STL All Sports

During World War II a sports writer on one of our better journals grabbed an offer from his paper to turn foreign correspondent for the duration. He was assigned to the North African theatre. Being a bold and intrepid character, he decided to do a little snooping in the desert. The only transportation he could find was a moth-eaten and high-smelling camel.

At the end of the month, the sportswriter turned foreign correspondent sat down to make out his swindle sheet-expense account, that is- and having had many a row with the business office in former years, added as a joke the following item:

Purchased one racing camel for desert trip -$900.

When the expense account reached the auditor of the paper, that tough and hard-boiled crab merely ran a black line through the item and returned it unpaid. Undeterred, the foreign correspondent made out a new accounting for the business office. In this he entered the following item:

Sold, one camel-$915.

A couple of weeks later, the ex-sportswriter who had built up something of a reputation as a fancy juggler of the swindle sheet, received his regular paycheck. With it was a note of explanation from the auditor:

"We are deducting fifteen dollars from your pay check," it read. "As you are there in the employ of this newspaper, the profit you made from the sale of the camel belongs to us."