St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-10-14

When securing Chfea&e IN the A0e1
Ing hs cams "a my section, brushed
my oVercoat carefully, and gave thu
clothes | was wearing slight brush
ing. When he had finished, / handed
him the only 50-cent piece had.
e The instant did so observed that
he half turned his back to me g he
stepped nearer the window and began
carefully scrutinizing the silver piece,
and that very instant It flashed
through my mind that the colored
gentleman was planning to graft me.
After taking a careful look at the
money, and having had just about
time enough to shift the coin ! gave
him for any old thing he might have
about him, he said:
Say, mistah! guess you done gone
and made mistake and gin me sill
yer piece with a plug in it, besides, its
very badly won and batte'ed, too
rs that so?" ] answered knowing
very well that had given him an al
most new silver piece). Let's see =
said I, and, as he handed it to me.
Cant you use it 2"
mo, sah;" he quickly answered, n
don't want that kind Of money"
do you want me to keep it?''
asked.
Yes: I'd rather you would keep It.
sab"
very WELL" said /, Il can use it,
and dropped 1t into my pocket.
He stood there anxiously watching
and waiting for me to give him an
other 50-cent piece, and at last dis
covering that apparently had no In
tention of replacing it, he said:
us you all gwine to give me nothah
half dollar mistah?"
Certainly not" answered. "Ia
there any reason why should give
you q new half dollar. just because
you were foolish enough to give me an
old one? Why, of course not. You
said that you could not use it, and
think cam
We'll, then-well, then"-he stam-
mered-"I reckon I'll take it back.
We'll" l replied, 4 reckon You
won't take it back. There is no Indian
about me; when give thing away,
or receive thing from anyone, never
give back, nor take back"
But" said he, you took back the
SO cents you gave me-
Indeed, did mott" answered.
''The one gave you you have in your
pocket, and the one you gave me is q
different one entirely. At any rate"
went on, II think shall turn in this
plugged so cent piece to the sleeping
car company when / report this little
episode to them.
The poor darkey became excited and
turned almost white, and was so beside
himself with his apologies and excuses
that he forgot every other passenger
on the car.
AS / was leaving the car, on our ar
rival in Chicago, he brushed up against
me, and stammered: "Sa-sa say mis-
tab please don't say .nofin' bout dis
yer greement tween you and me, fer
l got wife and fou' little chil1uns to
sport, and I CANT lord to lose ma
job
On returning home told this little
experience to my employees in the of
fee. Our colored porter rolled his
chalky eyes about and, with broad
grin, said:
"Mistah Johnston, you got that fell
lah all right, suah 'nuff: nevah heard
bout de plugged silver piece racket
r.ralx 1,.% : fn71o1 !, ,r,1,nf .Yand RI 1.ony,e
with tol' me bout mighty good hold
up scheme he used to wo'k, almos' like
dat. when he was Pullman po'tah.
We'll, Gene" said, go ahead and
explain it to us. /"
He did so, and the graft was this.
The porter had die struck, exactly
the size Of 5o-cent piece, upon which
ne had stamped John Miller, Denver.
Ccl. =
He always had one OF these In the
pain CT his hand, while brushing a
passengers clothes. The tip. at tho
end of nights Journey, is seldom less
than a 5O-cent piece, and whenever one
was given him he mSald instantly
nalm II IN his right 11d, quickly
s,epr:ag near tae window, as II to get
better Ngas 20 examine it, be would
say:
..Mistah, reckon you done gone and
gin me youah pocket piece, 'spectin' it
was a half dollah. See? passing Il
hack.
OF course the transporting passen-
ger, presuming that some one had
passed a pocket piece on him, would
instantly take It up and hand the
darby another piece.
But, as is usual with such grafters,
the end finally came.
One morning the porter played his
little game On q man who proved to be
one of the stockholders and officials OF
the sleeping car company. Seeming
graft he called the porter to account,
and forced him to empty his pockets,
wherein were half dozen pocket
pieces. This was how he happened to
be out OF job.
SPORT IN NEWFOUNDLAN AND