His Joke Worked Badly.
A young man who seemed to be boiling over to do something smart was a passenger on a Michigan avenue car the other day. After racking his massive brain for a while he took out a silver dollar and laid it on the seat and took a seat opposite. The car soon stopped at a crossing to let on an old woman with a basket. She saw the empty seat and the dollar, and it didn’t take her over thirty seconds to drop herself into the place and the dollar into her pocket.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” said the joker, “but I’ve lost a dollar. I think I left it on that seat.”
“I don’t,” she bluntly replied.
“But I’m sure of it. Did you pick up a dollar?”
“None of your business, sir.”
“But all of us saw you pick it up, ma’am, and I can prove it was mine.”
“Look a’ here, young chap,” she said, as she put down her basket, “if it’s a row you want you’ll find me ready. I allow no one to walk on me.”
“But, ma’am, I left——”
“Come on, then,” she said, as she stood up and doubled up her fists. “I am a peaceful woman, and I want to get along the easiest way, but if I must I will.”
Everybody began to clap and laugh, and the smart Aleck took a drop off the platform without asking what it was all about.