The Evening Herald

DODGING THE COLLECTOR.
The Many Ruses Mr. Scanlan Must Contend With.

The Mondays following pay days at the collieries of the P. & R. C. & I. Co. are the days on which the exodus of people who tire of this place generally occurs and the harvest of the tax collector is a rich one, although he must keep his eyes open and jump about pretty lively to reap it. This morning there were a number of amusing incidents at the Lehigh Valley depot in which the collector and would-be tax jumpers figured as principals. One of them had a touch of sensationalism about it. Collector Scanlan was standing at the depot, chatting with some departing friends, when his attention was called to two men sneaking around the corner of the Shenandoah Beef Company's house, and carrying a large and well filled bag. By degrees the two men worked their way over to the station and into the baggage room. One of them asked to have the bag checked to Chicago, but Scanlan interfered. A lively discussion followed, during which the man who wanted to get away, who, by the way, was a Pole speaking very fair English, conducted a crossfire of language with the collector that afforded some amusement to the bystanders. Finding that Scanlan was not to be downed by argument, the Pole then resorted to pleading poverty, but Scanlan held onto him "like grim death to a nigger," and the taxes were eventually paid.

While Scanlan was attending to this case another Pole, carrying a large bag and accompanied by a boy of about ten years, sneaked into the men's waiting room of the depot and remained there until the train bound for Mauch Chunk started to pull from the station. The train had proceeded about a car's length when Mr. Pole made a frantic dash from the waiting room, dragging the large bag and small boy after him. He threw the bag upon the platform of one of the cars, raised the boy up to the news agent, who stood on the other platform, and then scrambled on himself. It was a case in which life could have been easily sacrificed and the effort was certainly not worth the amount of the taxes the man was trying to get rid of; but, after all the risk, he did not escape. The scrambling of the man and boy to get on the train had attracted the attention of all the people at the depot, including Collector Scanlan and Constable Giblin. The latter saw the ruse at a glance and they ran after and boarded the train before it attained much speed. When the train reached Yatesville they alighted with the man and boy in custody and brought them back to town. The taxes were paid later.