
both sides 81 IL. and then rang u three or
four times on the sill Of the window beside
he scat
Nothing the matter with that coin
he said, finally 'lt's as good a. they're
made. What makes you think is badF
Il scratched nv chin obviously and
told him that. somehow or another, u didn't
seem right 10 M" He took the coin ags'n,
rang % some more, examined IN" lhiillhg
with great care and then said
BIT YOU hundred that coin wa made
al the Mint
I'm 10 you" said !. looking Kind o
crertfallsn and doublfult ard just then
thre" OF four others who'd b"en brl-youd
drifted IN
'They took a look a, no coin. heft.i II
and sized it up generally, and They said
that they'd string in f1f d hun irri each,
themselves, ou the pfupusiil1u lhhl lhr
0uarte- was phony Nos that Looked
liko q pfetiy raw put-up lob, hu' ui" i"i-
you pfr-ou had is-n winning uui ro 'pin-
p.ttcIy ani thr Uuiu NaH absolutely 90 god
that ho thuugut nOihng ~ 10" "ihris
bu.tlpE Ben
no lo1h hundred each from hse -
ti- thai Lr va uEif aud hat thr ,liD poe
ufu Ilrl Peoria lama uash.cf va
ua.lHt lu 40 ds.ltr
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