Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-27
HONEST NIGHT LINER


an awning pole thinking. when i found
him. along toward midnight. He had been
trying to bust the wet goods trust by
drinking up all the product-well-to
out sluicer, around forty, and with the
glinty stones all over him. He'd got
through thinking just as 1 druv up. and
started to let out the merry yell. He'd
have been pinched, sure, if 1 hadn't cor
rallied him and offered to pack him around
He climbed in and went to sleep so quick
that he didn't have time to tell me where
TO take him. | give him the prod. but II S
go. All he says is, 'Gwan out o my
room. you fellers, and femme sleep. ana
then he fell into such deep doze that an
earthquake couldn't have Jared him out
of it, 1 drives him around town, slow, for
an hour or so, and then l climbs down and
gives him the prod again. This time he
rubbed his eyes and looked at his watch.
=" It's long rattle between EN-, he said,
and then he instructed me to drive to Il
sort of ali-night club that he belonged to.
A friend of his brought him out of there
about half hour later. and the friend
told me where my fare lived. 1t was away
over near Georgetown, in a rich plant, ana
trucked him there.
We'll. when lie fell out, he dug into his
clothes to shake out the price OF his ride.
and he couldn't find so much as a piece of
roofin' tin. He jabbed mis- hands into all
of his outside pockets. No dust anywhere.
He was kind o steady, and mad, by TINS
time Then he felt OF his watch pocket.
No watch The souper was a beauty, too,
for I'd seen il when he pulled 1t out. he
reached up to his necktie to feel tor ms
pin Milky pin. either. He held up his ielt
hand to look for his big solitaire ring. and
II wasn't there By this time he pref
ty nigh as sober as l was, and a heap more
red headed.
Say look a-here, you, he says to me-
I've been rolled.
.p>l,. I
That's up to you, says he, looking at
me like as if he knew it was clnch that
l had all of his stuff on me. Where We L
been?'
".You've been right along with me since
midnight | says. and you had IL all on
you when l picked you up. And you am
been to no places where you GIT toucheu,
neither. You had it all on you less an
hour ago You've touched yourself, that
ALL. ,,.
He looked me over as If he thought L
lad the imaginary boas. 80. srs
What are you givin' us? he says
Touch myself? What dye THINK aiii'
anyhow? -.
s.You're one o these here foxy Jass'
saws |. good-natured like, for l had MN
figured out by this time, having stackHo
up against lots like him before. 1op We
got it all on you. and you don't Know II;
Make a good search of yourself, and you II
find it all, eXceptin' the dust you We paSSS'
over to the mixers. a,,
NOOA,
stock in this suggestion of mine, but. al
the same, he started to make an over
haul of his clothes. When ne came ~
the right-hand inside pocket of his vest
chuckle.
Well, I'll be DANCED" he says
The whole outfit was in that pocket
watch, ring, pin and roll see ne pc
gets a light into their skulls every time
they're Juggling with the red stun, anu
while they have these gllmmerS. SIZE /.
IN that they're liable to git the WORST
of it as to their belongings, anu ~ u ,ren, Of
ately put 'em away in some safe part OF
their clothes I've trucked hundreds OF EN-
like that, that are deep enough, even "ilsii
they seem all in. to put big bills that they
of their hats and stick them under thelr
collars and even in their shoes ana lheh'
after sleep. forget all about where
they've slowed their stuff. And these are
they've been gone through. and make
the big yell when they imagine they We
been rolled.
say. if a night-liner wanted to do the
crooked thing. he'd nave chahces t ~ Trs
up in this town. You know these fellows
who get liberal when they stow IeW
of the high ones under their wesklts1 well
we're the people that have lot OF haho-
ling of EN- and we have chances TO 90
them out of their eyesight If We want TO-
I had one of those give-it-all-away chaps
out a few weeks ago. He was YOUNG e
'um from Baltimore VINO comes oNe W., nj Iis
TO have his whirls SOS not to make MS
wife and folks at home weepy Ioid me
that bisself in a bust of highban con
fidence. Well after I'd had him our about
three hours he gives rap app una aed Inok
the seat and when l jump down anu iooh
in at the door he says: ,u so
Bill you're good people, ana you IL 90
You spin the language of my tribe. bu..
say. your makeup amt rigmt: 1oJ ir,, iiP 3he
case Bilr here, take the wad, and go get
yourself fixed up.
..Then he handed me a roll as big as
young summer squash, iul Oh me salleaS
ont for it, knowing the young fellow was
rcoty gay by then, but says L:
BETTER plant that in your inside kick,
bo II might git lost, and then you'd be
chuckjn' cofbles at me when you came out
o. some Turkish bath somewheres.
..sStow nothing away says he, pigheaded
lilo sYou reed it more'n l do, and II you
don't grab it I'll come out there and paste
you one --
well. I could see that he had pretty
good case of the swivels, and so l took the
roll, Just as he handed 1t to me- and stufed
it into an inside pocket without lookln' at
n This pleased him right, and he instruct
ed me to touch him for more when that was
gone Then | druv him to a Turkish bath
and took him in. When the man behind the
desk asked me If he had any valuables out
and the young fellow from Baltimore went
on ba ck and got boiled out | told the bath
man that I'd call for my customer at I in
the morning.
THE Baltimore whooper was waiting for
me when | got around to the Turkish bath
on time. He was sober as judge, ony,
of course, he had the dark brownies playin'
around him. like man will that's been up
against 1T for a week or so.
"'Hully mackerel, he says to me. but l
got the glossy end of it last night all right.
Say where the dickens did | go to blow in
81 ,3O0?'
II wanted to punish him a little. and 30
gives him the route. without lettin' on that
had a nickel of his stuff on me.
Couldn't have got rid of a bunch as big
as that on that route he says. oh, well,
was touched. L reckon. Let 'er go
We'll, say. the young Teller was so game
and such a good loser that l couldn't hold
out on him no longer. and SO / flashed the
wad on him then and there, before he
jumped into the rig. Y'ought to've seen his
chart brighten up. There was 81 ,260 in the
roll. He sized me up for fully a minute be-
fore he said anything.
well. If you amt a hanky-pank and
farmer he says then, I never saw one.
Say. what Sunday school do you teach in,
anyhow?
well says I. you treated me on the
level when you passed me that bunch, and
when a man treats me that-a-way | don't
feel like handin' him no double-cross.'