The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-03

. H. ii
The little group of travelling men gath
cred In the window of the Windsor hotel
Watehed the kind-hearted citizen and the
ponceman pick up the unfortunate who
had stepped upon the wrong niece or
frosted pavement and after the relief pa--
" disappeared through the door of the
nearby drug store the talk naturally
enough turned to hard luck stories.
one by one the order takers came to
the front with what each man claimed
was the real solid misfortune tale of thf.
correction. The tall traveller told of the
individual who had been slugged on tba
iiedo with piece of lead pipe after hav-
Ing been stopped three times earlier in
the evening by hold-up artists. The fat
man related the little short story of the
oespaIring boy who spent his last 50
cents Tor chance at the gas route ONLY
70 md the room in the lodging house
eqlpped with sixteen-candl incandes-
cents, and the man with the hacking
cough and the sample line of razors
sprung the old one about the determined
farmer who tried three routes at once.
only TO land safe and still living on a
sandbar in the river
Then came the turn of the ioIlv hustler
Tor coffin orders. 1t was up to the cot,
I'M salesman to make good, for he had
refused to even smile at any one of the
series just repeated in, his hearing.
You may all talk about those hard
luck stories," he said, ''but [ have one
mere that will win the first money. This
story OF mine is on the square, too. II
really happened, and many of the old
time pool room sharks will back I'D nv
claim.
Tn the old days the sporty boys up in
TINS neighborhood could find a chance to
lcse their money by going out and ask
Ing any policeman to direct them to the
motor line running down to South st.
Faul. The pool rooms were open down
there, and the motor trains hauled much
money down to the stock yard district.
made this town along about that
time, and one afternoon I accompanied
friend down just to have a try at the
ponies. 1t was mostly a 'piking' bust,
ness, and we 'piked' with the rest.
The pool room was crowded this par,
tlcular afternoon, and we pushed in lust
III time to get our money on the second
race Right behind US came a colorad
man. and this darby boy was after a
ticket. He was evidently backing a
dream, for. he slapped down five large
dollars-aH ne had in the world-on a
thirty-to-one shot
The others pushed us away back TO-
ward the rear and the coIored boy had
to crowd back with u.s. He was anx,-
ious about his money, and the race was
on A step ladder leaned against the
back wall. and in his excit a,nent the eel,
ored boy climbed up to the top step of
the ladder. Up there in the air he stood
and you would almost believe that from
his elevation he could see the race be-
ing called off by the operator.
'Shingle%N Nails at the quarter droned
the ticket clutched in his hand clucked
a git dap and bent forward.
81 'Shingle Nails at the half and the
colored plunger started a dance on that
crazy, shaky ladder.
tThere was nothing but S4hngle Nails
to that race. He led the bunch at the
getaway, he was ahead all the way
around, and when the stretch was reach
ed the operator announced that 'ShingIe
Nails leads by a length.
'The celored boy by this time was
much to the bad He stood up there on
that ladder talking to Shingle Nails and
his eyes looked sure to drop out of the
front of his head.
Come on thar, you boss you, keep
comm an we eats beefsteak,' he shout
ed as he beat the air with his arm.
''Then the ticker licked some more,
and the operator started another an
6 Single Nails wins
1.-THE operator told the rest of the fin
ish, but the colored boy just then at
tracted more attention than did the re-
port of the race. He heard that Single
Nails had made a winning for him and
you may believe it or not but that dark
sinned plunger fell off the ladder in q
dead faint The hired help picked him
up and threw a bucket of water in his
Jri,o Of xyLi I,O,7
him around all right
''Where does the hard luck story come
in?
why. when the eolored fortune winner
fell from the ladder he let go of the
ticket calling for the bundle of bills that
would have looked bigger than house
to him Some tout picked up the ticket,
and before Mistah Johnsing was revived
cashed it and got out Of the way with
the money
S~-~~~~~-~~~-~-o-~-~~~-@~ -~-o~~~~~~~~~~-~-~-o~-c