Grasshoppers $1 Each

Bobtail ears were all the go in St. Louis at one time. They were not so popular with the people as with the companies, as they were small and inexpensive affairs, the driver acting in the dual capacity of driver and conductor, says the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The fare-box at the forward end with its series of trap-doors and front and back of glass, was supposed to be an efficiënt device for the protection of the conipany's interests. At that time car tickets passed everywhere as currency. The peanut stands, the saloons and all retail stores accepted them at i.heir face value for purchases. Tha drivers knew this, and some of them would evolve schemes to abstract the ïoveted tickets after they were deposited by the passengers in the box. Thia was no easy matter, as the inventor had so fixed its internal arrangement3 that robbing the box by a curved wire or any pliable instrument was deemed in impossibility. One driver took a ive grasshopper and tied his two hind feet toeether to a niece of thread. so that he was helpless. The ingenious ouss would thea pry open some of the slanting trap-doors with a small stick and slowly let Mr. Grasshopper slide over one door, through another, and so on down into the bottom of the box among the tickets. The hopper had the use of his four small lsgs, and when his master pulled the thread to which the insect was attached, the hopper naturally grabbed hold of some of the tickets. A grasshopper, when secured by the hind legs, will hold firmly with its fore legs to anything that comes within reach. As soon as the hopper reached the tickets he was pulled around the angles in the bpx and out, bringing with him from one to ftve or six tickets. The tapping was done at the end of the line or on some lonesome part of the road. If the fellow who hatched the scheme hau kept it to himself, perhaps the railway company would never have discovered his rascaüty. This chap had a long head and tried to make all he could out of hls Iucky find. He went luto tho wholesal grasshopper business. He knew that grasshoppers ■were not to be had in winter, therefore he laid In a supply. He fed them and took care of them. When Jack Frost cleared the flelds of the chirpers he started out on a tour among the drivera. He was careful about sounding his man first, and to those whc were willing to be tempted he shoved how the trick could be done. He had the grasshoppers and would furnish them at $1 a piece. By taking care of he hopper it would be good for a week, no matter how cold the weather. He Plied his trade wlth some boldness, nd it eventually led to his downfall and a wholesale discharge of drivers on everal of the lines.