Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1875 — A Parisian “Industry.” [ARTICLE]

A Parisian “Industry.”

There is an artful dodger in Paris whose operations have been so clever as to deserve respectful notice. He is a middle-aged person of an innocent aspect, ana his pretty plan was to meander slowly along, and, seizing the first mildeyed old gentleman he met, to lisp in a childlike manner: “Totty has lost his mammy; .take Totty back to mammy.” The mild-eyed would naturally feel somewhat confused and alarmed, when to him would further appear a confederate of Totty’s, who would remark in accents bland that Totty was a harmless idiot, and if the stranger would see Totty home it would be a real charity. Fired by benevolence, the old gentleman would undertake to bear the soft, sweet' Totty to his abode, and would trot along the boulevards among the toy-shops, which appeared to enchant Totty. That gentle being would observe: “ Totty wants a harlequin; buy Totty a harlequin;” and his antique warder would hasten to gratify that mild longing. Before the ingenious Totty reached his home he was usually laden with the marketable results of the kind-hearted old creature’s benevolence, and did a thriving business until several benefactors happened to compare n otes, and Totty’s innocent industry wasquenched.