PROF SWING'S SALOON VISIT.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 696, 6 October 1909, Page 3

PROF SWING'S SALOON VISIT.

Famous Chicago Trencher Made an AinunltiK MiHtiikr in a Queat tar Gmpci, Intimate frier's of Prof. Swing knew that he hud an uncontrollable appetite for Malaga grapes, but few of them over heard how his fondness for the fruit once led him unwittingly into a Milwaukee beer saloon. _ The following story is told by Police Lieut. Seery, who, when a patrolman, used to travel a North side post on which Prof. Swing lived, says the Chicago Inter Ocean.

"When the weather permitted the professor used to often accompany me on my walk around the block, and he told me many an amusing i n . cident of his life. Tlis Milwaukee experience was, perhaps, the funniest of all, and for a long time he was in fear that the newspapers would hear of it, Re had gone to Milwaukee on some matter connected with the church, and while walking on the street espied a bunch of Malaga grapes in the window of what appeared to be a store. He was extremely fond of this particular kind of grape, and he saw nothing else, so intensely were his thoughts centered on his favorite fruit.

"If he had looked up at the building- he would have seen by the free lunch signs that it was a lager beer saloon, but he looked neither to the right nor left. As he entered the place his ga*e fell upon a bar at. which several men were standing with half-emptied glasses in front of them. The proprietor, a German, who formerly lived in Chicago, recognized the professor as soon as he stuck his head in the door. He came out from behind the bar, wiping his hands on his white apron, and before the professor had fully realized his mistake the saloonkeeper was wriao-ing him by the hand.

" 'Prof. Swing.' said the saloonkeeper, 'I am the proudest man in Milwaukee to think you have paid me this visit. T am. deeply grateful of the honor conferred upon me, and I wish there were more clergymen like you, who do not think it a crime to enter a saloon.'

"All the while the saloonkeeper was shaking his hand and talking the fact was slowly dawning on the professor that he made a terrible mistake. And when the whiteaproned man mentioned about it not being a crime to enter a saloon the professor, as he afterward told me. felt as if he would like to sink through the floor. He explained to the saloonkeeper how he happened to come into the place, at the same time backing away toward the door. He forgot all about the grapes, and the thought uppermost in his mind was: 'What would my congregation say if they saw me now?' He was edging away toward the door when the saloonkeeper stopped him and insisted on his taking the whole basket of grapes. " 'lt was. a close call.' the professor used .to say, and <ner after when he saw grapes in a window he made sure it wa< a saloon before going in to purchase."