tramp accosted a group of
churchmen in the hotel porch and asked for aid.

"No," one of them told him, "I'm afraid we can't help you. But you see
that big man over there?" pointing to Bishop Talbot.

"Well, he's the youngest bishop of us all, and he's a very generous man.
You might try him."

The tramp approached Bishop Talbot confidently. The others watched with
interest. They saw a look of surprise come over the tramp's face. The
bishop was talking eagerly. The tramp looked troubled. And then,
finally, they saw something pass from one hand to the other. The tramp
tried to slink past the group without speaking, but one of them called
to him:

"Well, did you get something from our young brother?"

The tramp grinned sheepishly. "No," he admitted, "I gave him a dollar
for his damned new cathedral at Laramie!"

To get thine ends, lay bashfulnesse aside;
Who feares to aske, doth teach to be deny'd.

--_Herrick_.

Well, whiles I am a beggar I will rail
And say, there is no sin but to be rich;
And being rich, my virtue then shall be
To say, there is no vice but beggary.

--_Shakespeare_.

_See also_ Flattery; Millionaires.

BETTING

The officers' mess was discussing rifle shooting.

"I'll bet anyone here," said one young lieutenant, "that I can fire
twenty shots at two hundred yards and call each shot correctly without
waiting for the marker. I'll stake a box of cigars that I can."

"Done!" cried a major.

The whole mess was on hand early next morning to see the experiment
tried.

The lieutenant fired.

"Miss," he calmly announced.

A second shot.

"Miss," he repeated.

A third shot.

"Miss."

"Here, there! Hold on!" protested the major. "What are you trying to do?
You're not shooting for the target at all."

"Of course not," admitted the lieutenant. "I'm firing for those cigars."
And he got them.

Two old cronies went into a drug store in the downtown part of New York
City, and, addressing the proprietor by his first name, one of them
said:

"Dr. Charley, we have made a bet of the ice-cream sodas. We will have
them now and when the bet is decided the loser will drop in and pay for
them."

As the two old fellows were departing after enjoying their temperance
beverage, the druggist asked them what the wager was.

"Well," said one of them, "our friend George bets that when the tower of
the Singer Building falls, it will topple over toward the North River,