Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1884 — A Clever Financier. [ARTICLE]

A Clever Financier.

Out on the Northern Pacific there is a conductor running an accommodation train whose mode of adjusting his accounts with the company smack somewhat of the original. His passengers are generally of that class who get on at stations where no tickets are sold, but they always pay their fare to the conductor. It often transpires that the amounts thus collected aggregate a considerable sum. After going through the car and collecting the fares, this trusty railway man approaches the center of the coach and throws the money up above the bell-rope. One day a passenger inquired of the conductor what he did that for. The answer was that whatever money stuck to the bell-rope went to the company, and what fell on the floor he appropriated for his own use. “But why do you ask?” continued the candid “con.” “Oh, nothing, only that I am a ‘spotter’ for the company,” replied the inquisitive passenger. Carl Pretzel’s Weekly.