East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-05-13
A STORY OF RATS
AND BANKERS.

The following excellent little story
which seems worthy of being repro
duced In the East Oregonian appears
In the May number of the Black Cat
magazine. II is by Don Mark Lemon
and Is as follows:
don't know who wrote the story.
1t was a newspaper yarn, taken from
an exchange that probably had got II
Of syndicate-but II certainly was
clever little sketch
/. read 1t on the train one afternoon
while going home from the bank,
and, when | had finished It, l slapped
my knee and exclaimed, "By George!
that's neat" Then | got to wonder
ing II anybody had ever tried the
scheme, or had the writer thought
It up himself, just for a story plot.
When l got home I read It to my
wife, and she laughed and said there
was a rat In the cage down cellar,
and If 1t were gone in the morning
she would know that l had taken 1t
with me to the bank. or course she
was only jesting, but It went TO show
how easily one could carry out the
idea in the story, and l must have
looked thoughtful, for my wife sud
denly came over and threw her arms
about me and exclaimed: "Why,
VIII. you wouldn't do such a dread
full thing"
Just TO tease her, looked sly and
asked her If it were a fair sized rat
in the trap, or only a mouse. Well,
she doesn't know yet how to take me
when I'm joking, and pretty soon
she went down cellar and when l
strolled down little later, the trap
and rat were both gone.
You see, the newspaper story was
something like this: one day at
bank a bundle of twenty one-thou-
sand dollar bills was found missing
from the cashiers booth. and things
were getting TO look bad for the CASH
ier, when the teller saw the tail of
rat sticking out from under a desk
that set against the grating inclos-
ing the cashiers booth.
Well they moved the desk and by
George! If that rat hadn't got him
self caught between the bars and
desk and strangled to death. with
bunch of five-dollar bills in his
mouth. | think It was about twenty
bills.
They all congratulated the cashier.
OF course the rat had stolen the mis-
sing twenty thousand. and afterwards
came back for more bills, and had
been caught and strangled In the
grating. They hunted hours for his
hole, but couldn't find It, However,
the rear door of the bank opened
on a short blind alley and 1t was
plain as Texas on the map that the
rat had stolen in that way. and gone
out the same way with the twenty
thousand, and the bills were some
where outside in the alley. But they
never found where.
1t was just here that the writer of
the story got down to the neatest
little stroke. | don remember just
his words, but they were something
in this order: Why couldn't the
cashier have brought a stranged rat
in his pocket to the bank. stolen the
twenty thousand, placed a package
of five-dollar bills in the rats mouth,
and slipped him under the desk?
That would have turned all suspl-
cion from the cashier, and when you
consider how simple a thing II was
to do, and how few men in the world
are strictly honest, you finished read
ing the story with the conviction that
the cashier had stolen the money and
done the trick himself
Well, that's the newspaper sketch.
Now here's my story, and mine IL
where the fun comes in. About II
o'clock next day, down at the bank
where | worked mean the day af-
ter the sketch appeared in the news
paper-we discovered that a bunch Of
bills had been mislaid. then another
bunch then another and another; and
altogether two thousand dollars I'm
bills was found missing from differ
ent drawers and baskets:
Suddenly I smelt a mouse, as the
saying goes. and began hunting for
Il rat. IOunu MN. i HeD Ine CdSIl-
Ter found another rat. about the same
time the teller found another. Then
the president saw a tail sticking from
under a desk, and poked out the fat
test rat you ever saw.
I was laughing by this time till
could hardly stOop to hunt for rats.
You should have been around the
bank yourself that morning-it was
better than having money there.
Well altogether, we found seven
rats, every one of them strangled and
dead and each with a bunch of bills
in his mouth. The bills we recovered
came to seven hundred dollars, but
thirteen hundred was still missing. SO
you see that little newspaper story
cost our bank just one thousand thres
hundred dollars, and we had TO hush
it up or lose our reputation, for seven
dishonest men in one bank was a bit
too much.
But those seven dead rodents, hid
den all about the office! I think !
would have laughed had I lost the