Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-22
HEARD AND SEEN.

Out in the corn belt beyond the Mis-
sissippi there is a section Of country
where the Inhabitants are all rich. Also
their wealth as the average person has
for both his eyes. To get a nickel from
one of these folks requires a steady
hand. a cool eye, an eminent surgical
practitioner and fine anesthetist.
With that combination and other IA
vorabIe circumstances a successful
operation may produce as much as a
nickel. but tho ordinary door-to-door
mendicant gets nothing. A man who
| rushed up to chance acquaintance
| once and tried the old-time trick Of
| lar being involved-was tried for vio-
! lent assault and sentenced to hard la
Dor. In fact. 1t is community where
| the original dollar is nailed to the foun-
ldation of the house. to remain there
forever as the corner stone to the pros
| perity which has since arisen by the
slow but simple process of never spend
| Ing cent unless necessary to life or
to garner large profit.
! Now, In this land of tight listed corn
raisers there arose a strange cry not
| long ago. People. irresponsible people
they were. dragged in appeals about
| the Red Cross and went as far to
disturb the peace with open-air meet
| in9S and automobile canvasSes all over
| the county. The most insistent per
| sons they were, too, for they would
wait at the gate any length of time IL
| they thought in the end the mossback
| on the other side would open his old
stocking purse and shuck out a few
! quarters.
| There was a poker game going on
in the home of the leading citizen OF
this corn belt, and poker game In
that section is certainly real excite
ment. Talk about playing 'em close
to the vest! Those boys out there play
| EN- under the vest. and If any one
ever took the pot on a wild blum and
the rest of the boys ever found 1t out
believe me. tar and feathers would be
| like apple pie to what would be served
| to that lad. However. 1t so occurred
that the players were all men who had
been roped into this strange enthu-
siasm about the Red Cross, and al
though the records do not show that
they themselves had contributed any
large amounts Of money. nor. in fact.
any money at all, still they were all
members OF the COMMITTEES" and had
| pledged automobiles to be used in "fy-
ing campaigns" etc In fact. they were
the bunch that always have their names
at the top of the list as the boys who
lead the movement" About the time
| the movement gets started they
| quietly resume operations In the hard
ware store. grocery, feed emporium.
etc. and wait for the next chance.
Well, some one dropped in on the
game and asked one Of the players IL
he had any success in collecting sub
scriptions over at a little town named
Hardscrabble.
NO" responded the eminent commit
teeman. Il didn't. We combed that ere
town fur and nigh. Up one street and
down the other and. durn me. If I
could lay my eyes on as much as one
loose nickel" He paused and looked
around for support. which came in the
way of grunts from some of his COL
| leagues.
About the only money available in
| that town." he continued. "is 5000 that
| the women of the church have collected
| for some church purpose. Now. 1 got