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Show A HOTEL KEEPER KEEPS EVEN WITH PILFERERS. "Steal!" said the old mao, in ' accents of intense scorn. "tUeal! Why, you would be astonished to find how large a portion ol the travelling public, are infernal thieve. The) aieil the bed clothing, pillows, bootjacks, boot-jacks, soap, soap dMies- everything, in fact, which tbey can carry ofl. j Everybody steals soap. We expect j that, aud don't kick. You'd be Bur- ! prised to hear that (a noted In- aiana politician) makes a practice of putting the Boap into bis valise every time be pays bis bill. He doesn't stiem to use much of it himself, but 1 think he takes il home tu bis children. The first tbini; to be doue when a Ifllnw mimM t.i tbe office to Dav bis! bill is to send a porter up to bis room to see il auythiug iu missing. When, a fellow comes duwu with his valise in bis hand we are unusually suspicious. Tbe only way to get even with tbe thieves is to keep a 'thiet account.' Whenever anything is missed I charge it up at a fair value, and the next time I catch a thief in tha act I make him pay the entire amount or go to jail. One day a nice-looking fellow aame down with a value in his hand, and inquired tbe amount of his bill. The minute I saw him I knew he had stolen something, so I rang the bell and gave the porter the wink. I pottered about the books while the porter was gone, and I could see he was KettinK uneasy. He had a notion to bolt, but just then (he porter came down, and I saw by his eye tbat something waa missing. I jumped over the cauuter and grabbed the rascal by tbe throat. "Open that valiso, you d d thief," says I: H got very white about the gills, and began to beg. When the valise was opened, sure enough there was a new bed-spread for which I had paid five dollars. "Bill,' says I, "bring mo the thief account." I footed it up, and it amounted to just fifty-aix dollars, "You pay tbat," says I, "or on tn iail " He thoueht it waa d d hard to have to pay for other men's stealings, but on the whole concluded tbat it was cheaper than to go to the penitentiary.- Compounding felony? Well, yes, it did have that complexion. But may be it nipped a thief in tbe bud. The girls are generally honest, though once in a while we catch one of them. . One lime there waa an infernal in-fernal tree peddler stopped with us and be had a black satin vest stolen. : I paid bim five dollars for it. He described de-scribed it very accurately. There was a yellow spot on tbe collar, where he had dropped some acid on it, and hia name in full was written on the leather with which it was bound at the bottom, I Buspected the girl Mary. .Wfv.watcbed her for ft week or two, and concluded we were mistaken, mis-taken, when one day a fellow. came in with a black., satin vest, and there was a round yellow Bpoton the collar.? It was Mary's sweetheart. I collared: 'him, jerked up the vest, and found the name of the tree-peddler on the leather. He owned up that Mary had. stolen tbe vest and given it to him.1 . At that time the tbiel acoouM waonly.aove'n dollar,, and so . bVgdfc otjbeiio", j;? , I v |