MR MEAN 



fellow, who was in business and travelled about selling 

 his goods, made thousands of dollars in consequence. 

 Now in private life he would never dip down into his 

 pocket for anything. He would smoke his friend's 

 cigars, let him pay for theatre tickets, would bring a 

 girl or two with him and would let the giver of the tips 

 pay for the meals ; in fact every way he would accept 

 everything and give nothing. He even liked his street- 

 car fares to be paid for him. To sum him up, he was 

 the meanest fellow possible in spite of the fact that he 

 had a good and regular commercial income and was 

 under obligation for thousands of dollars won through 

 my friend's tips. It was that unwillingness even to 

 pay his street-car fare that goaded my friend to frenzy, 

 and at last he determined to get even with him. 



He went to " Mr Mean " one day and said : " How 

 much would you bet if I gave you a real good thing, 

 a big outsider who might start at perhaps 50 or 100 

 to 1 ? " 



The reply was three hundred dollars. 



" Tliat's no good," said my friend : " you'll have to 

 put much more than that on ; mind you, I don't want 

 any of it." 



" Mr Mean " thought for a moment and answered 

 that he would put on five hundred and perhaps more. 

 So it was agreed that they were to go racing next after- 

 noon. Quite early my friend went to a certain big 

 bookmaker and asked him to run down the card and 

 pick out something without a ghost of a chance. 

 Looking down the list the bookmaker said : " I'll bet 

 you five dollars that this one will be absolutely last. 

 Is that good enough for you ? W^iat's more she'll be 

 at 100 or 200 to 1." My friend bet him the five dollars, 

 being quite content at the knowledge that he was sure 

 to lose. Then he gave the name of the horse to the 



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