Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1904 — His Reward. [ARTICLE]

His Reward.

The train was snow bound twenty miles from the nearest station, and the passengers, with one exception, found the waiting weary. The exception, a stolid Scandinavian, drew from his valise a squeaky accordion, from which he extracted such melancholy strains that the passengers were moved not to tears, but to wrath. When the concert had lasted half an hour, one of the listeners rose, quietly helped himself to the musician’s hat and proceeded to take up a collection. He proved such a persistent beggar that before long the bat sagged with its burden of nickels and dimes. The player, inspired by the rattle of coin, played with renewed vigor. As the man with the hat approached him, the interested passengers craned their necks to see the presentation — but there was no presentation. Instead, the man who had passed the hat calmly stowed the collection away in his own trousers pocket, tossed the empty hat to the Scandinavian and gravely returned to his novel. “Veil!” exclaimed the astonished musician. “Who vas dot money for?” “For me,” said the man. “I guess I deserve some reward for having to sit next to music like that” Even the Scandinavian joined in the laugh that followed, and a little later he got the money—on condition that he should not play any more.