Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1898 — DIGNITY DIDN’T PAY. [ARTICLE]

DIGNITY DIDN’T PAY.

A Poatmmter Who Licked on Stamp* When Requested. The post office at Grass Valley was at the back end of a “general” store, and the postmaster, who was also the proprietor of the store, says the Detroit Free Press, was weighing me out some tobacco, when a solid, middle-aged woman came and slammed a two-cent piece down on the counter and exclaimed: “Stamp—two-center! ” The postmaster handed her one, but she waved it away and pitched a letter at his head and said: “Lick ’er on.” He promptly and humbly obeyed, and as the woman walked away, I asked: “Don’t people out this way lick on their own postage stamps?” “Yes, most of ’em, but that woman is rather particular, and I don’t want to take chances again.” “Chances on what?” “Well she came in here about six months ago for the first time, and bought a stamp and commanded me to lick. I laid back on my dignity and refused, and she turned around and kicked the head out of a bar’l of N. O. molasses and I lost about sll by tha operation. As my salary as postmaster is only $23 a year I can’t take no more shances.”