Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1893 — The Ruling Passion. [ARTICLE]

The Ruling Passion.

The ruling passion Is always strong in death. A oertain well-known citizen of St. Louis was recently confined to his bed for several weeks with a serious illness. During that time his barber visited the sick chamber three times a week to remove the hirsute accumulation from the invalid’s ohin. “Look here, Jim*" exclaimed the sufferer. one day, “50 cents $ visit is too much to oharge a regular customer like me. You ought to make a reduction in my oase. You make enough anyhow. ” “That itn’t a oiroumstanee to I'll oharge after you’re dead,” was Jim's reply. “I charge $5 for shaving a corpse. ” That set the invalid to thinking and he determined to get ahead of the barber if possible. Finally a day came when the invalid and every one else thought dissolution was near. A minister was oalled in ami gave the sufferer spiritual consolation, and left, thinking that the patient’s chances in the next world were good. The minister had been gone about five minutes, when the sufferer turned to his wife and in a feeble voioe suggested: “You’d better send for the barber, Sarah, before I die. He sha’n’t get that $5 out of me.* The gentleman finally recovered, contrary to expectations, and the barber now tells the story with great gusto.