Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1886 — What Made a Drummer Happy. [ARTICLE]

What Made a Drummer Happy.

“Every man who travels is occasionally taken for some other man,” said a Chicago drummer, “and some amusing mistakes occur on this account. Once in awhile a man will meet another man who looks a good deal like himself. About three months ago a resemblance be tween myself and another man resulted in a little profit to myself, and I ain’t ashamed to tell of it, as everybody thinks it honorable to beat a railroad company. I was on a train coming into Chicago to stay over Sunday, and had a ticket from the station whore 1 got on to one about twenty - miles this side. I had bought it in the hotel, cheap, of a drummer who had changed his mind about running up this way, and at that station I expected to get off and buy a ticket to Chicago. I noticed that the man who sat in the seat in front of me looked a good deal like myself. He wore a round hat, while I had on a traveling cap, but in feature, build, beard and other respects he bore a striking resemblance to me. When the conductor came around I noticed that this man had an annual pass, and the conductor asked him where he was Soing. The passenger said he didn’t pow yet; he might get off at , oi he might go on through to Chicago. The station he had mentioned was the one where I was to buy my ticket, and sure enough he got oflt‘ there as I did. As I entered the station to get my ticket I saw the pass-holder jump into a ’bus, and just then an idea entered my head. I didn’t buy a ticket, but went back tc the train and took the seat the passholder had just vacated. I kept on my hat which I had put on before leaving the train, and which, being a round one like that worn by the pass-holder, made me look more than ever like him. When the conductor came along he looked at me and says, ‘Going through with us, are you?’ ‘Yes,’ says I, and that was the end of it. I rode into Chicago on that other man’s pass as big as life. I didn’t save much, only $5.70, but it was so easily and peculiarly done that I felt as good over it as if it had been a hundred. I won’t mention the name of the road or of the station for fear ot getting the conductor into trouble. J wouldn’t want to do that, you know, because’s he’s a conductor after my own heart.” —Chicago Herald.