Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1902 — Like Many Smokers. [ARTICLE]

Like Many Smokers.

Some of the clerks tn the War Department played a Joke on a wellknown clerk in the telegraph office the other day. They got a cheap cigar, filled It with small pieces of rubber and then gave it to the telegraph man. He is always playing practical jokes on his fellows and they were merely trying to even up. He started in to work as usual and puffed vigorously on the cigar. He must have had a cold in his head, for he didn't seem to notice the foul smell that soon permeated the atmosphere. His associates could hardly stand it, hpwever, but they didn’t know about the cigar. The odor finally became overpowering, and the smell of rubber was unmistakable. As there had been some trouble with the telegraphic apparatus the innocent victims concluded from the smell that the insulators had caught fire. An expert electrician was summoned from the Western Union office and spent some time examining the switchboard connections. It was not until after he reported that there was nothing at all the matter with them that the truth dawned upon the operators that it was merely a case of “bad cigar.” It was a curious commentary on the smoker’s taste that he didn't know he was not smoking tobacco until those around him informed him of the fact—Washington Post.