The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 6, 1901, Page 7

THE SUNDAY CALL. Wirey, ( \ 1901, Press Publishing y, New York World. All Rig Reserved.) y and his friend the 2 ived in ous trip old man the boy s on the gone stomach- n raised when a was to inventions— and he con- with his vest while hs car and suffering for painkiller, which all sre supposed to carry in their els, he should have been kicked out e berth and screamed at as though be was a burglar. “Well,” said the Bad Boy, “I have t you to a hotel where women admitted—a strictly bachelors’ —and you are safe. Who was the man who rushed up to you when we GET ROBBED ame off the cars and seemed to be a g-lost daughter?” and the Bad Boy nched the oid man in the ribs with his I was never more surprised y aid the old man, as he took a bit of jewelry out of his pocket and handed it to the Bad Boy. She rushed up to me and said, ‘Why, Uncle Abner, I am so glad to see you!” and she rush- ed into my arms, and I had to drop my valise and hold her up. I felt her dear little hand in my vest pocket and knew she was taking my pocket-book—one of three dozen I bought at auction for 7 cents apiece.” “What have you got thrée dozen pocket-books for?” said the boy, look- ing into the old man’s valise, where one end was full of cheap pocket-books. “I got them to be robbed of.” said the old man, with a wink. “That girl who took me for her Uncle Abner got the first one, and it was filled with tissue paper. But while she was lying on my shoulder there in the depot and taking my pocket-book I was turning a little trick, too. I have not been in the gro- cery business forty years for nothing. I took that earring out of her left ear and put it in my pocket, and when she *] BOUGHT 'EM TQ ITE ITE]L N ——— t//f/é il G o went off happy, after seeing I was not her dear old Uncle Abner, I got a $14 earring. When anybody starts a game on me I play it to a finish,” and the old man looked wise and rubbed his stubby beard with his thumb as though he hadn’t lost any tricks in the first game tried on him in New York. “Well, I'll be condemned if it isn’t a diamond earring!” said the Bad Boy. as he held it up to thé light and saw the shimmer of different colors. “Say. you have demonstrated an ability as a busi- ness man that will give you high rank on the Stock Exchange, or you could get a job with the management of any great enterprise that required nerve. Did you ever do any robbing outside the grocery business? Ever rob graves or anything of that kind!” “No, sir, I am no common robber,” said the old man, looking hurt at the insinuations of the Bad Boy. “I have had charge of the grab-bag concession at a church sociable and done the best- I could to accumulate money for the good cause, but this woman is the first person I have ever despoiled of her jew- elry, and if she had not begun it she would never have lost anything through me. I bave taken a weekly papesr iwr ECK’S TO TmE ‘ | AR | | f’IBST AD A RUOCERYHMAN JFTERNOON ORK . 7%, & ) N years and read all about how people are robbed, and they have got to get up early to catch me. But what are we go- ing to do, now we are here in New York?" “Well, we will go out pretty soon and look over the town. I want to give you some pointers on how to act while you are here. This is the greatest town in the world. Everybody here tries to make it pleasant for strangers. If you see a carriage in front of a store or a residence with a driver in livery and a footman and want to take a ride. just gn and get right in the carriage and tell the fellow with buttons on where you want to go and who you are. Some days you may be Chauncey Depew or Rockefeller or John Sullivan, but whoever vou say you are stick to it and they will take you where you want te go. If there is a lady in the carriage get right in just the same and give the grand hailing sign by placing your fingers on the side of your nose, thus, and winking with your left “Su, that is Masonry, isn't,it?” and the old man looked wise. “I hid a clerk once who said he was a Mason, and he was always making signs and passwords and grips, and once he got me to join, 5 1 HAVE NOT BEEN BUSINESS FORTY YEARS FOR NOTHING " S I Do you know, I have often thought they just hazed me instead of giving me the real thing.” . “What did they do to you?” said the Bad Boy, as he fingered a Masonic charm on his watch chain and made a sign with his fingers. “Well, five or six of them took me to a schoolhouse, and after taking off the most of my clothing they made me walk around the schoolhouse in the snow nine times, barefooted, and then they took me upstairs and rode me down the stairs sitting down, and every stair I struck seemed to go right up to my hat, right through me; and they then took me to the'ice on the river, tied 2 rope around me and soused me in the water, and then dried me by mauling me with box covers, and then they blindfolded me and took me on a bridge across the river after midnight and told me to 2o home, and I walked about a mile and found I was in a graveyard. Say, was that Masonry or hazing?” “Oh, that was Masonry all right!” ~ said the boy. They gave you the thirty- fifth degree, thaf very few attain. But now that you are up in Masonry, and immune against robbery, we will go out around town, separately, and come back ND PEND at supper time the most inte on, “ FIRST IMETA | GENTLEMAN. “ WAIT'TILL | STUFF ONE OF MY SEVEN-CENT _, POCKETBOOKS. IN THE GROCERY | Hayseed overcoat a gloves and was tting right t to be a law e went to against just to h they got th if they didn tambourin a cent. T pocket somewhere “You are too easy!” said the Bad Boy, and he laughe “You have been b never saw or h 1 t just fooled you, and his sister was a common canary who gave you knock- out drops, stole all the money they didn’t borrow of you, and took von to a Salvation Army service and played it on you for an opera at $5 a seat, which you paid to your new friends. and here you are w your old 7-cent pocket- book filled with tissue paper as safe as possible.” “But what did you do all day?” asked the old man. “Me?” said the Bad Bov. taking a roll of bills from pocket. “I went down to Wall stree d took a flyer in sugar stock and cleaned up $300. “Well, we are $260 ahead.”- sald the old man. “Steer me onto Wall street game and I'll give up it And then they went in to dinner and prepared for their first night in New York. GEORGE W. PECK. I didn't have be a hole in my