Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1878 — A Bookkeeper in Distress. [ARTICLE]

A Bookkeeper in Distress.

We met “Old Mose” the other day, and noticed that there was a dark cloud hovering over his despondent brow. “What is the matter, uncle?” we asked. He shook his head as if he had nothing left to live for, and said: -“Tse in a peck of trouble. De Lord knows where dis heah is gwine to end. I’se done gib it up.” “ What is the trouble about?” After several sighs that seemed to come up from the bottom of his boots, he explained that he was the Secretary Of the local colored Lodge of Freemasons; that he was the custodian of the books; that for keeping the books he was paid by the lodge ten dollars a month; that every Saturday night, after the lodge was over, he carried the books home and turned them over to the “ ole ’oomam, Aunt Dinah,” for safe keeping, and she stowed them away in her trunk, “ along wid her ’tishal flowers, and fedders, and finery and sich.” He also stated that he had forgotten to mention tb Aunt Dinah that he was receiving ten dollars a month for keeping the books, and he had uniformly forgotten to turn over to her the aforesaid ten dollars, but had squandered the same for his own little personal expenses; that some unknown demon had informed Dinah that Old Mose was getting ten dollars for keeping the books, and consequently when he remarked the other evening that it being time for him to go to the lodge, and upon requesting her to hand him out the books, instead of doing bo she sat down on the trunk and positively refused to turn over the documents until he paid over the ten dollars. When he told her the ten dollars were his’n for keeping the books, she retorted: “Who’s been keepin’ dem ar books? Hasn’t I been keepin’ de books in de trunk all de time? Han’ out dem funds wats cornin’ to me for keepin’ de books.” “ What did you tell her, Mose?” “ I tole her I wanted dem books to keep de minits in, dat she didn’t know how to keep de books, but she ’lowed she was gwine to show me she knowed how to keep de books, and, shuah’s you’s bawn, she is a keepin’ ’em. De lodge has pinted a committee to investigate my accounts, and dar she is squattin’ on de trunk holdin’ out her han’ for de ten dollars l’se done spent. Doesn't yer know somebody who wants ten dollars wuss of whitewashin’ done in advance?” The best part of the foregoing is that it is based on actual facts. —San Antonio {Tex.) Express.