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Show he, with a villainous grin; their wive reed 'em first. Good for fifty any time. I noticed that tlie book was written nearly full, und that Mr. Kerth's "visiting "vis-iting list" if so it might bo culled contained some 10 or 1 j names. Each letter was dated, and underneath wad entered the result achieved. The litter lit-ter was generally favorable. "Whenever the. machinery pets rusty," rus-ty," aid the scapegrace, "which happen hap-pen every four or live years, I take a trip East and lubricate things. After that," he added with a wink, "it runs better." I do not know whether I have dono w isely In making these facts public. For there are many people w ho might easily sell their ubsenee at a good lig-ure lig-ure if they only understood the art. i Fred liayhiunf in The Argonaut. fore. In the nick of time the money r me, however, and he proceeded, with the skill of a practical debtor, to make a small stream of i .ish irrigate a vast area of credit. This being accomplished, ac-complished, he was at eH.se again; md one night, over a liottle of wine and j cigars, ho told me how he had raised j the money. I "It wasn't much," he said carelessly careless-ly "five or six "hundred. I manage to raise that sum about four limes a year. If you understand how to make it go good as twieo that, you know. Now. I ll tell you. I have, back East, a number of relatives rich, respected, and all that. Money comes from them. Easy enough, you think? Well, I wonder. I am the black sheep of tiio outfit seaix'grace, you know. And do you imagine they w ould ever give up a bean for me, if I did not como at 'em with something worse than a gun? Why, sir, the whole bloody layout is so mean, and they hate me so, that, I give you my word, if I was roasting in the lowest depths of sheol, there isn't one of 'cm would loan you a fork to go and see if I was done. No, sir! That's the kind of citizens they are. But I notice they come up pretty regular just the same." Ho flic',:ed the ashes from his high priced cigar into the fireplace with an impressive gesture. Then from his desk he produced several letters and a book labelled "Journal," "Here it is," ho exclaimed, throwing the book down on the table in front of me; " -Richard Kerth's Heady Letter Writer, or tho Art of Holding Up Your Relations.' And hero are sample returns," re-turns," he added, dropping tho letters on the table. "Hut you had better bo-gin bo-gin at my end of tho transaction. Read in the book first the last batch of letters copied there. I always copy 'em so as to keep track of what I'm doing." do-ing." I opened the volume at the place which he indicated and began to read aloud: " -Hiram (irittin, Cleveland, O. : THKSCAl'EUIiACE. We who earn our living by hard work naturally regard with a good deal of interest those who manage to dodge this seeming necessity. What are these mysterious mortals, we say, who toil not, neither do they steal, who have no property, nor any apparent source of income, yet they wear clothes, eat meals and sleep under a good roof like the rest of us? Wo have a habit of speaking with contempt of these people, as though they wero beneath us in the social scale. Are we not really in secret a little envious of their originality aud courago? If one should, for example, try tho simple rule of "put yourself in his place "' You, now, who mako a living by some occupation, commonplace but reliable, re-liable, suppose you were to wake tomorrow to-morrow in a strange place, without money or friends, and with all work prohibited w hat would you do? How-would How-would you arrange about breakfast, and. subsequently, about dinner, und StlJIHT, illtU U Ul-U, IWIU III O mtinwwito meals and beds thereafter? Would you not be frightened? Would you not be at a loss what to do? Well, that is where you would show your inferiority to those of whom we speak. It must bo admitted that they could, if they wished, oarn a plain, honest living as we do; whereas could we, by the exercise of our wits exist a week after thoir fashion? En effet, there you have the whole matter. Before I undertook a study of these singular beings, I had always thought of them as a class by themselves, pursuing, pur-suing, for the most part, similar methods. To live without work constituted con-stituted in my mind a profession like law or the ministry. I wronged them. I did not appreciate their fecund originality. origi-nality. There is no profession that is common to them all, but each has his own. complete in Itself, unique nnd aolMate as tho miniature carved work of tho. Japanese, To toll of them la to'Ttoll or Individuals, Indi-viduals, not of the class. There was one who recently came to live at tho very respectable boarding place of the present writer. He was, as the naturalists would say, an excellent excel-lent specimen rathor young, good looking, well dressed and correctly mannered. There aro some of this class who 1- ;a low habit of making a pretence earning a living. They will maintain an office with "Real Estate" or "Commission," or something of that kind on the door. To no such stupid vulgarity did Mr. Richard Kerth descend. Not even a suggestion of work cast a cloud upon his title of "gentleman." I had know something of the previous previ-ous career of Mr. Kerth, and when he took possession of two of the est rooms in the house I hastened to make his acquaintance. He treated me with easy condescension, and soon offered to borrow money of me. My dear I nele "My mother's only brother,"' interpolated inter-polated the scapegrace "Presbyterian elder hardware merchant moral cik-izen.'1 cik-izen.'1 I read on: "1 suppose you will be devilish glad to learn that I have at last decided to turn my face homeward. I am tired of wandering, and it's poor picking here. I expect to start in a couple of weeks, unless I hear from you in the meantime. mean-time. A lot of California stock will be entered at the fall meetings at Cleveland, and I think I can fix for both of us to get let in on the ground floor, so that we can mako a good thing out of it. How are Bill and Jimmy Jim-my ? ' " "William and James, "said the black sheep, rolling up his eyes; "his sons, whom ho is bringing up in tho way they should go pious youths of 16 or thereabouts." " -I expect they would enjoy the nuwB - tvmt tna.. of- .Ulv tkwiV- I couldl" show them. 1 plan to ef:;d a month in Cleveland, and perhaps may locate there. Some of the fellows are making up a party to go to China. If I had a couple hundred more I would go with them, but I have only just enough to take mo home. Your affectionate nephew Richard.1 " Cold chills ran down his back when he read that letter," said Mr. Kerth. "Here is his reply. Ho prays for the salvation of my soul and encloses a chock for two hundred. See? Read the next one." It was addressed to "S. Yan Doosan Kerth, The Beauchamp, New York City," and began: "Dear Uncle." "Father's brother," the scapegrace exclaimed, "old bachelor great swell. He never saw me, and has an idea that I am very wild and woolly, like everything every-thing west of the Croton Aqueduct." I rend as follows: "Dear Uncle Respected brother of my parent, I take my pen in hand to let you know that two weeks from date I shall take tho train for your city and shall visit you at the Beauchamp House, where you are staying. If you should happen to bo out of town, I w ill wait until you get buck, for I mean to live in your city hereafter; I hope to get a job there. I know you will help me, as your brother's son, to get a job. Perhaps Per-haps Mr. Beauchamp would like a man to carry trunks. 1 know you will be glad to see me. If I could get into the grocery business hoi-e I would stay, and a man I know of will take me in for $200. Please look for me at tho depot in tho emigrant cars. Your nephew, Richard." "Imagine Uncle Yan Doosan reading that at his club, said the scapegrace; "I wonder it didn't give him a stroke of apoplexy. However, it was not the first.of its kind. He always comes up. I don't have to whistle twice to him' Tho next was addressed to "Mrs. Elizabeth Pennington, Germantown, Philadelphia," "Yan Doosan's sister," said the scapegrace; "they have quarrelled and won't compare notes. She is a widow, with a fine income and an elegant place. Two lovely marriageable daughters." The letter set forth the intended visit of Mr. Richard Kerth to the East and his plan to spend some time at Germantown Ger-mantown at his aunt's residence, if she wished it so; if not, with some friends of his there by the name of Boggs, There were various gallant references to Mr. Kerth's cousins and a delicate insinuation that ho would probably fall in love with one of them during his visit. There was also a casual reference to the sum of $lf0. She was short this time," remarked the writer of the letter aloud; "only sent $100. Strike her deeper next time." There were two more letters In the batch both to cousins in Chicago. They wero full of mysterious hints about pood times to be enjoyed when he should visit that city shortly. Each demanded a plain loan of f."0. 1 srd them to their houses," wild I did not loan Mr. Kerth any money. It was, indeed, for a long time a source of quiet satisfaction to me that while a number of others, in plain view on all sides, were being taxed for the support of this American peer, I was exemp'w But one day as I was being measured for an overcoat, my tailor asked me what I knew about Mr. Richard Kerth, and told me that ho owed fifty dollars on a suit of clothes. I answered Shearsby that I thought he had better charge it up to profit and loss. He immediately proceeded to do so. The overcoat which I ordered was more expensive by $." than I had expected, ex-pected, and possibly about nine other of Shearsby's customers suffered a similar amount of indirect taxation. As timo passed, I gained more and more of Mr. Kerth's confidence. I know just enough about his past performances per-formances to make him think that my silence was a useful commodity, and he sought to purchase it with frankness. frank-ness. He was, however, loth to betray be-tray his secret all at once, but prepared mo beforehand by various significant hints to appreciate better its mysterious mysteri-ous nature. One evening, when he was smoking one of my cigars before my fire, he said: "I am getting very hard up; I must raise somo money," I said: "How will you do it?" " I have a method of my own," he answered, "which I apply whenever I nru in need of ready cash." "What is it like?" He smiled with the smile of a sphinx as he replied: . "I call it a system of absence." On several occasions ho made use of phraseology similar to the above, j For example, once he said to me: "I get a good enough living out of not being in certain places at certain j times." Further he would not ex- plain. I About this timo his creditors, of whom the crop seemed jierennial, j began to press him close, and it was I evident that, unless the ready cash j should presently come to his rescue, he i was lost that is. lost in the same way , that he had been lost many times bo- |