Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1877 — A Hole in a Pocket. [ARTICLE]

A Hole in a Pocket.

The mean small boy is different from the mean big boy, because all his tricks are calculated to make other hearts ache. He now takes a silver quarter and makes it fast to a string, and to see him hanging about the Postoffice one would set him down as a boy who never had an evil thought. He selects a victim and drops the quarter where it will do the most good. The ring of the metal commands attention at once, and the programme is carried out as in a case yesterday. The victim was a short man with a very red neck, and, when he heard the quarter drop, he clapped his hand on his pocket and looked around. “Didyou drop a quarter?” mildly asked the mean small boy, pointing to one on the stone floor.

“Ah ! must be a hole in my pocket,” replied the fat man, as he pulled up the knees of his pants and bent over to pick it up. He had his fingers on tire money when it slid away, and, as he straightened up, he was • greeted with fiendish chuckles from half-a-dozen mean big and mean small boys, one of whom inquired : “ Which pocket has a hole in it? ” The man didn’t say. For some inexplicable reason he refused to enter into any explanation, but hastened away.— Detroit Free Press.