The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-10-13


he once more turned to. the old COL
ored man and said: @ss r-.. -. = !,
Here, loan your friends each an
other two dollars, and, hurry up be.
fore 1 close these. POOLS" -
AS if completely under his control
the old darby handed it over and the
CRATER handed each another electric
belt.
BY this time. he was ready for more
$40 investors. and soon had at least
dozen of them. Then he wanted a
larger pool of S. investors, and as If
in duty bound to contribute. their
share, several who had stood out to
the last came forward.
AS it now began to look as r he
were closing up at least 20 men came
forward: with from one to two dol
lars, and were Lined up where they
belonged.
Suddenly the CRATER, as if hearing
some one in the crowd making re-
marks, said:
whats that? Was that meant for
me?"
And looking intently in one direc-
ton, as though greltly wrought I'm:
so you are going to cut out my heart.
are you? Well, now, We'll see about
that
Reaching in his valise, he brought
out an ugly looking corn cutter. with
a blade fully Is inches long, and care
fully feeling it's edge, he reci ed the
Razor poem, as follows:
You know gun shoots fast and
But razor is the real thing in a
crowd
could have used it better than a a.
II they had only fought with razors
in the war;
Then, corn cutter in hand, he coolly
crawled down from the buggy, and be-
gan walking slowly through the
crowd, carefully scrutinizing every
face as if trying to locate the man
VINO had threatened to take his hearts
blood. The glitter of the corn cutter,
and the terrible look of vengeance
on his face had the desired effect, and
when he climbed back into the car
rlage, every man stood as if paralyzed.
they seemed to have forgotten what
had happened, or what was expected
to happen.
Immediately the CRATER slgnaled
the driver to start, he himself remaining
standing in the carriage as if terribly
agitated and repeating:
i would like to see some man cut
my heart out; would just like to have
MIN try it, at the same time feeling
the edge OF the big knife, as if to see
that it was sufficiently sharp.
The team went off at a trot. The
grafter's hotel and livery bills had
been paid in advance, and no stop
was made until they had reached a
small town 20 miles away.
The CRATER was $500 or $500 to the
good. AS the carriage moved away
the dupes still stood in line, staring
sheepishly at one another, with tn
cent belts dangling from their hands.
The old darby who had been so obe-
dent was the only man who had the
courage to protest.
"See yher," he yelled, "you gener-
Gus white man, what my family gwine
to" do fer sumpin to eat? Gin me
back ma ten dollars, or l top you
buggy over, you schoundrel!"
So saying, he and his two colored
companions rushed toward the car
riage, when an officer who stood con-
veniently near said:
What you niggers lettering around
here for? Go on home, or I'll run
you in.''
Eventually, of course, this clever
CRATER landed in states prison.
A Chicago man once made q great
deal of money out of the sugar graft.
With an old horse and a covered
peddler's wagon, he started out with
a load of sugar, put up in tin cans,
each holding $3.50 worth at retail.
The wholesale price was about $1.25
After remaining in some county
seat long enough to '.get line on the
town. he would start out and call
upon the farmers of that county, with
a proposition to sell one of his 80
pound cans of white sugar for SIPS
in cash. He would represent that he
had recently moved to their county
seat, where he expected to reside in
the future, and would make regular
80 day trips, enabling them to re-
plenisn their supply of sugar at the
lowest possible price.
Sugar, being a staple article, and
there being an actual saving of SO
cents on every purchase, he had no
difficulty whatever in making a sale
at the house of almost every thrifty
well-to-do farmer. Many farmer
who wondered how this man could ~af-
ford to sell sugar SO much cheaper
! than the cheapest grocers in many in
stances paid for it several times over.
The graft was more like thieving
than grating. When selling a can
of sugar for $1.25, the CRATER would
almost invariably be handed a five,