The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 23, 1900, Page 1

ed-up cigar that the w d up, and he had lic 1 n tern as an inqu desiccated ciga id the old man. wetting his agration that had br s rapidly working its way | meeting of trustees of the . and the cigar and uth $20 bill a banker, and he had o g never hap 1ster gnt over ney had a bad smell abont: the 1-goods line? A that for a hundred_dollars in spot ¢ me ten thousand dollars’ worth of mpuney e. You see that box of n re stove that T use for a spit- | gosh! that is all 1 got for my hundred | ¥ it you are the fellow that got my ger he pulled off his gloves and put t of his coat so the finger-tips | to get ten thousand dollars in coun- | were among the neighbors, and you | e here with good money thar T} pend it like a gentleman, and T get it in| boy took out a piece of paper, some a cigarette, lit it, smoked a minute, and con I bad remaiged here in-this town after being a gainst whom every hand was furned, taken ‘a livery wagon and reformer{ it would have | balance of my life to convince the people that | yed a change of heart, but you would have said iu | time that I was all right, but would bear watching. I re-| member that old minister. You remember when us boys | put the softsoap on the steps of our house when he was | making a call, and how he slipped-when he went out and slid | on the basement of his black Sunday trousers clear out on | the sidewalk? He said at that time that only his feelings and | trousers were hurt. but I think now that his spine was jin- | jured. and that he is a regular Indian, who never forgets. | and that he has laid that softsoap up against me all thesc | years. But you tell the trustees that they necedn’t worry | about the money, as I made it perfectly square, speculating in stocks, promoting trusts, for: syndicates, developing mines and selling them, plotting additions to towns and sel! ing lots to people who never saw them, engineering corners | in Wall street and”- i “Gambling! every con durn one of "em!” said the old | groceryman as he threw the cigar stub into the box of saw- dust and got up to walk the floor. “You are one of those manipulators, eh?” and he shook his fist in the face of the young man. “Oh, I don’t kno w,” said the Bad Boy, as he lit anotherl cigarette. You buy canned corn cheap in the summer, i | i knowing you can sell it at a big advance in the winter. . You lay in 2 stock of sugar in the spring, knowing when the time comes to preserve fruit that it will be scarce and you can put up the price. T look around the country in the summer at the crops and I am satisfied the railroads are going to be troubled to house the crops, and I feel that railroad stocks are a good thing, so I buy stocks for a rise, and you and I both make money on our judgment. You make a hundred dollars and I make a hundred thousand. You are a smail tin-horn gambler, while I am a king-pin gampler. You put your quarter of a doilar in the collection plate and nobody kicks: I put my twenty dollars in and everybody kicks. Say, don’t you know that every man who does business is- a gambler? If we guess right we are possessed of great heads, apd they say we are smart; but if your sugar and canned corn and my railroad stocks go down. and we lose and have to bust un in business, they say it is all on account of gambling. Oh, you make me tired, you old canned-corn gambler, you,” and the boy slapped his old friend on the back until he saw stars. “Well, mebbe you are right,” said the old man, as he thought it over, “but, my gosh! if I were you I would pr* those deacons may be subject to heart disease, and of thein drops dead at sight of a $20 bill you may ba arregped for murder. So I guess we better suspend the ars gument about how we make our nioney. Money is a good deal like the Kentucky colonel described whisky, He said isky was good, but some whisky was better than money that is earned by the exercise of the brain is better, f there is more of it, eh, boy?” “Speaking of bills, I remember once, years ago. dad had t a little Irishman that he couldn’t collect by methods, and one day when dad was kicking . twenty dollars that he was shy, I asked him why 20 to the man and tell him if he didn’t pay the uld take it out of his hide. I told him the a little fellow, with only one lung, and that I 1't sand enough to fight,’and if dad went right m with blood in his eye he would get his money all Well, after dad had got me foisay.it again, .that the i an worldalt fighty be said heZ would go-and collect is money, and he went off*looking . mighty bravesnd told to be home in about an hour and he would show me the money, It wasn't nore than fiiteen minutes before I saw dad coming back-—on the installment plan. He had leit his cozt and vest down at the Irishman’s house and a goat was ating his straw hat, while one leg of his trousers had been hewed off by a dog, and dad had his shirt torn at tha bosom and the slees s collar and necktie was in his hand, his nose was bleeding, his eyves were blackened and he had one hand on the small of his back, 'where the goat had kicked him with his head, ard he looked meek and lowly, ‘Did you get the money, dad?’ I asked him. Vo, but T got my money's worth,’ said dad. “‘Could the Irishman fight. dad?’ I asked him. “Oh, I could have whipped him all right’ said dad, ‘only Ahis wife, a great big washerwoman, jumped on me and throwed me down and sat on me, and the dog bit me and the’ goat butted me, and when the whole family had got on top of me that Irishman didn't do a thing to me. He'is welcome to the $20, by gosh! said dad, ‘but you come out in the woodshed and I will take a barrel stave and teach vou better than to advise me to collect money of an Irish- man by fighting for it!” “Did the old man punish you for steering him on to that fight?” asked the zrocery ; laughing. “Did he! Well, I can just about feel that barrel stave now!” said the Big Bad Boy. “I believe it, by ginger!” said the groceryman. “Well, you had better. And I wouldn’t like to get manv more like that. I can’t seem to sober down, however, even at my advanced age, and I think this town is too small fo us, so I've made up my mind that you and Fare going tc get out right away.” ~ “Me!" said the old groceryman. “I can't leave here Wha'd look after the grocery?” “You needn’t hothér about that,” said the boy, laugh ing at the cat, which was jumping about like a ballet dancer. with four walnut sheils on her paws which the boy had put on in the last five minutes. “You don't own the grocery any more.” “What!” exclaimed the old man, jumping to his feet and rubbing his left hand where the cat had scratched him in gratitude for having relieved her of one of the walnut shells, “Let me tell you. young man, that I don’t owe a penny an this establishment, from that popcorn on the raiter to the codfish in the cellar. It's all mine.” - “That was this morning,” said the boy, “You don’t own the grocerv any more, because I just sold it at auction while vou were out attending the funeral of one of your best cash customers. Here is the money,” and he handed the old | man aroll of bills that looked like the pads on a football player's shoylder. The groceryman looked zghast. “Why,” said he, after a glance at the money, “‘therc’s $3000 here. I can’t take it The old store ain’t worth five hundred.” The Bad Boy laughed. “Fools fly in the face of Provi- dence,” he said, “and I don't think you're a fool entirely, although you.generally have acted like one sinee I've known you. Still T guess you had better give me the money; it is not safe in your hands. But from now on I am your boss, and you go where I say.” “If that's so we'll go to ——" said the groceryman. “No,” laughed the boy, “not quite so bad as that; only to New York, and we start for there to-morrow momming at 6:30. You go and buy a handful of diamonds and the swellest suit you can for the money and meet me at the sta- tion ten minutes before’the ‘Limited’ leaves, and don’t get sandbaggzed over night. You want to save that for New York. Good night. I've got to go out and say good-by to all the ministers in town. They'll be sorry to have me Five minutes later he was standing on the corner watch- ing the old man, who stood in front of the store mazing sadly at the old grocery as the new proprietor moved in, taking furtive " glances at the roll~of bills which the Bad Boy had given hima 2nd thinking of all the fun that was in store for him. Little did he dream of what was going to happen in the next few weeks. GEO. W. PECK. others. Money that is ecarned by hard work- is good, but - \ {3 “WELL, BY GosH ! THAT 1S ALL 1GOT , FOR. MY HUNDRED - DoLLARS.” YOU DONT OWN THE GROCERY ANY MORE.