The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-05-16
@HAT youngster. mex door has
Z been pickin up all the OF bot
ties an sellin' 'em at the drug
cfOyo fov & .oontc apioco o,,s

there'n be trouble in the
neighborhood, or / miss my
guess. Jimmie Baxter did the same thing
over in his block las week. an, it wasn't
long fore the other young luns wanted to
make money jes' the same way Jimmie
was dom. There isn't any disease more
contagious 'mong children n the nicke!
fever an they were all yearnin to catch
it. Tommie Snow threw out two bottles
Of his mothers peach preserves, so he
could take the bottles to the drug store
an Billie Lee was jes carryin'- up a case
of empty beer bottles from the cellar when
his mother saw him.
g What you goin to do TIL those?' says
she to him, says she.
Buy a gun, says Billie, stoppin' to
res. The druggist IL pay 5 cents apiece
| for 'em, Jimmie Baxter says, an that
means so cents for me-
'He was considerably disappointed when
his mother toI him that If the druggist
| paid him cents his father d have to pay
the beer man, so there really wouldn't be
much money in the deal for the family.
I" How m gOin' to get my gun if you
don't let me go into BUSINESS says Billie
an he was half cryin' when he carried the
case back.
| 1T wasn't fifteen minutes fore he had
his fingers on the OF brass pan his mother
had out in the kitchen for the girl to
clean. She bought it in the east in
secon' han shop an there isn't much in
| the house t she cares more for. Seems If
folks think more of the Oh things they
bu n what they have There's Mrs.
Gray. She foun an OIL chair in a dirty
shop on Washinton av'nue t she had
fixed up for her parlor, never thinkin' Of
all tn oil things in her own attic.
"'But they aren't the same says she
to me, when reminded her.
That's true says l. They aren't.
Those upstairs you've got for nothin' an
this cos you $685. says I. That's quite
a difference says I.
But as was sayin' Billie Lee was
4 sellin' that brass pan to a junk peddler
when his mother saw him from the win
4 dow. For a momen' I thought the junk
man had Kidnapped Billie an was drivin'
AWAY til him the way Mrs Lee rushed
4 out of the house. The junk man had
Il given Billie seven cents for the pan an
4 Mrs. Lee had to pay a quarter to buy
4 it back.
After that Billie got some disheartened
4 bout goin' into business, but it wasn't for
i long an he followed me roun to get the
rags It I was usin' in eleanin'
The peddler'n give me a quarter of a
cen a poun' for 'em, says he.
Il didn't tell him how many rags 1t
!. takes to make poun' for there's no use
in gettin discouraged fore youeb begin a
thing. An all the time he kept tellin'
! me how much Jimmie Baxter made after
. they cleaned house by sellin' OF things
from the attic an the cellar.
d An once says he, there were three
. junk men dickerin 'th Jimmie at once,
J says he, as + Jimmie d been sent for te
take lunch TIL the president.
! "Jimmies jes' about the bigges' boy il
that neighborhood tho doubt if he
! weighs fifty pounds an as say he's made
4 trouble for EVERYBODY in the block. i
3 isn't all the fault of the Children, for
. heard Mr.. Lee say to Billie that night
]. says he: Did you knowss't Jimmie Bax
litter has nearly hundred dollars I'm tht
e bank q he earned himself.
y 81 An, Billie squirmed as If he knew hess
o fought to have bank book, too. Boys an
. somethin like men. They don't like t,
: be toll how smart one OF their friends is
o when they haven't anythin' to show them
tselves. Comparisons may be stimulatin