The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1906-02-16
A Strictly Honest Man

dying injunction: BE honest. HOn-
esty will always win in the end"
One day stranger entered the place
to dispose of a fine overcoat Had he
said that he had stolen it from pub
lie reading room half an hour before
he could have made no sale of it. What
he said was that he was hard up and
wanted to get out of town, and Joseph
Hike offered him One-fifth the value of
the garment to help him along. His
father had helped many q man in that
way, and he proposed to follow in the
same path. His offer was accepted
and the garment left. 1t needed Il bit
of repairing, and Joseph sat down to the
work with his own needle. While do
ing his work he discovered q package
concealed in the lining, and Oh investi-
eating he hauled forth ten new 500
bills.
That seemed lucky find for MI
Hike 1t looked like bread on the wa
ters. He had been honest, and here
was MS reward. 1t was not all the re-
ward he expected before he got
through business, but it would do for
starter. His first thought as would
have been the case With any young man,
was to walk out and take Il 1lier Oh the
races and end the day with a cham
payne dinner. He had even put on his
coat to do so when he paused and said
to himself:
"No, | cannot do it. This money is
not mine. Very likely the man who
sold the coat was simply testing my
honesty. If he did not know the mon
ely was there some one else did. and Is
would be like stealing to take it, [ will
lay it aside and try to find the owner"
Mr. Hike advertised in Il daily paper
that he had found Il certain sum of
money which the owner could have by
proving property, and SO forth and he
thus cleared himself Of the law He
also wrote out Il sign and hung it up
in his shop. No one appeared to claim
the money, though on several occasions
during the next thirty days Mr.. Hike
took Il quick skip for the back room
under the impression that a caller was
the man who sold him the coat
He need not have been alarmed. The
seller OF the coat had been sent to
prison for a year for felonious assault
and was therefore safely out Of the
way.
AS to any other owners Of the coat,
they did not seem to have learned of
their loss, though the weather was un-
usually cold that winter. True de-
tectx9c came mOseying around the shop
and described a stolen coat and asked
Mr.. Hike if it had been offered for sale
''Sir, l am an honest man. was the
reply
But the coat might have been offer
ed here
ut might have been, and, now I
think of it, | believe it was. | think q
redheaded man who wanted to raise S.
to help bury his mother offered the
coat"
''And you bought it?'
Bought a stolen overcoat? How lit
tie you know Joseph Hike, merchant
tailor and honest man. l of course
questioned him sharply, and his sus-
picious answers caused me to threaten
his arrest"
"Um!' said the detective as he So UNI
tered out
When the lawyer who bought his
clothes at the tailor shop and got a
slight discount for legal advice as need
ed told Joseph that he had complied
with the law and that the money was
now his there was no sudden ebullitiOn
of spirits Mr.. Hike had been thinking
things over and had planned just how
tocuse the money. There were to be
three or four sales of goods in his line
at certain date, and when that date
arrived he divided his money with
three men, and the sales were attended
and the money invested. AS an honest
man Joseph had laid that money out
to make it return three Or four fold
Two days had passed, and he was
unpacking and arranging his pur-
chases when an officer entered and ar
rested him. The charge was passing
counterfeit money, and the tailor was
informed that his confederates were
already in quod and had sQuealed
"But, my dear sir, there is some mis-
take about this-some dreadful mis-
take. / am Joseph Hike
Fright you are
81 am a merchant tailor and an hon
est man. My father died only three
months ago, and before he closed his
eyes he told me never to forget that
honesty was the best policy"
It was the United States which had
Mr. Hike and his agents in it's claw,
and the United States wanted to know
all about it. 1t wanted to know where
the plates and the plant were, and it
was not satisfied until it's officers had
turned the merchant tailor shop wrong
side out in their search for the articles.
1t was not satisfied even then. It
wanted some kind of a story, and Mr..
Hike rose up and said:
Judge, 1 am an honest man, and
will tell you all about it,"
The story didn't go, but Joseph and