The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-17
A MAN WHO MIGHT BE A
HALF BROTHER TO JUDAS.
Farce Follows Fraud in Which He Poses a
Martyr, Receiving the Sympathy of
Ills Swindled Family.

ed his children by saying as he thrust his
fingers nito his pocket: Somebody's
picked my pocket, for 1 have lost five
dollar bill" And getting UP, he'd stamp
the floor, clench his fist, put on the air
of injured innocence and swear he'd kill
the first man he caught lingering IN his
jacket pocket the next time he went out"
And then sitting down and dropping his
face into his hands he'd pretend to be al
most heart-broken as he said to himself,
(but loud enough for wife and children
to hear him), ITO think how hard l
worked for that five dollars, and how
many comforts could have been bought
with it: and wife and children needing
shoes; and my taxes not paid; and the
preacher is expecting his money the next
time he comes around; l could kill the
rascal that picked my pocket!
In sympathy for her poor distressed hus-
band sitting there, seemingly overwhelm-
ed with grief, the wife says 1T was
only five dollars, let us be thankful it
was no more. Other people have had
their pockets picked; the same way yours
was picked, and some of them lost more
than you did, And then the barefooted
children, to help soothe the father who
seems almost heart broken, because, on
account of the loss of his five dollars. he
can't buy them any shoes, chime in with
their cherry voices saying: Papa, don't
grieve so; we can 60 barefooted a little
while longer"
The husband and father raises his head,
grinning like a possum, as he puts on
an air of resignation, and says: 81 do
reckon I've got the best wife and child
rem of any poor man in the world" and
with that the farce ends. Pretty soon
they are sitting at the table eating their
scanty supper, and all is serene.
Pocket picked, indeed If you could
have seen that fellow, few hours before,
standing at bar, the central figure OF a
half dozen dead beats, who lounge around
bar-rooms, and could have heard his boast
ings and seen his consequential airs, as
he waved that five dollar bill and ordered
the barkeeper to put down the best he
had; and, If you could have seen that half
dozen dead beats rushing to the counter,
like hogs to the trough, drinking at his
expense, you would not have felt very
much like shedding tears over the story
he told so tragically to his wife and
children. If all the lies husbands have
told their wives about losing money could
be traced back a few hours, the truth
would be: Spent in the bar-room!''
Now, l see in the papers that when
man buys at the dispensary he is required
to register, and the book will tell when
he bought and how much, and also what
grade of liquor he treated himself to. But
as 1 understand it, the register is not to
be opened to the public gaze, and there
fore the wife is still at disadvantage If
wives could go weekly to the dispensary
and glance over the book, and see how
often their husbands names appear, and
for what amounts, they could sorter keep
up with them. AS it is, however, it is
likely there will be a saving as the fell
low with a five dollar bill will not be 50
apt to spend so much of it, buying pint
or half pint, and drinking it behind a
lamp post, or in an alley, as he would in
a bar-room, with a crowd of dead beats to
help him. And what makes it still better,
the drinking man, as arrangements are
now, can post up his drinking accounts
weekly and monthly, so that at the end
of the year he may know exactly how it
stands. That will be a great advantage.
Men who tipple at the bar don't keep any
account of their spendings, therefore
they are not able to properly balance
their books. In fact, the books won't
Balance. Money is short which cannot be
accounted for. But now when balancing
the year book, and there is deficit. the
drinker can go to the dispensary, look
at the register and find the explanations
twenty-five, fifty, seventy-ive or hun
bred dollars spent for liquor, will tell the
tale of shortage.
Men are apt to keep pretty well post
ed as to the amounts they pay the preach
er and for church purposes; they keep a
little book for that purpose, and are very
careful to put it all down, but not so
about whiskey. The little they spend in
that direction is so insignificant they don't |
think it worth while to keep an account
of it.
As an illustration will give an Incl |
dent. Some years ago I bought a load of
shingles OF a country man and after agree
ing upon the price, he asked me to take
seat beside him on the wagon and ride to
my house. I did so and discovered as
soon as 1 got a Whit of his breath, that
he had taken a dram. Being in the
temperance work, and wishing to do in
dividuals as well as communities good. /
remarked in a casual way that l was a
temperance man and was organizing So
cieties and that L would like to organize
in his community and hoped he would help
me to 40 so. He said in reply he was
of the church, and the church was
a good enough temperance society for
him. / said by way of reply, church mem
bers sometimes drink, and a total alb
stinence society might do them good; be-
sides, l went on to say, we church mem
bers are according to the statement of
Christ, the light of the world, and we
ought to be total abstainers, for the same
reason that Paul gave when he said ''if
meat make my brother to offend, 1 will
eat no flesh while the world standeth lest
l make my brother to offend" In re-
ply he said, Paul talked two ways. for
didn't he tell Timothy to take little
wine for his stomach's sake? / don't eat
hog meat because it don't agree with me,
but l do take dram when l feel like it,
and its nobody's business. l work for
my living, and make my own money, and
L.