The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1909-08-12
A Man $ Awful;
Wickedness
A ST Haskell Story Which,. points a
Moral and Adorns
a Tale. .

WOulO uOt WHO ILLS StWy IL / ulU
not know it was true and / would not
know it was true if / had not seen with
my own eyes the very place where it all
happened. 3
A long time ago, longer than any
man now, alive can remember, there
was;a ships chandlery store on Bean
Street in the Hub of the Universe with
a sign over the front indicating that
one 2. P. Chandler was the proprietor.
Those who were on especially famil-
lar terms with the proprietor called him
Peculiar Phineas and those VINO were
not quite so we'll acquainted with him
called him Mr.. Peculiar Phineas and
those who were not acquainted with
him at all called him Mr.. p. T. Chand-
Ter.
OF course no one would ever imagine
for minute that he was christened
Peculiar Phineas, but there was no one
among his acquaintances who could
tell you what the P. P. did really stand
for and any one of them would tell you
that the whole name-Peculiar Phineas
Chandler-had kind of synonymous
jangle-and SO it had.
The wit of the waterfront said his
last name was Chandler because he
was chandler aud his middle name
was Phineas because he had sort of
screw-pr -propeller-like motion somewhat
resembling the tail fin of fish and his
first name was Peculiar because he was
peculiar-in more ways than one.
Before Peculiar Phineas became in
famous lie was a highly respected busi-
ness man and stood we'll in the COM
munity. He owned prosperous busi-
ness; had bible class in the Sailors
Mission and an allarOund kind of
friendly way that took very well both
with his customers and acquaintance,
but after his downfall there were nu-
merous persons who had something un-
kind 20 say about him. Some said that
when he started In business he had only
a barrel of coal tar, a couple of piles of
old secondhand cable and few pounds
of marlin; and then other people said
other things equally unkind. But it
matters not for Peculiar Phineas never
denied the fact that he was once an i'm
pecunious young person with nothing
but good set of muscles and set de-
termination to get ahead in the world
He did not hesitate to work ON the
docks and wallop the Gods with any of
them. But he soon left the ranks of
the fishermen and dockhands. Then
he started up in business for himself in
small way and as time rolled by his
business increased until he had good
sized establishment with several score
of people in his employ.
Some of his employees remained with
him for years and it was the very fact
that they had grown up with the busi-
ness as it were that brought about the
terrible events related in this nara
tive.
Zephaniah Pennwrack was the first
person who entered Peculiar Phineas'
employ as an Office man, and of course
as business increased he became the
head bookkeeper and was afterward
made Office manager. He remained in
his position for years, but there came
a time when he concluded to make a
change, so he told Peculiar Phineas of
his intention and together they dis
cussed the capabilities of the other en-
ployes with view to selecting the most
suitable one as successor to oZephaniah's
position. But they could decide upon
no one for the simple reason that none
of the bookkeepers we're sufficiently ia
miliar with the affairs Of the office, al
though some of them had been working
there for years. This was due to the
fact that Pennwrack had never sys-
tematized the work. He depended up
on his memory and his memorandum
books and his pigeon holes and his