Show WHAT AILED THE TOWN The People Were Good Enough but Had Been Cleaned Out St Louis PostDispatch The man who was selling illustrated family Bibles for the trifling sum of 51 apiece had a crowd around him on the street corner for half an hour and had cried his wares in all sorts of tones but not a sale had been made Growing discouraged dis-couraged he finally addressed the crowd with Gentlemen this Bible has never been offered tc the public before for less than 250 and I am now offering it for 100 cents simply to close out my stock and go into other business Is there any one here who finds fault with the price I there was he held his peace and after waiting for a moment the fakir continued I took this to be a Christian community com-munity and I cant believe Im mistaken mis-taken I can see two church spires from where I stand and Im sure there must be others Cant an illustrated family Bible like this be sold among Christian people Nobody stepped forward to buy and holding one of the books above his head he called out I insist that there is at least one Christian in this crowd before me I I am right let him step foijward I After half a minute an old man pushed his way in from the outskirts of the crowd He was chewing tobacco In a vigorous manner and had a discouraged dis-couraged look on his face Are you a Christian man asked the fakir after looking him over I ar was the reply You believe in this book I dew Have you got one like it hame No Then why dont you buy this at a dollar Whats the matter with this crowd that I cant sell a Bible at half its real value Dont your religion include in-clude the Bible That haint got nothin to do with wih it replied the old man with a considerable con-siderable show of spirit Weve got Iot churches and religion and all that but the fact is a circus came along Tues I day a man with a guessing hog was here Wednesday and yesterday a fel I ler was here with a race horse and cleaned this town out of 500 cash We halnt nothin agin you and we have a heap o respect fur them books but if ye was offerin hair dje at 10 cents i a bottle and porus plasters fur 3 cents apiece I you couldnt make a cash sale to this crowd I |