HOW DAWBER DID IT.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 80, 1 October 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOW DAWBER DID IT.

Dawber, whose future pictures will no doubt set the Thames of the artistic world on fire, is the hero of the following : little episode in the Bohemia of which he is a " head centre." In the not too classical neighbourhood which he honoured by residing in (some say in a two-floor back, but this en parenthese,) there was a restaurant (a dining-room of the boiled beef and carrot school,) which he patronised for some time and to such an extent as his limited means, if not his appetite would go to. The restaurant changed hands, the proprietor having made enough to retire upon. The new proprietor was naturally anxious to retain the custom of those whose payments had contributed to the fortune amassed by his predecessor and was obsequiously polite to all comers. Dawber introduced himself, and the following conversation took place between them — " Sir, I have a question to put to you." % " With pleasure, sir." " Are you the present pleasant proprietor of this restaurant ? " " I have the honour." " Well I should like you to know that I am one of the oldest, if not the oldest frequenter of the house." " Indeed ; well may I hope for the continuance of your patronage ? " " With pleasure. By-the-by, has the late proprietor left the town? " •He has." "Permanently?" " Permanently." " Dear me ; how annoying. lam in his debt. I owe him a halfsovereign." "Oh, never mind; for such a customer as you must have been, it is a mere trifle. He must congratulate himself that you owe him no more." " A trifle, sir ! Good heavens ! how complacent some people are, and how little their consciences make cowards of them! Sir, a man of honour looks upon a debt as a debt, irrespective of how much that debt may be — great or small. As a matter of fact, I feel that I owe the half-sovereign to you. You are the successor of the late proprietor, the ' debts due to him, if unpaid, are due

to you, and I insist upon payingyou." " Sir, I could not accept it." " Here is the half-sovereign." " Roally you must excuse me. I took up my predecessor's custom not his book debts." " Do you want to annoy me ? " "Not for a moment, sir." " Then take the money." " Well, if you insist. Ah ! if all the world were like you." For some little time after this. Dawber continued to take his meals at the restaurant with a regularity that was only equalled by the persistency with which he nover paid, but directed the amount " to go down to his account." The blind confidence of the proprietor in Dawber's honesty for three long months was never shaken and Dawber's appotite never slackened, nor did the regularity of his vis'ts experience a break. But the course of uninterrupted credit never did run smooth, though for six months a cloudless sky of unquestioned credit shone upon our artist. One day, after a meal of more than ordinary "squareness," the waiter asked if it would be convenient for him to settle his little bill. Dawber suggested that next month would suit him excellently, and he would pay up in full. "Why prolong the story ? It is summed up in the fact that Dawber was fed splendidly for twelve months, and it only cost him a half-sovereign. The proprietor when he tolls this story himself, adds : — "Who can we trust now, when even honest men deceive us ?"