The Latest Shrewd Swindle

A druggist in Des Moines, Iowa, was recently made the victim of a rather expensive practical joke. A man, apparently under the influence of liquor, entered the shop one morning and called "or a glass of soda water. After drinking ít he staggered against a pane of Frenen jlate glass in the show-window, shiverng it to atoms. Seeing the mischief he íad done he hurried away, but the drugist pursued and overtook him, demandng payment for the damage. The inebríate protested that he was impecuuous, but the ploa did not avail. Two clerks seized and searched him, and exracted from somewhere about his person a $100 bilí. This they deposited in their money-till, deducted the price of the jlass, and, etufñng the change into one of hÍ9 pockets, sent him adrift upon the treet. During the day the druggist discovered to his horror that the bilí vvas a counterfeit. Of course no time was lost ; ofneers were sent in every direction, and ;he offender was at length captured and wought before the bar of justice. Here, ïowever, a legal technicality disturbed the even flow of equity. The drunkard urged that he was guiltless of any crime, hat the countorfeit money happened to ie in his pocket at the time of the accilent, and that it was taken from him by 'orce. Under the circumstances, the ïonorable gentleman who presided over he court feit constrained to dismiss the case, and the druggist, with the fear of a uit for assault and battery before his eyes, declined to move furthor in the matter.