"Oh, no, and that's why I am disgusted with the newspaper profession.
The country cries out, 'Who is the man?' There is a deep silence. The
country cries again, 'Does any one know this man?' And then papa
speaks. But what does he get? The razzle. A great scoop rewarded with
a razzle. My achievements are taken too much us a matter of course. I
don't assert myself enough. I am too modest. Say, I smell liquor.
Who's got a bottle? Somebody took a cork out of a bottle. Who was it?
Say, Will, have you got a bottle?"
"Thought you said that your doctor told you not to drink."
"He did; he said that I had intercostal rheumatism. He examined me
carefully, and when I asked him what he thought, he replied, 'Mr.
Flummers, you can't afford to drink.'"
"And did you tell him that you could afford it--that it didn't cost
you anything?"
"Oh, ho, ho, no! Say, send out and get a bottle. What are you fellows
playing there? Ten cents ante, all jack pots? It's a robbers' game."
* * * * *
In every community a stranger wearing black whiskers was under
suspicion. A detective shrewdly suggested that the murderer might have
shaved, and he claimed great credit for this timely hint; but no
matter, the search for the black-whiskered man was continued. Dave
Kittymunks was arrested in all parts of the country, and the head-line
writer, whose humor could not long be held in subjection, began to
express himself thus: "Dave Kittymunks captured in St. Paul, also
seized in New Orleans, and is hotly pursued in the neighborhood of
Kansas City."
Witherspoon, sitting by his library fire at night, would say over and
over again: "I told him never to keep any money in the house. He was
so close, so suspicious; and then to put his money in a safe that a
boy might have knocked to pieces!" And it became Mrs. Witherspoon's
habit to declare: "I just know that somebody will break into our house
next." Then the merchant's impatience would express itself with a
grunt. "Oh, it has given you and Ellen a rare chance for speculation.
We'd better wall ourselves in a cave and die there waiting for robbers
to drill their way in. It does seem to me that they ought to catch
that fellow, I told Brooks that he'd better increase the reward to
fifty thousand."
Witherspoon and Brooks called at Henry's office. "You may publish the
fact that I have offered fifty thousand dollars reward for
Kittymunks," said Brooks, speaking to Henry, but looking into the room
where Miss Drury was at work.
"That ought to be a great stimulus," Henry replied, "but it doesn't
appear to me that there has been any lack of effort."
"No," said Witherspoon; "but the prospect of fifty thousand dollars
will make a strong effort stronger."
"By the way," Henry remarked, "this is the first time you have visited
me in my work-room."
Witherspoon replied: "Yes, that's so; and it strikes me that you might
get more comfortable quarters."
"Comfortable enough for a workshop," Henry rejoined.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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