The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-11-10

this very desirable proposition and
after threatening to expose the com
pany's methods In court, secured his
90-day note, and eventually took q pol
icy in my own company. s-~ ssy1
p - Il + y. sf#.sFa III 20 Il #r$ss
). While in small country town III
Ohio, selling Yankee notions at a,lc-
ton, I met a stylishly dressed young
man who explained that he was col
lecting for large Cincinnati collect
ing agency, and that he had business
in every small town in the state.
+ The following morning, when ready
to start for my next town, this young
man asked me if I wouldn't like to
have him accompany me. l assured
him that I would, and he jumped into
my wagon. I found him a very inter
esting, we'll posted sort of chap:
On reaching our destination. he left
me and went on with his business.
while I attended to mine. The next
morning he asked the name of my next
town and, on hearing it,, ''Well," said
he, II am going there too, so I guess
I'll ride with you again, if you don't
object"
!: was glad of his company, and once
more we drove together. AS on the
previous day, he went about his BUSH
ness, and not until the next morning,
when he was again all ready to accom-
pany me, did begin to suspect scmR-
thing wrong.
He carried only an ordinary valise,
and I had never seen him handle pa.
pers or letters, and he couldn't posi-
bly, have been receiving any mail. /
began to wonder If I were travelling
with "cross-roader" of some sort,
and began questioning him closely. Z:
While his answers were all right,
there was something evasive about
them, and consequently I kept quiz
ling.
He always had plenty of money and
kept getting more collecting, as he
claimed), but it didn't seem that he
was remitting any of it to his firm.
This made things look still more sus-
picious.
had noticed that he was continual
ly buying apples, candy, peanuts, pop
corn, and always had his pockets full
of cigars, and as neither he nor I
smoked, he freely gave them to hotel
clerks, landlords, porters, etc. When
I questioned him about this, he smiled
and said he bought them to give away
to men from whom ne was collecting
The more mysterious he became, the
more anxious was to learn something
about him, and as he always found it
just suited his convenience to travel
with me I let him do so.
He had accompanied me for fully a
week when, one day, happened to
go into cigar store, where I found
him discussing matter of change
with the proprietor. He had pur-
chased Is cents worth of cigars, and
had handed the merchant a $40 bill.
The latter had placed the bill in his
money till and had laid out four one
dollar bills and Is cents in change,
and was searching for a five dollar
bill to make up the balance, when sud-
denly the young man said:
by the way, have a quarter in
change, so just give me back the. SO
bill"
He then gathered up the four one
dollar bills and the silver pieces, and
put them in his pocket, together with
the $40 bill that the merchant had
handed back to him. In his confusion
the merchant, for the time being,
overlooked this. Still, as he afterwards
explained to me, he kept thinking
there was something queer about that
change transaction, and although, af-
ter counting his cash, he was still not
quite sure he called to the young man
as he was about to leave the store and
said:
young man, I think when you and
1 were making change few minutes
ago there was an error in your favor.
If you will step back here we will 60
over the matter again.
1t was just when they were in the
midst of the discussion that appeared
on the scene.
The moment the merchant pointed
Out tAc u1ACA0 CIV pAooCS VI VIC u 0A0dC~
ton the young man cried, in q most
apologize way: by Jove! you are
right, but never should have known
it, as l really don'tknow how much
money I had about me-"
Handing over $4.75 he expressed real
satisfaction in having the matter
Strengthened, after which he shook
hands with the merchant and left the
store.
This opened my eyes to a scheme
| that was novel indeed. l asked the
merchant if he had any idea that the
young man had Intentionally taken the
money.
"Oh, MOI" he quickly answered; che
was perfectly innocent of any inten-
tional wrongdoing; he unconsciously
| picked up my money with his; that's
| all.''
This incident set me to thinking
| about the numerous cigars, and the
, great amount of candy and peanuts he
had been buying every day, and the
! following morning l took him to task