The Clio messenger., 1915-10-01
THE FINGER
PRINTS OF CRIME
A Story Of Love and Graft
CHAPTER I.
The Road to Easy Money.

know that l started grating when i
was two days old. AT least, that's tho
age the village doctor put me down
at when l was picked up one winters
nieht on Simeon Hardby's doorstep,
where my parents had decided that
/ should begin life by grating my
food and lodging from strangers.
Mother Hardly found me wrapped
in thick carriage-robe sleeping
peacefully while the snow swirled
and drifted around the wooden box
that was my bed.
She cried over me-she'd never had
any kids Of her own to weep over
and when the house was full of gap
Ing neighbors who speculated on the
identity of my heartless parents, she
adopted me by taking off the un.
marked clothes l wore and fixing me
up with set she had made and nev
er used.
The Hardbys were good people -
good people of the worst kind. Their
goodness had a whole lot to do with
my badness, l think.
The first recollection I have is Of
sitting in a high-backed pew, being
prodded awake every minute, nearly
dead for sleep, and half sick with fear
and afraid to whimper with the terror
the sonorous phrases of the minister
in his high pulpit cause. l was four
years old then.
After that life was just one horror
OF church and goodness after another.
Simeon Hardy had reputation for
being kind-hearted man, but I've
known him to beat me with leath-
er strap till the blood ran because
he'd caught me spinning top on the
Sabbath.
The Hardbys didn't even cook on
Sundays, and to me it was an awful
day OF cold soggy food, church four
times a day, and sitting stiffly on a
haircloth chair the rest Of the time.
Naturally the seventh day lost It's
sacredness; it became a nightmare
that followed me through the whole
week of church meetings where had
to recite psalms and Bible verses to a
lot of old people and hunted-eyed kids
who were situated as was.
Religion, to me, wasn't teaching
OF love or reverence or gentleness; Il
was something that had to be beaten
and kicked and pounded into a boy
who had boys brain and who need
ed youthful pleasures.
7 was taught that tops and marbles
were sins that must be scotched; fish
ing was lure of the devil; dominoes,
itself.
was boy-a live, healthy minded
boy with a liberal dose Of human ma
ture distributed through my system.
And human nature is the thing that
steers us toward the things which
have been made attractive.
The Hardbys had made sin the
most attractive thing in the world be-
cause they'd made goodness horror.
I'll never forget the fascination Of
my first game of cards.
I stole out one night to play with
three other boys in barn. They
taught me poker and we played for
matches. Never in my life. either be
fore or since, has a thing thrilled ME
like the winning OF my first pot that
night. 1t consisted of seven matches,
two broken, two burned, but my
whole body tingled with the joy OF
IT,
MY future was decided that night in
the lights OF the sputtering candle on
the rough barn floor where four tense
breathed kids crouched and dealt the
greasy cards with clumsy fingers and
guarded with suspicious, grimy hands
the hoard Of matches each had under
his knee.
OF course It wasn't long before the
matches began to pail, even though
did need them for the cigarettes I'd
begun to smoke. l bought a deck of
cards.
Then / got hold of a paper-covereG
book that taught me the mysteries OF
"hold-outs." bottom dealing" ere
storing the cut" Stacking" "the
held-ace rifle" and other tricks OF
the crooked poker-player. I went to II
strong.
Hours when the Hardbys were In
bed and asleep practised; slert
with my hands swathed In great ban
dages soaked in saltwater to soften
and make flexible my clumsy fingers.
At twenty the chance of my life came
"a circus.
For three years I'd been stealing
away to play poker, not'with the kids
now, but with men who had money.
On the date the circus was billed l
had forty-four dollars fortune. And
was going to play every cent OF 1t on
the game OF the three little shells and
the pea.
I'd read of the game and knew OF
the operators lightningQuick little
finger that could flip the pea from the