Atlanta World

TRUSTY ESCAPES;
TURNS ROBBER
Columbia S.C. Dec 2—(ANP)—
Just before Thanksgiving T. B. Ripley not the Believe-It-Or-Not explorer was a more or less happy man with something though little to be thankful for. But right after Thanksgiving Mr. Ripley had nothing at all to be thankful for and blamed upon an idle mind in which ol' Satan had been working the series of misfortunes which befell him.
For, before Thanksgiving, Ripley was a trusty, doing odd jobs with the chain gang on the Leesburg road. But the trusty's heel began to itch and he walked off. Seventeen miles further on, at Bookman, he noticed a store owner closing up for the evening and the devil in Mr. Ripley's mind told him he ought to wait and try his luck on that store later on. He did. He was successful.
The next morning he entered another store, loaded down with a part of his swag—four hundred pennies. He asked the proprietor, who happened to be a justice of the peace, if he would give him some silver pieces for the pennies. The justice of the peace became suspicious at the sight of a colored gentleman bearing so many pennies. When he sought to question Mr. Ripley the latter made a pass at him, and fled. But Ripley was slower a-foot than the justice was in his automobile.