Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-11-20
Hank Scrubbins: Confidence Man
aI HAD sold a large invoice to the

6sI HAD sold large invoice to the
 proprietor of the general merchan s disc store in Chicago City and we were sitting in the shade in front of the store waiting for my train to arrive at the little station close by. Not withstanding the fact that the entire place consisted of railway station. general store and post office and sev. eral wretched frame houses that smut. ted the adjacent landscape. the village exulted in it's metropolitan name and often used it to tantalize rival towns who could not boast such lofty titles. The shade Of evening was falling CD the hot dusty Kansas prairie-a cool relief from the burning sultry sun that had baked the fields all day. A light breeze started to blow, causing the corn fields to rustic and the wheat fields to sway in graceful rhythmic waves.
 I had been watching wagon drawn by two large black horses approach down the long road, leaving low gcloud of dust behind; the lone driver was an old man, a typical old settler. zAs he tied his horses to a fence my companion exclaimed:
 t3Gy gum. There's old Hank Scrub bins. Gets more letters about green goods and get-rich-quick schemes than any other fellow in the county"
 Does he ever bite?' I asked.
 Don't know about that People al ways called him pretty smooth cuss ..tilI all the green goods men in the scountry got to warmin' up to him like .ghe was an easy mark.
 After Mir Serubbins had been intro hduced to me he read letter handed him by the postmaster. When this twas finished he elevated his feet to the railing, took bite from plug of tobacco and said:
 Well. I reckon. boys, you hain't 8heerd about me turnin' confidence man, Shave your"
 No, how's that?"$ asked the post master, all attention.
 Jest like this. Last fall when sold my wheat heerd that the old tDobson Salt Marsh could be bought by payin' the delinquent taxes. There's a quarter section to it and salty as rock salt, and when it's dry it's as smooth as a billiard ball. Won't no- body have it because nothin'll grow on it; and as it joins me on the north I thought might find use fer it Lize was dead set against 1t fer awhile. But after promised her one of those new { fangled washin' machines sheoWas all ] right. and so hitched up ard We went | over to the county seat and got it dirt cheap. The boys all laughed at me fer buyin' it, but a feller who has | jest sold 1000 bushels of wheat has I to spend part of it anyhow.
 Well, after I had it fer six months | and found the land warn't no earthly i account to me Lize and my daughter | Marthy got taIkin' about moyin' to some city where there was a college. | Lize seen in her Firesfde Helper as how we could get minin' stock, money | or some good business store for our i whole plum farm and they kept nag | gin me to do something. So writ to . one of the fellers at Chicago and in !. few days got letter from feller in Kansas Clly, who sez he was the other feller's agent. We'll, we kept get. tin letters and papers, some of 'em from fellers that said they used to know my old dad back in Ohio. So after awhile writ to one feller in Kansas City to come and look at the farm.
 Well, the feller came. met him there at the depot, just as 1t was gettin'