Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 219, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1918 — HOW A PENNILESS TRAMP BOUGHT A LIBERTY BOND [ARTICLE]

HOW A PENNILESS TRAMP BOUGHT A LIBERTY BOND

Once upon a time a Hobo was meandering into a town when a Liberty Bond drive was on. He passed leisurely along the strdet until Ms gaze met a big poster in a store window. The picture was that of the infamous M Hun” giving the death strangle to the woman of liberty and it aroused in his bosom a patriotic fervor. His innermost conscience told him that his was a life of liberty perverted, an abuse of the principle of liberty without giving in return the least contribution to the government that gave him protection. His head dropped in meditation, and looking down at his feet he discovered a piece of paper currency, a five dollar bill. Wit ha feeling of delight he crossed the street to the nearest bank and asked the cashier for a Liberty Bond application blank. He read the terms of payment, filled out the blank and after pinning the five dollars to it shoved it through the cashier’s window apd hastily left the building. In the rush of business the application was thrown in a pile with hundreds of other applications for bonds, some calling for half the amount, and others running to ten times the amount and paid in full. These papers were sorted and re-sorted, and finally the day of final and last payment arrived. The cashier was checking over the amounts and giving out the Liberty Bonds to the purchasers as they came in, and as the day neared the close only a few applications remained unredeemed. The names were all familiar to the banker except one; it was signed “Weary Willie, No. P. 0., No Address.” The banker then remembered the visit of the uncouth looking stranger, and it the ndawned upon him that he was only a tramp. “But this application must be kept good,” says he. “The amount has been sold and the government expects the money.” Who wants a SIOO Liberty Bond for $95,” he asked, and there were a half dozen regular patrons of the bank rushed for the window at the same time. The moral of this story is: If you dan finish a Liberty Bond, start it. —Contributed.