The Savannah morning news., 1904-08-24

at our stand. 1t was Of the good old
down -on-the farm kind. with nearly
a whole cabbage in it, and as yellow
as the Broadway cars.
The man that gave me my biggest
surprise was a husky fellow with
black curled mustache and a cold.
steely eye. He registered from some
where out West. and wore a broad
brimmed felt hat on one side OF his
head and a suit of clothes that looked
as if it had been made in Montana.
l set him down for one of three things
"a miner who had just struck it rich
a millionaire cattle owner, or one of
those bad men you read about in the
Western stories in the magazines. This
chap arrived Saturday afternoon. The
next 1 saw of him was early Sunday
morning. Up comes my bad man and
SAYS:
g Good morning. brother in voice
rather more solemn that evnected
a bad man 10 ue0
'ng' and then hi ae'-0' '---'
for bothering me. but could let him
have my Bible if l wasn't using it.
wen, / nuIlo 90 -
ed al him close. to see II l.e 49,. ,.-..-
ing, but he acted serious enough to
pray right there. So I dug under the
desk and found a Bible, blowing the
dust off it when he wasn't looking
asked him to return it as soon as he
could, as we had a great demand for
it. He stopped and read the church
directory a while and then went up
stairs. Later some reporters came in
to see him, and l found out that he
was an evangelist who had been a
gambler and reformed, and had come
to tell New York how far the lid was
off
About as hard a jolt happened
few weeks after that, when some reli
glous body held a convention here
Among the delegates was a thin, lanky
old coger, who should have been, if
he wasn't the head deacon of the meet
ing house at Skaneateles. He looked
so sanctimonious you wondered il
Heaven would be good enough for him
| knew he'd never want to borrow I;
Bible unless he lost the one he car
ried under his arm. One day, When
the rest of them were seeing New
York on a stage coach, l noticed that
the deacon was still around the lobby
He had all the papers and was tearing
something out of each of them. Wher
he finished he walked over to me anC
just as briskly as if he'd been a drum
mer asking for his key, he says:
Have you a copy of So-and-So's
Turf Guide?'
ne ldQ 10 DISK again DeIOTe tdiIit
out of the trance this put me into. TheI
/ simply reached for the book anC
handed it to him without a word. II
was no time for fly remarks. A man
who can play piety and the ponies a,
| the same time doesn't inspire repartee
He sat down at one of the writing
| tables and studied the book while.
was curious enough to walk over that
way and see what he was doing. What
| do you suppose that Deacon had been
| tearing out of the newspapers? The
dope charts of past performances
| from the sporting pages. He had Z
book made of them just like the regu-
| lars at the poolrooms. / guess he
knew he'd handed me a new one, and
wanted to square things, for when he
! brought the book back he wanted Il
| know if l was interested in racing. ]
said I was when a good thing cam,
along.
We'll, I've got one I don't mind tell
! ing you about if you'll keep it quiet
! said the Deacon. It's Golden Eagle IL
the third at Gravesend to-day Thel
he walked away before 1 could ge
chance to find out how he did it. Gold.
en- Eagle didn't look good to me. HI
was down at 30 to l in a cheap bunch
| but l put five on him because tips Xix,
that are the kind you read about bu
don't get more than once in lifetime
In the sporting extras that night Gold
en- Eagle had all the headlines to tel
how he left the rest of them behind
and / had $3.50 for my So. I wish
| knew how much the Deacon had. H,
left that night while I was celebrat
ing.
There's a watch key that's KEEP
| pretty busy. Most people use stem
| winding watches in this generation, but
| there are enough left who use the old
fashioned kind to borrow this key every
| day. Last evening two men came oui
of the cafe and put the watch key
| query up to me. l said had one, but
when l came to look for the blamed
thing | couldn't find it. Had to dis
| five minutes in the junk under here
| before it turned up. One of the mer
looked at the key and then handed tbs
other one a ten spot.
Just to decide a bet, said he af-
| fably. I claimed 1 couldn't get Z
watch key at this desk and my friend
bet l could Much Obliged Their
| they went into the cafe to spend the
ten. And still they expect hote
clerks to have amiable dispositions.
| 'One queer request l had came from
a college boy who drifted in from
| Princeton one Friday afternoon. About
4
| said:
| Say, I'm in a hole. Got to take q
| girl to a show tonight and forget t.
| put clean shirt in my suit case. You
| don't happen to have a stray shirt ~.
ing around the place. do your
HE looked flush enough to buy q
shirt, and / asked him why he didn't
That's where more of my trouble
comes in he answered. I can't buy a
| dinner, let alone a shirt. The free
| lunch counter will be my table dhott
this evening. 1 started out with plen-
| ty of money, but / met some fellows
| this afternoo and blew in most of my
| hard-earned allowance. Now, this CIR
| has to be transported to the show in
| a wagon, and taken to supper after
| ward, and I've just $749 to do IL ON
| That's why I'm not buying shirts al
| present. If I don't have to put up my
watch as security for the supper, III
| be lucky
That's the sort OF man you like tc
help out-the man who thinks it's fun.
| ny and tells you all about Il. There
were some bundles of laundry waiting
| to be sent on to guests who had left
! Though I oughtn't to have done It,
had bell boy forage among them un.
/ Ill he found a shirt OF the size the
] college boy wore. A few minutes later
| he went out logged up in II. Next
morning he showed me "a cents he hac
| saved from the wreck. Not enough
| to buy a shirt with, though he said
! OF course, Il was easy then for him
| to find some one to lend him sufficient
| ,,,ova., % nav hill ana