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diff --git a/old/61454-0.txt b/old/61454-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9e3364c..0000000 --- a/old/61454-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8637 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of Gotham, by Ike Swift - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Sketches of Gotham - -Author: Ike Swift - -Release Date: February 20, 2020 [EBook #61454] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES OF GOTHAM *** - - - - -Produced by Charlie Howard and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - -[Illustration: IKE SWIFT] - - - - - SKETCHES - _of_ GOTHAM - - BY - IKE SWIFT - - A collection of - unusual stories - told in an un- - usual way .... - - PUBLISHED BY - RICHARD K. FOX, New York - - - - - Copyright 1906 - by - Richard K. Fox. - - - - -INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS - - - “Ike Swift” 2 - - A spectacular dance which helped her in meeting people 12 - - Her swell figure made her an attraction on the beach 18 - - She was once the real thing on physical culture 28 - - A dose of knockout drops proved the turning point in her life 38 - - A wonderful but untrue picture of love behind the scenes 50 - - She has been known to kick the crown of a hat held six feet - from the floor 60 - - Rackets where pretty girls cut capers to the music of male - voices 68 - - He often made an honest dollar teaching American women how to - smoke “hop” 78 - - There was disclosed the figure of a young woman rather scantily - clad 90 - - She had such a superb figure that she once posed for a sculptor 100 - - Disguised as a sailor boy she shipped on one of Uncle Sam’s ships 108 - - For three solid hours he sat there trussed up like a chicken 118 - - She put herself up at auction and was promptly bid on 128 - - She went into the smoking car and calmly lighted a cigarette - 136 - - She had one or two fights on her hands, but she always won out 146 - - She had danced the fandango in a way that made the Mexicans - cheer 156 - - Atlantic City is the place for sporty girls who play the game - to the limit 164 - - They had a hot time in Minneapolis when the show hit town 174 - - “I wasn’t arrested, but I was put out as if I were a common - swindler” 184 - - There were times when she did things that were unconventional 192 - - A light flashed out on the landing and revealed the figure of - a beautiful woman 202 - - Put her in tights and she would have been an Oriental sensation 212 - - The first pair are in the ring, the talk ceases, and the show - is on 220 - - The glitter of a circus became too much for them to resist 230 - - Wild revelry of the masked ball and the perfect ladies with the - hot sports 240 - - It’s only a dream after the lobster course 250 - - She figured once at a masked ball that was raided by the police 260 - - Once she had been on the stage, but she got a rough deal and - quit 268 - - When the clock struck two she was on the table doing a dance 278 - - - - -CONTENTS - - - A LITTLE EASY MONEY 7 - - CASTING AN OLD SHOE 19 - - THE LONG WAY ’ROUND 27 - - THE QUEEN OF CHINATOWN 39 - - A GIRL OF THE GOLDEN GATE 47 - - WHEN FISTS WERE TRUMPS 57 - - KID AND HIS TEN THOUSAND 69 - - AN ORIENTAL NOCTURNE 79 - - A COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION 89 - - THE END OF THE ROAD 99 - - THE THROWBACK 109 - - FROM THE WOODS TO BROADWAY 117 - - THE WHIMS OF CURVES 127 - - CHEYENNE NELL; TRIMMER 137 - - TRAGEDY OF A DANCE 147 - - THE MONOLOGUE GIRL’S STORY 157 - - A TWISTED LOVE AFFAIR 163 - - WEDDING RINGS AND FOOTLIGHTS 173 - - TOLD BY THE MANICURE GIRL 183 - - INVESTING IN A HUSBAND 193 - - TRAINING AN OLD SPORT 201 - - CONCERNING A SYRIAN BEAUTY 211 - - THE REJUVENATION OF PATSY 221 - - A CASE OF KNOCKOUT DROPS 231 - - DISCOVERING A PRIMA DONNA 241 - - A THROW OF THE DICE 249 - - A VOICE IN THE SLUMS 259 - - A GIRL OF THE NIGHT 269 - - AFTER THE WEDDING BELLS 279 - - - - -A LITTLE EASY MONEY - - -A great many years ago, when Tom Byrnes was the able and efficient -chief of the detective force of New York, a certain class of women, -very much in evidence around the hotels and resorts, were known, from -the peculiar manner of their work, as Badger Molls. - -There was one in particular who had added a spectacular dance to her -many other accomplishments and which helped her not a little in meeting -the right kind of people. - -To be a Badger Moll a woman had to have nerve, assurance, a fair amount -of good looks, be able to read character and keep her wits about her at -all times. There were occasions when she was up against it so good and -strong that it didn’t seem as if there was one chance in a hundred for -her to do her part of the trick, but in ninety times out of a hundred -she landed the bundle of the victim. - -That is to say, of course, with the aid of her confederate. - -The old days of the Moll have gone by, but the new days have come and -they are here now. The new representative is of a higher class, of a -superior education, is more adept, and, as a rule, gets more money. - -It is worthy of note that during the past ten years only two big jobs -have fallen through--that is, so far as is known--and these things -usually become known when they are brought to the notice of the police. - -A handsomely gowned woman, with a bearing that would deceive almost -anyone, comes down the line. She looks like my lady from Fifth avenue, -but if you will notice her eyes you will see in them the look of a -huntress. - -She is on the trail of men, and it is a rare thing for her to make a -mistake. Mistakes in her business, you know, sometimes spell Sing Sing, -as a lady by the name of Moore will tell you if you ever meet her and -she should become confidential. - -As she passes the hotels you will notice this particular woman -hesitates in her stride, she goes into the low gear and she looks -questioningly at the men who are standing about. - -It is the glance of an expert, but it is cleverly veiled. - -Even though you and I know her and know what her business is, we are -attracted by her to a certain extent, just as people are attracted by -a magnificent tigress or leopard in the menagerie. They have fangs and -claws, but they are hidden, and being concealed are forgotten for the -time. - -This is a human tigress, but she is not on the scent of blood, she’s -trailing bank rolls. - -There is, however, nothing unusual in that, when you come to think of -it, because that is what four-fifths of the world is doing, and the -other fifth is being chased and knows it. - -The tigress throws in her high speed and passes on until she has -reached the entrance to another hotel, and here the scent of prey comes -strongly to her nostrils. - -A fine-looking man of about fifty years is leaning carelessly against -one of the marble columns. He has dined well, anyone can see that, and -he is half way into his after-dinner cigar. He is in the ripe stage; -the time to ask a favor, or to have a courtesy extended. He is at peace -with himself and everybody else, and as the tigress passes by he gets a -flash of those black eyes which tell him a story that while it is not -new, is always interesting, especially under these circumstances, when -he is a thousand miles from home. - -There are few men, anyhow, who can stand temptation when they are -strangers in a strange city. Man is a companionable sort of a -proposition and to be at his best must have society. - -This one, who is perhaps the father of an interesting family, and who -is above reproach in his native city, and who would become indignant at -the thought of a street flirtation, involuntarily straightens himself -up, and taking a firmer hold of his cigar, glances after the slowly -retreating figure of the lady with the black eyes. - -It’s a trim shape, by Jove; and look at that ankle. - -A peach. - -“Nothing common about her,” he soliloquizes. “Just a nice girl, -perhaps, who is a bit lonely, too.” - -And then, at that particular moment, the “nice girl,” who has been -sauntering very slowly, turns around and looking directly at him, -smiles. - -A woman’s smile. - -Cast off your lines, my boy, and on your way, for the magnetism of that -smile has you lashed to the mast, but you don’t know it yet. What you -have in your mind is that you’ll just take a little walk and have a -little talk, just to fill in a few lonely hours, you know. - -So he leaves the mooring of his hotel and trails the trailer. - -One short block he walks, and then just as he is about to come abreast -of her she turns about and meets him with the same smile that has been -doing duty for the past five years. - -She knew he had reached that particular spot by that woman’s intuition, -keyed up so fine as to be on feather edge all the time. - -Her little bow is modest--even coy. It is like the bow of a school girl -who is afraid she is not doing quite the right thing, but who is just a -trifle reckless, and is willing to take a chance or two just for a lark. - -“How do you do?” she asks. - -“Great; how are you; fine night; where are you going?” he rattles off, -trying to appear at ease, and be the real fellow. - -“I was just taking a walk. You see, it was so quiet in the house, and I -sat there all alone until I just thought I would die, so I came out to -get a little fresh air and see if I couldn’t walk myself tired before -bed time.” - -That accounts for her being out, of course, and it is very nicely -delivered, too; besides, it gives the man a chance to say something, -and he is prompt to say it. - -“All alone? You don’t mean to say that you live all alone?” - -Oh, no; she doesn’t live all alone all the time. But Jack--that’s her -husband, you know--he is on the road--commercial man, you see, the best -and dearest fellow in all the world, and it’s such a horrid position -he has, too, always traveling. He went away just a month ago on his -Western trip, to be gone two months, think of it; almost an age. He’s -with the big dry goods house of Wools & Muslins, the biggest in New -York. But next year Jack is going to have an office position and then -everything will be all right. - -“After that,” she goes on, “Jack and the baby and I will be quite -happy.” - -“The baby? Have you a baby?” - -“Why, of course.” - -“And you say you are lonely? I should think that the baby would----” - -“Yes, of course, so it would, but don’t you see, Jack’s mother, who -lives with us, went to visit some friends in the country--Montclair, do -you know where that is?--and she thought it would do the little fellow -good and she took him along, and now I am so sorry I let him go.” - -Isn’t it too beautiful for anything, and isn’t she an artist of whom -Jack ought to be very proud? - -“Well, I am a little lonely myself,” says the business man from Dayton, -O., “and I think you and I ought to cheer one another up. What do you -think about that proposition?” - -“Well, I don’t know. It’s very nice to have you talk to me, but I -feel a little bit frightened about it all. You know I never spoke to -a strange man on the street before like this, and I am sure that Jack -wouldn’t like it if----” - -“Yes, but Jack isn’t here now. Who knows what he is doing? You know -these traveling men when they get away from home and home ties have -been known to----” - -“Yes, but not my Jack. You don’t know him. He would never do anything -wrong, for he told me so.” - -[Illustration: A spectacular dance which helped her in meeting people] - -And now they have walked four blocks. - -There is a hack driver and his wagon at the corner. - -“Cab, sir; have a cab?” - -He’s on, and immediately takes the tip offered him. - -“Suppose we take a little drive through the Park,” suggests the man. - -“I don’t think it would be quite right. I would like to, but----Oh, if -we were only real well acquainted, I would like to, but you see----” - -The end of it is that the cab drive is vetoed, and he begins to think -as to how he can best entertain her in some other way. He takes a hasty -sidelong glance at her, and his heart increases about ten beats to the -minute. She’s all right, you bet. Why, he wouldn’t mind staying in New -York another week if---- - -“Let’s go somewhere and have a nice bottle of wine,” he says. - -“I hope you don’t mean to offend me, but you shouldn’t ask me anything -like that. I think I am doing very wrong in even talking to you, but -I can’t help it. There was something about you when I passed by that -seemed to attract me. I have done something to-night that I have never -been guilty of before, and never will be again. I don’t object to wine, -because we have it in the house, but I didn’t think you would ask me -to go to a common saloon with you--a place I have never been in in my -life. But I suppose I deserve it for speaking to you the way I did, and -for walking with you the way I am now.” - -He protests, he apologizes, and he feels that he has made a great -mistake. He is humiliated beyond expression. Here is a nice little -woman with a husband and a baby, who has permitted him to accost her -on the street, probably because she felt that she needed some human -companionship, and he has insulted her by asking her to go to a public -place and drink a bottle of wine with him, just as if she were a woman -of the streets. He feels that he cannot do enough to make amends to her. - -“I don’t believe,” she says, sweetly, “that you intended to hurt my -feelings for a moment. Let you and I be simply good friends. We are -both a little lonesome; let us spend a pleasant evening together, for -it isn’t likely that we will ever meet again after to-night. We will -act as if we were brother and sister; but if you would really like a -bottle of wine I have a lot home that Jack says is pretty good, and we -can go there and be all by ourselves.” - -But a moment later she repents and says it will not do at all, for -suppose any of the neighbors should see them going in, what then? - -He clutches at the idea like a drowning man clutches at a straw, for -this is a wonderfully nice girl he has met in this accidental way, and -he would like to become better acquainted. - -So he begins to coax, and she laughingly refuses to listen. He pleads, -argues and promises, and then he stops in a shop and blows himself to a -five-pound box of candy for the baby--and her. - -When he peels the bill off a roll that would choke an elephant she -sizes it all up out of the tail of her eye, and makes a mental -calculation as to how much is there. - -She’s just a trifle more endearing to him after that, and it strikes -him that she is getting a little reckless. - -“Come on,” she says, quite gayly, and with an affectation of -sportiness, “I will take you up to the house, but you must promise me -on your word of honor that you won’t remember the street or the number -and that you’ll never try to see me again. Remember, this is just for -one evening, and I don’t want you to think I am anything but what I -seem.” - -“I could never think that,” he says, quite soberly. - -“What must you think of a girl who will permit a stranger to speak to -her on the street?” - -“I should think that in your case she would be very nice.” - -She is laughing and chatting just like a girl out of school, and she -has interested him so much that he hasn’t noticed that they were -getting into quieter and darker streets, until she suddenly turns into -a hallway which is just like a thousand other New York hallways, and -announces: - -“Here we are at last; now don’t make any noise.” - -Up one flight, and she’s fumbling for a key, which she finds in a -moment, and then the door is opened. - -The lights are turned low, and for some reason or other she doesn’t -turn them up, which he notes with a certain feeling of pleasure. - -“Now take off your hat and coat, and we will have that bottle of wine -I told you about, for I am going to let you stay just one hour, after -which I am going to try and forgive myself for having spoken to you.” - -It is all very nice and charming, and the wine is very good--a bit -better, in fact, than he had any idea it would be. - -When the bottle and the glasses are empty he finds himself sitting -beside her on a divan. His arm is about her waist and she is -struggling to free herself. He leans over to kiss her, but she deftly -turns her face away. - -“You must not try to kiss me,” she whispers, but as she speaks she -throws her arms about his neck. - -It seems to the staid old business bulwark from the West as if he had -been sitting there for hours, when suddenly the electric bell rings. - -Both jump to their feet. - -“What is it?” he asks in a low voice. - -“I don’t know; I can’t think,” she answers, holding her hand to her -head. “Perhaps it’s Jack. My God, if it should be Jack. He will kill -you if he finds you here. I could never explain it. Take your hat and -coat quick. Here, this way, the back door, and run, run as fast as you -can. Don’t stop, please, until you get to your hotel. Go, go, at once.” - -With hat and coat in hand he finds himself pushed out in a dark -passageway. He gropes his way to the stairs. - -A man is coming up, a man with a traveling case. - -It’s Jack, as sure as you live. - -Guiltily he walks down, steps hurriedly to the street door, passes out, -and starts on a brisk trot up the street. At the first corner he turns, -then he turns another block, then he turns again, with the instinct of -a hunted hare. So he pursued his zig-zag course for many blocks, until -he finally stops to ask directions. - -“The Gilt-Edge Hotel? certainly; four blocks over to the avenue then -about twenty down.” - -He walks the four blocks while he catches his breath, and then he gets -aboard a car only to find he hasn’t a cent. - -Worse; he hasn’t a watch, nor a scarf pin. - -He must have lost them while he was running. - -He gets off and stands on the corner to think it over. - -Eleven hundred dollars in good money gone; a watch worth $350 and a pin -worth at least $150. - -The faint odor of violets comes back to him, and then he comes to his -senses. - -Stung. - - * * * * * - -“It took you a long while to ring that bell, Billy, after I gave you -the tip. Don’t wait so long next time. You must be getting old, for -you’re working very slow lately.” - -“I didn’t hear the buzzer at first; I don’t think you pressed it hard -enough. I’ll give it a look to-morrow and see. But I would never have -sized that old guy up for eleven hundred.” - -“You never can tell what they’ve got until you take it away from them.” - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: Her swell figure made her an attraction on the beach] - - - - -CASTING AN OLD SHOE - - -It may be that you--whoever you are or wherever you are--don’t know -what it means to go “down the line.” But in New York--in order that we -may start right--“The Line” means that part of Broadway where at night -the lights burn brightest, and where the mob--swell and otherwise--move -back and forth like the ebb and flow of the tide--hunting, hunting, -ever on the hunt. - -From Twenty-third street to Forty-second, and back again, and you have -gone down The Line. Sometimes it costs you nothing for this innocent -little amusement; this feast of the eyes; and then again it is liable -to cost you a great deal. - -It all depends upon who you are, and what you are and how easy you are. - -And there you are. - -I once knew a man, and this is pat while I am on this subject, who came -to New York from Buffalo. He was only going to remain for a day or so, -and then he was going to hike himself back to his home by the big lake. - -He had sold out his business, and when he landed in New York he had a -bank roll of twenty-one thousand dollars. - -It was enough to make any ordinary man round shouldered, but he was a -husky guy who was used to the long green, and it didn’t bother him any -more than if it had been beef-and-bean money. - -He put up at a big swell hotel, and during the evening, when time hung -a bit heavy on his hands, he got it into his head that he would take a -walk down the line, and then turn in among the feathers. - -With a perfecto between his teeth, he got as far as Thirty-eighth -street, where he met his finish. - -When he arrived at his hotel at ten o’clock the next morning he asked -the proprietor to loan him twenty dollars to get home. - -No explanations go with this, because he was sport enough never to tell -how it happened. It doesn’t even point a moral, for there are no morals -on the line. - -Going down the street, like a yacht under full sail, is a woman whom -it cost not a cent less than $750 to put in commission. In the male -vernacular she is what might be termed a peach, and there is no need -to translate that for you, for the simple reason that you are familiar -enough with the different kinds of fruit to know what that means. - -Because of her figure and the fact that she was a good fellow she was -an attraction at the beach. - -She has a history, of course. They all have, to a certain extent, but -this is somewhat out of the ordinary. - -In her day--and her day wasn’t so many years ago--she was a noted -beauty, and she had one of the most charming apartments in New York. -It was frequented by what might be termed the high-class sporting -crowd--lawyers with national reputations, actors whose names were in -big type on the billboards, business men who posed as the bulwarks of -the commercial world, and politicians who waxed sleek and fat at the -public cribs. They played poker there and were entertained royally by -her. She gave the choicest of dinners and served the best of wines, -and she was a perfect hostess. Her rooms were more like a club than -anything else, and she was never annoyed by any love-making on the part -of her guests, for a very good, substantial and simple reason--the man -who paid the shot and who figured as the real one in that charmed and -exclusive circle was none other than a high official of New York. - -His hospitality, dispensed through her, was almost boundless, and there -are those who say that there was method in that gathering, and that -many a serious public question was discussed within the confines of -those gorgeously upholstered rooms. - -Give a man the proper seat at the right kind of a table, beside a woman -who is beautiful, charming and magnetic, serve him with a perfect -dinner, with good wine selected by a connoisseur, then after the -dessert provide him with a cigar which cannot be bought in the open -market, and it is almost a sure thing that, if you have any proposition -to make, your battle is half won. What an ideal spot for lawyers, -politicians and capitalists to discuss things that it wouldn’t do to -have the public know. - -And as the months rolled by this woman came to be known by the majority -of prominent men of New York. - -Now you can get a good look at her as she stops to glance in that -window. - -Not to have been her guest was to have missed a lot in life, and when -you lost to her in a little poker game you were almost sorry your -losses were not heavier. - -She had more diamond rings than she could wear at any one time, and she -had the best wardrobe in town. No matter what she saw and wanted it was -hers. She scarcely needed to ask for it--she just wished, and it came -as though she had been blessed with some fairy godmother who waved a -magic wand, and brought things on the wind. - -So there’s the picture, painted in the most ordinary colors, and -there’s the woman, who grew to think the world was made for her to play -with and do with as she liked. - -When she was at the height of her career, this lawyer-political friend -of hers--this champion and provider--really and truly fell in love. He -was well past middle age, but that made no difference. After many years -of waiting--years which were punctuated with numerous affairs which he -thought spelled love--he found the girl at last in the daughter of a -man whose position left him nothing to wish for. She was a society girl -and charming enough for any man. - -Before he fully realized what he was doing he had proposed marriage to -her and had been accepted without giving that other one a thought. - -When he understood that he had to break with her, he knew that he had -the job of his life in front of him, but he was game enough to go at -it without a moment’s hesitancy, and so one night, after the crowd had -gone and the last poker chip cashed in, he told her the story. - -“I am going to marry and settle down,” he said. “My position demands -it, and I cannot go on living this way forever. I feel that I have -a political future, and I must protect myself. If I ever came up -again for any prominent office, as I expect to in the near future, my -relations with you would mean the worst kind of defeat for me. I want -to be fair with you, and I am willing to settle any claim you may have -on me for anything within reason.” - -His story took a long while in the telling, and through it all she -never moved nor spoke. - -When he had quite finished she stretched and yawned. - -“Is that all you have to say?” she asked. - -“Yes,” he answered, “that is all, except that I hope we will part -friends, and that if ever I can do anything for you, I----” - -“Now whatever you do,” she spoke up sharply, “don’t get tiresome nor -sentimental. You’re a good fellow, and always have been--so you think. -I have come into your life and have answered your purpose. I have -entertained your friends and made it pleasant for you and them. I -suppose you think I did it simply because I was provided for and had -everything I wanted--that I was a sort of a high-class servant who was -satisfied with her wages. If I had been wise I would have anticipated -this and been prepared for it. I would have had enough money in the -bank to have been independent to a certain extent. I am like a poker -chip--you bought me, played with me, and now you are ready to cash me -in because you have finished with me. You are a good fellow--with the -men--but you are very tiresome and that reminds me that I am tired and -wish you would run along. Go home now, and dream of the nice girl you -are going to marry.” - -He stood looking at her like a man under the influence of a drug. He -did not know what to say. He had expected a scene of some kind, and he -was disappointed. His vanity was touched. Why, here was a woman for -whom he had done everything in the world, and whom he thought loved -him, and she was parting from him without a tear or even so much as -a word of expostulation. That didn’t suit him at all. He wanted her -to throw her arms about his neck and beg him not to go. Of course, he -would have gone just the same, but he didn’t want to think that she -would let him go so easily. - -The pride and vanity of man is a peculiar thing, and there are not ten -men in a thousand who understand women, even though they think they do. -This man, clever, handsome and brilliant, was of the majority who do -not know, and he had nothing to say to the woman who had entertained -him and with whom he had spent many pleasant hours. - -He looked at her for a moment and then he went out as though he had -been whipped from the door. - -She turned the key in the lock and then gave way to her real feelings -by crying as only a heart-broken woman can. - -He had incriminated himself with her to such an extent that he dreaded -her. She had been too calm to suit him, and he feared trouble to come. -He had no definite idea as to what form it might take, but he wanted to -avoid it. - -So he went direct to one of his most astute legal friends--the -same one, who, by the way, told me the whole story in a burst of -half-drunken confidence--and they sat up half the night figuring on -how to head her off in case she attempted to do anything that would -reflect on his “spotless” character. How careful the man is of his name -as a rule, and how despicably he can treat a woman when it suits either -his mood or convenience. - -That midnight conference finally resolved itself into definite shape by -the counsellor saying: - -“I’ll take $10,000 to her and get everything she has of yours and her -signature under a statement that will leave you free and clear.” - -And so it was agreed. - -Lawyers do not act very quickly unless their own interests are at -stake. Speed was required here and the action was fast enough for -anyone. The next day, at noon, the lawyer, who knew her well enough -to call her by her first name, called upon her, and as he was ushered -into the handsome apartment he involuntarily put his hand to his breast -pocket, which contained ten new, crisp one thousand dollar bills--the -price of her silence, from his standpoint. - -It is interesting to be able to note that the interview was short, -sharp, sweet and to the point. He made his eloquent speech of how his -friend, who had always loved her devotedly, was forced by something -which she could not understand to break from her and marry a woman -whose position in society was assured. He was prepared to pay her an -amount of money--quite a liberal one, in fact--so that she should want -for nothing. All he desired was a certain package of letters and a -statement that she had only known his friend in the most casual way. - -“How much are you going to pay me?” she asked. - -“Ten thousand dollars, and here it is,” he said, producing the bills. - -“I will do what he wants,” was all she said, and in ten minutes the job -was done. - -Then he laid the money on the table. - -“What is your fee?” She spoke very softly. - -“My fee?” he repeated, as if he did not quite catch her meaning. - -“Yes, your fee. How much are you charging this friend of yours for what -you are doing for him?” - -“I am doing it through friendship. There is no such thing as fee in a -case like this.” - -“You have earned this money, and I do not want it,” she went on. “I am -not a blackmailer nor can my promise of immunity be bought. I, too, -understand what the word friendship means, and I am not so degraded nor -lost but that I can take advantage of it. It is such men as you and he -that make such women as I am. Good-day.” - -He was in the hall with the money in his hand before he quite realized -how it all happened. - -Between you and me, my friends, I would sooner have her conscience than -the conscience of the very fine gentleman whose public career has since -been marked by repeated triumphs. - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE LONG WAY ’ROUND - - -The Girl from Philadelphia wasn’t a beauty by any means, but she had a -nice fetching way, good teeth, and a cheerful, contagious laugh which -are three things that have beauty left at the post. Beauty, you see, is -only good for a short sprint at the best, and in a long race is liable -to lag a bit toward the finish, but the other propositions are stayers -nine times out of ten and generally manage to come under the wire in -good shape. - -Thirty days in the big city, if spent in the right kind of company, -usually mean about a year in Quakertown, and force of circumstances had -thrown The Girl in pretty close contact with high-flyers. You see, it -all came about this way: - -She had been playing the soubrette part in some amateur theatricals, -and everybody who saw her--except some girl friends who wanted to be -soubrettes, too--said she was the real thing and that she had Della -Fox in her palmy days beaten the length of Chestnut street, and as for -Millie James, why there was nothing to it. - -That started the theatrical bee buzzing in her conning-tower, so she -immediately formed the habit of reading the theatrical papers instead -of the society notes, and she got the matinee habit so bad that she -didn’t miss one show a month. Before that her fad had been gymnastics -and she was the real thing on physical culture. - -[Illustration: She was once the real thing on physical culture] - -Now when a girl gets that way she needs either a husband and honeymoon -to distract her attention or a hard-faced guardian--female, of -course--to follow her wherever she goes. - -So in view of the fact that this girl had neither, she studied the -play bills and did pretty much as she liked. She was just ripe to sign -with a traveling show or listen to the argument of any actor man who -offered her the bait of a chance to do a stunt behind the footlights. -She lived the way a soubrette ought to live--at least, she thought she -did. In a locked drawer in her dressing case she kept a box of make-up, -and when the rest of the family had retired she fixed her face up so -she looked like a comic valentine. She figured upon this as a sort of -preliminary training in case she should ever get a chance to break into -the business; look like a twenty-dollar gold piece to the public, and -feel like a plugged nickel when she was in her dollar-a-day room after -the show. She might have been dreaming yet if a young fellow who once -suped for Mansfield hadn’t made her acquaintance. He called on her at -her home, and they hadn’t been talking twenty minutes when she sprung -the soubrette business, and told him that some day she hoped to get on -the professional stage. - -“The only way to get a chance is to go to New York,” he said. “There’s -where all the good shows start from, as well as a good many of the bad -ones, and if a girl has talent, an agent or a manager will grab her -just the same as a hobo will grab a ham sandwich, no matter what his -nationality is. Why, I once knew a girl who went there from Forked -River, New Jersey. She didn’t know anything, but she had ginger, and -she’s been on the road for two seasons with the Bon Ton Burlesquers. -What do you think of that? Philadelphia’s all right in a way, but -I’ll bet if Maude Adams had been born here she’d be behind the ribbon -counter in some big dry goods store instead of the swellest little -actress that ever took a bunch of roses over the footlights.” - -That is what started the trouble, and that night when The Girl went up -to her room she packed a dress-suit case, putting in her grease paints -first, of course, and then she penned a neat little note of farewell -forever to her parents, after which she waited until the house was -quiet and then slipped out as quietly as a burglar. She had enough -money to make the breakaway and keep her about thirty days, by the end -of which time she figured she would have a job at about fifty per week, -with traveling expenses and Pullman car paid by the manager. - -She had a roseate view of life, and she thought that as soon as she -hit the big burg the managers would be falling over each other trying -to get her to sign a contract. She didn’t know that making a hit in -a little show given by the Golden Rod Society for the Supplying of -Vegetables to the Cannibal Tribes of Africa was quite a different thing -to going on the professional stage, and she imagined if she could do -well in the part of _Betsey, the Romp_, in “Who Killed Cock Robin,” she -could do equally well on the stage of any big theatre. - -She had as much hope as a piece of Swiss cheese has holes when she -climbed aboard the sleeping car which was scheduled to leave for New -York at 1 A. M., but when she landed in the cold, gray dawn a good part -of it had gone and had left her a trifle weak in the knees, which, by -the way, is a decided symptom of weakness. - -It took her just two hours to find a boarding house, and until the next -day to get her nerve back. It was only because of her youth that it -came back at all. She got a list of the names of managers and started -out to do business, but no one seemed to want any amateur soubrettes -from Philadelphia. By two o’clock there was nothing that looked like a -job, but she had received eleven invitations to go out to lunch from -eleven different genials who didn’t seem to want to talk business; who -were inclined to be affectionate and who called her “My Dear” in every -other sentence. - -That night she went to a vaudeville show, and she was so impressed with -the ease with which the turns were pulled off that she concluded she -would do an act of her own. That is how it happened that the day after -she forsook the legitimate for the variety, and knocked at the office -doors of a different species of managers. Very busy fellows these were, -too, and she got her dismissal in almost every case with startling -rapidity. - -Here is a sample of the dialogue: - -“Where have you worked before?” - -“I have never been on the professional stage, but I played the part of -a soubrette in amateur shows in Philadelphia, and all my friends told -me that----” - -“But have you an act of your own?” - -“No, not yet, but----” - -“Well, you frame up some kind of an act, then come around and see me, -and I may be able to get you a trial somewhere.” - -And then twenty-three. - -Many a good fighter has quit when he found every rush he made was -stopped with a tantalizing jab in the nose, and many a man has thrown -up the sponge when he has walked the streets day in and day out and -discovered that nobody wanted him. - -At the end of a week The Girl would have written a letter home or taken -a train back if it had not been for her pride. She didn’t want to -acknowledge defeat, but she was on the verge of it. - -She was coming out of a theatre one night when she met The Man. - -There must be a man else there would be no story. He was about -forty-five years old, had been through enough campaigns to give him -self-possession, and he had been successful enough to be egotistic. -Two minutes later they were walking down Broadway together, and she -was rather glad that she had found someone who took an interest in -her. One-half hour after that and they were seated at a table in a big -restaurant; the order had been given and she was telling him all about -herself while he was looking her over with an exceedingly critical eye -and making up his mind that she showed up rather good under a strong -light, especially when she smiled. - -A broiled lobster, a quart of claret, then a couple of birds and a -quart of wine are enough to change the ideas and opinions of a lot -of people, especially if such a bill of fare is unusual, and so it -happened that when the red began to come to The Girl’s cheeks, the -things The Man were saying to her didn’t seem so much out of the way -after all. Besides, that hall bedroom in the musty old boarding house -was rapidly becoming a nightmare. Between you and me, if she had never -smiled this thing would never have happened. - -The Man lighted a cigar, and as he blew the first puff of blue smoke -toward the ceiling he observed: - -“My dear, marriage is nothing more nor less than a useless and barbaric -rite, and when it is all summed up it amounts to nothing in the end. -Why should you be legally bound to any man in this world? It would be -all right as long as you loved him, then you wouldn’t care, but suppose -your feelings changed, what then? In order to get a divorce from him -you would have to catch him committing a crime for which the law would -grant you a divorce, or get good evidence, which amounts to the same -thing. You might separate from him if he was cruel to you or didn’t -support you, but suppose he was kind and gave you all the money you -wanted, then you would still have to live with him as his wife. Now, -on the other hand, if you were not married to him, you would have a -perfect right, as soon as your feelings changed, to leave him without -a moment’s notice. You would be under no obligations to him under -any circumstances, and he, knowing that you were free to go and come -as you pleased, would, in order to keep you, treat you with greater -consideration than if you were his wife. You can believe me or not, -just as you wish, but an understanding between a man and a woman is all -that is necessary to happiness in this world. Don’t be old-fashioned, -but let us make an agreement of some kind between ourselves. You will -be perfectly independent, free to go and come as you like, and do as -you wish.” - -There was a certain amount of logic in this argument, especially when -the reverse of the picture is a cheap room in a cheap boarding house. -So the end of the first chapter was that the landlady wondered why her -lodger never came back, even to get her case and the few belongings -it contained. It was all mysterious to her, but as she was paid in -advance, she said nothing, and at the end of the week rented the room -to an old fellow with asthma who was living on an allowance. - -So far as the stage was concerned, that bright bubble had burst, -and instead of haunting the offices of managers, The Girl took to -breakfasting at 10, lunching at 2 and dining at 8. The theatres to her -were merely places of amusement--good to fill in time which could be -used in no other way, and her ambition to shine as a footlight favorite -went when she found that she could live without being annoyed by any of -the responsibilities of life. She gradually grew to know that the name -of The Man was a very familiar one in the big cities and at times the -newspapers printed his picture. She had assumed that name--it was in -the compact, although there were few who knew it. Several times, when -he called on her, he brought some of his friends to dinner, but these -occasions were not frequent, by any means, and she knew she wasn’t a -part of his intimate life. - -Now see how time makes puppets of both men and women, for this story -has one merit in that it is true. - -The Man took sick in Chicago, and the first she knew of it was when she -read it in the newspapers. Every stage of his disease was chronicled -until he died, and when she read that the paper dropped from her hands -and she felt again that weakness of the knees which took her on that -first morning in New York. For four days she lived in a dream, vaguely -wondering what was to become of her, and then a brisk, alert, dapper -little man--a lawyer--called. There was nothing sentimental about him. -He was business from the drop of the hat. - -“I represent the family of The Man,” he announced, abruptly. “There is -a codicil in his will which bequeaths you $250,000. Of course, we can -break that and not half try, but the widow and children don’t want any -unpleasant notoriety, and they are willing to settle for $50,000, which -I can pay to you at once. You will accept, if you are wise, for $50,000 -is a nice little sum and it will leave you free and clear to do as you -please and will dispose of a very unpleasant situation.” - -The death of The Man had given her a shock from which she hadn’t yet -recovered, and she asked for time to think. - -“Come to-morrow or the day after,” she said, “and I will talk to you. I -can’t think now.” - -He wanted to finish it up at once, but every time she gave him the same -answer, so there was nothing for him to do but to go. - -And then that night there came another lawyer, one whom she had known -because The Man had brought him on one of his visits. His argument was -different: - -“There is $250,000 coming to you; get it. It is a clean-cut, legal will -and they can’t break it, besides there is enough there for everybody -and to spare. Let me manage it for you and don’t worry. If they want to -contest let them go ahead and I’ll beat them.” - -And because he said “Don’t worry; leave it all to me,” she consented. -That was the woman of it. - -They did fight, and the newspapers printed columns about it, for it was -a great story, but they didn’t print the part I am telling here, for -that they didn’t know. With the articles appeared her portraits, and -she became as well known as The Man had been, in a way. - -Before the finish had been reached the heirs concluded there had better -be a settlement, and so, rather than stand the delay of appeals in -case she won, which it was reasonably sure she would do, she accepted -$150,000 in cash. - -The next day her maid brought her a card. It read: - - “ALFRED D. COHEN, - Theatrical Promoter.” - -“I’ll see him,” she said. - -She had learned a thing or two since she had left Philadelphia, so she -knew what was coming and was prepared for it when the polite, suave Mr. -Cohen walked into the room. - -“I have come,” he said, by way of introduction, “to make you an offer -to go on the stage.” - -“Yes?” she queried, calmly. - -“All you will have to do is to sing two or three songs twice a -day--once in the afternoon and once in the evening--and I am authorized -to offer you $750 a week.” - -“And suppose I can’t sing?” she said, smiling, thinking of the last -time she had talked with a manager. - -“That would make no difference; we would have you coached and can give -you ten weeks straight.” He fumbled at his coat nervously, for she -was really an important personage now. “I have the contracts here.” -He produced them and handed them over. She read them over carefully, -debated mentally as to the policy of signing at once or waiting until -another day, finally decided on the side of deliberation, and then said: - -“Come and see me to-morrow at 2 and I will let you know then.” - -He knew intuitively she would accept, so he bowed himself out without -further argument. - -So that is how she at last went on the stage, and if your memory serves -you well enough to take you back a year or so you will know that she -made a hit as the singer of songs of long ago. - -P. S.--She told her folks in Philadelphia that she had been studying -voice culture all the time. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: A dose of knockout drops proved the turning point in her -life] - - - - -THE QUEEN OF CHINATOWN - - -If you don’t think there are any interesting tales in the Tenderloin, -just go there some night and look around. You don’t have to look long -before you will find something that is worth going a distance for. - -You’ll find tragedy and pathos as close together as the meat is to -the bread in a ham sandwich, and it doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to -discover it, either. - -I know a few things about the Bowery and the Tenderloin, and for the -past twenty years I have roamed about New York by night, simply because -I was fascinated by the life after dark. Of course, you know that this -night owl business is a disease, and when once you get it, and get it -good, it is one of the hardest things in the world to cure. In my day -I have seen many a nice, straightforward young fellow go to the bad -simply because he got the night habit. - -It isn’t much of a combination that gets you, either, for it’s the -white lights, the music, the women and the drinks, not counting the -good fellowship, or what passes for good fellowship, on the side. - -The lid is on in New York to a certain extent, that I’ll admit, but I’m -going to take you under the lid. - -It’s all a bluff, anyhow, and things go on the same as they have been -going for years, with very little change. - -The same kind of girls are roaming the streets, the same kind of booze -is being served on the little round tables in stuffy back rooms, and -the same class of waiters are making short change whenever the mark -looks easy. There may be a new police captain in the district or the -precinct, but there are some things in this world that can’t be held -down any more than a man can hold down a charge of dynamite after the -cap has been exploded. - -Talk about your high pressure life--that’s it. Ten years is the limit -for the careful ones, and I’ve seen them go off in five. Why, only the -other day a hospital ambulance backed up to a downtown tenement, and -when it went away it carried a woman whose lease of life had about -expired. - -There was a crowd which gathered, as usual--men, women and children, -all filled with a morbid curiosity, which makes people flock and gaze -with interest at anything which approaches a bit of human wreckage, and -of them all there was not more than one or two who knew that the sick -woman had once been known as the Queen of Chinatown, and had been made -the subject of many an interesting story. - -It seems only a few years ago that they called her the Queen, and you -wondered why until you looked at her and heard her talk. - -Then you knew. - -She was more than good looking, and what was just a bit rarer, she -was educated. There was about her a certain amount of refinement -which forced itself to the surface like a life preserver under water, -every once in a while, but which as the years rolled on gradually -disappeared, just like any other veneer. If the constant dropping of -water will wear away a stone, in just so sure a way will environment -contaminate, and human nature seek the lower level. - -So here is the picture: - -This so-called Queen, coming into Chinatown--by what route only she can -tell--and creating a mild sensation among the Orientals who inhabit the -houses on those narrow, twisting streets. The story was that a dose of -knockout drops had proved the turning point in her life. - -John Chinaman, you know, has a keen eye for the beautiful, not only in -decorative art and choice silks, but in women. - -There is his one weak point, the defective link in the chain, the one -vulnerable spot in the armor of his stony reserve. - -The lobbygows--the errand men of the Chinese--the whites, who execute -commissions for them, and do all sorts of services, both legitimate -and illegitimate, who will work in the dark as well as in the light, -and whose heels can be hurried by extra compensation, saw and noted -this Queen also, and in seeing, they, too, admired, but more or less -hopelessly. The one spot which is quick in a woman’s composition is -adulation. Let her be like ice, as cold and pure and reserved as her -likeness carved out of the whitest Parian marble, or the hardest of -flint-like granite, and admiration will make her as soft and supple as -a Cleopatra. - -She comes into her own and knows it. - -She smiles and looks about for a likely head upon which to drop the -wreath of her favors, and if she hesitates it is because the right head -has not been bowed, or that her whim bids her hold off that she may -only succumb after a struggle. - -I am not putting up any defense for this Chinatown Queen. She was -simply a woman with moods and humors, and pretty ways. Furthermore, -which is essential in most cases, she was good to look at. - -So many were the affairs that she had that there is no Solomon wise -enough to tell how or when the first one began. All that is known is -that she dressed in silks that were costly enough for a real queen, and -which smelled of the spices and perfume of the Orient. - -When I say costly, I mean from a money standard. They were more costly -than that, so far as she was concerned personally, for in the end they -cost her her life, and if she is not dead yet they certainly cost her -happiness, which really amounts to the same thing. - -For a while she lived furiously, with anything she wanted for the -asking. Fine clothes, fine jewels, and money to spend is part of every -woman’s life. - -More than that, it is a keystone. - -Besides, she was the most prominent woman in all the Quarter. For her -that was fame and glory enough. - -Had she been placed, by a fortunate move, somewhere else on the -chess-board of life, her fame might have been more secure, but what -difference does that make, so long as she was satisfied? - -It wasn’t long before her real life began, when her steps, instead of -being on the level or upward, traced their gradual way downward. - -That was inevitable in that case, just as it is in other cases where -constancy is an unknown virtue. - -She passed from hand to hand like the chattel that she was. She didn’t -even consider the proposition of the highest bidder, and start a hoard -in some secret place which would have been a life raft to her in the -turbulent days to come. - -She lived on promises, and those are false things which fall to bits -before adverse winds and threatening weather. Her spirits rose and fell -in an inverse ratio to the rising and setting of the sun, and she took -no heed of the days to come. The seed of thrift failed to find lodgment -in her being. - -And another thing, she never knew the real meaning of the word -opportunity. - -In her early and halcyon days before the opium and the night life had -stamped its mark upon her face, there came, with a party of sight-seers -to Chinatown one night, a man about town whose name stood for -respectability, good family and wealth. She, as Queen, could not well -be overlooked, and the guide took the party to her apartments on the -first floor of a dingy tenement. - -“What’s up here?” asked one of the party. - -“Here is where de Queen of Chinatown lives,” responded the guide. “Dis -is de gal wots got all de gang on de run, and as fer de Chinkys--why, -dere ain’t one uv dem wot wouldn’t croak a guy fer her.” - -They filed into the room and looked at the girl as they looked at the -rest of the odd sights. - -Let anybody rise above the human herd, even a short distance, or do -anything that is in the slightest way unusual, and they are bound to -find themselves in the center of the spot light. - -“Youse kin buy a drink off her, if yer like, or if yer’ll cough up er -bone apiece, she’ll show yer how to hit der pipe,” announced the guide. - -They thought it was worth a dollar each to see a Queen smoking opium, -and all cheerfully handed her the fee, with the exception of this one -particular man, who pressed five times the amount into her hand. - -Curious things happen in this world of ours, and here is one of them: - -Two hours later, the same man, who had slipped away from his party, -hunted up the same guide, and giving him a good-sized fee requested the -honor of another visit to the Queen. - -The moral tone of Chinatown is not so high that when the guide was -dismissed he should feel at all offended. He was perfectly satisfied, -and he said so a few minutes later as he was relating this story to -some of his friends in the saloon on the corner. - -From this point the Queen herself takes up the tale. She told it to -her bosom friend, the Rummager, a week later, and the Rummager’s eyes -bulged and her mouth opened as she heard it. More than once she was -inclined to disbelieve it, and said so, but the facts were there and -proven by the presence of certain articles which could be accounted for -in no other way. - -“He was one of the real ones,” remarked the Queen, “and I knew it as -soon as I saw him. I have seen fellows stuck good and strong, but he -was the limit. He was clean gone. When he came back the second time -he began as all the others do, by asking me how I came to live in -Chinatown. I told him to cut it out, and cut it quick, and he took my -tip. He didn’t lose a minute telling me he liked me, either, and, say, -he promised me everything you could think of, up and down, if I would -cut the gang and go with him. He said I could have the swellest flat -that money could buy, and a horse and carriage, if I liked. I thought -he was kidding at first, but he soon put me wise that he was the -goods. He chinned to me for about an hour, and then he told me to put -on my glad rags and he would take me uptown to a feed. I was on in a -minute, and nothing but a cab would do for him. We went up on Broadway, -and the layout cost him $25, easy. - -“We come down the line and butted into every joint that had a light -out, and every place we hit was a bottle of wine. And every drink we -took it was, ‘Well, will you leave that crowd?’ - -“On the level, once or twice he had me going, but when I thought of all -the boys down here, and the good times we’re having I couldn’t do it, -and I told him so. When I left him he was ossified for fair, and he -gave me these things to remember him by, he said.” - -Whereupon the Queen showed up a roll of bills, a scarf pin, a match -box, and the Rummager believed. - -She couldn’t afford to do otherwise very well, for the Queen was, as -usual, doing all the buying of drinks, and the Rummager’s thirst has -been compared to a barrel of sponges. - -It was only the other day that I found myself wondering what had become -of that pin and box. Where have they been since then and who has owned -them? That they have fallen into many hands there can be no doubt, and -the first to get them was the pawnbroker. - -But after that! - -From silks the Queen went to calico. That is a great chasm for any -woman to cross, and from three rooms she came down to one. Notice how -easily the human being can adjust itself to changes. - -The nights of dissipation had begun to leave their mark, and her throne -was tottering. - -The plumpness of her figure began to disappear, and angles crept in to -take the place of curves. Her eyes were less bright, and her enthusiasm -had lost its edge. - -But she didn’t realize this. - -She thought she was still Queen and she was living on her past, just as -many other real queens have, and for that she is to be forgiven, for it -is a woman’s right to think herself the same as she was when she was at -her best. - -It is the life buoy to which she always clings, and when she dies her -arms are found clasped about it with the grip of death. - -And then the day came when this Queen, a wisp and shred of a woman, -whose dreams had gone, and whose calico had turned to rags, went down -the street of the Quarter one night never to return. - -She had married a man of her class, and they went into a tenement -together. - -Her sun had set--her day was done. - -One day the priest was sent for to shrive her. I hope there was -consolation in his visit, because a dethroned queen needs pity -sometimes. - -[Illustration] - - - - -A GIRL OF THE GOLDEN GATE - - -When you go to the theatre, sit in a comfortable seat, and look at the -gay, laughing girls who are doing all sorts of stunts in the front row, -you are evidently under the impression that their lives are simply one -unending series of revels and that they live in luxurious ease. In -your fancy you see them going to magnificent apartments to enjoy late -dinners washed down by high-priced wine; you think, perhaps, that they -dress just as you see them on the stage, and that all they have to do -is ask for anything they happen to want and it is theirs. - -Your imagination paints you a wonderful picture of love behind the -scenes, but like children’s fairy tales, half is a dream. - -You are simply bringing into existence a mental painting in very -attractive colors, and if you could make it real it would be a very -fine thing for the girl who makes up that she may look well from behind -the footlights. - -There are few short cuts to the stage and the roads are for the most -part hard and tiresome. The woman who gets there, and by that I mean -the one who finally lands with a reputation, usually has a past that -would make interesting reading--if it could be published, which is out -of the question. - -To-day there is a woman in New York who is a star. - -So far as real talent is concerned she ought to have been a star years -ago, but there was some hitch and she failed to connect. - -She’s all right now, however, and when she pulls down her fat bundle -of bills every week she doesn’t think of the old days on the Pacific -Coast when she was doing one turn an hour in the mining camps, and -well content if she got enough at the end of the show to pay for her -room and give her a balance on the side to keep up her wardrobe--stage -wardrobe, I mean--for she didn’t seem to care much how she dressed when -on the street, and so far as that was concerned, she was on the street -very little, for reasons that are obvious. - -She was a nice looking little girl in those days, full of ginger and -all that sort of thing, and she had the kind of magnetism that made -a good many men think they couldn’t live without her. She was bright -and saucy, and happy-go-lucky, taking things as they came, singing her -songs with an abandon and grace that went a long way toward filling up -the house. - -But it was when she danced that she was at her best. That half-wild -Spanish Cachuca made those rough men rise to their feet and cheer her -as if she was the most wonderful girl in the world, and when the boys -were flush many a hundred dollars in gold went over the flickering -footlights to her feet, so that she really and truly danced on gold. It -was the Westerners’ way of paying homage to anyone they liked, and it -is done to-day, but not to so great an extent. - -You see, there was no limit on those fellows in the blue shirts and -bearded faces, and what was a handful of gold more or less to them -then or at any other time? - -They were an open-handed lot, living only for the day, and to the devil -with to-morrow, lavishing all they had upon anyone whom they liked. - -As the money rolled in to her so it rolled out, easily and without -apparent effort, and at the end of a year she had just what she started -with--a couple of dresses, the most part of which was tinsel. - -And that brings me right back into the heart of this story, the -preliminary having been sufficiently long to give you a thorough -introduction to this little lady--queen of the mining camps. - -It isn’t likely you ever heard of a fellow who for some romantic reason -or other called himself Palo Alto Bill. He was a tin horn gambler, good -at short cards, willing to take a chance at any proposition that ever -came over the hills, so long as he could figure in it financially, but -he had no heart. It was all Bill from first to last, and he didn’t have -enough generosity in his entire system to drop a bone to a hungry dog. -You know the breed--they think they are all right, but they are so -eaten up with selfishness, and egotism, and vanity, that they stride -along with their elbows pushed out, as if they were going to shove -everybody else off the earth. - -He was handsome all right, with black hair--black as an Indian’s--a -curling mustache, and a wonderfully taking way with a woman. - -This was the combination that stacked itself up against the little -singer with the suggestion that they travel in double harness for -mutual benefit. - -That was all there was to it. - -[Illustration: A wonderful but untrue picture of love behind the -scenes] - -He saw her, he liked her; why shouldn’t he have her? And if she had -been married it would have been the same to him. He would in all -probability have suggested an elopement on a pair of fast horses. - -“How long have you been in the business, Sis?” was the way he started -it. - -He was smoking a cigarette at the time and he didn’t even take the -trouble to look at her, but holding his head back, blew the rings of -smoke, one after the other, toward the low ceiling. - -“Oh, about a year, and I’ve been making good ever since I started.” - -“That’s what you have. I suppose you’ve got a big bunch of coin by this -time, eh?” - -“If I have I wish someone would find it for me. There may be a lot of -fun in the game, but there’s no money, that is, not yet.” - -“Well, let me give you just one straight tip. What you want is a -manager--someone to boom you. Suppose you and I double up, and then -I’ll show you how to get the money, and hold it, too. Nothing cheap -about me. You’re a good fellow and I’m a good fellow, and we can do -well together. I’ll put you where you belong, for you ain’t getting -half of what’s coming to you. How about it?” - -Just remember that this was in the West, where a girl has a mighty -hard time of it without a protector of some sort, and that there were -a hundred tie-ups by mutual consent for one real swell matrimonial -clinch, with a sky-pilot to sing his little song of “I now pronounce -you man and wife.” Also bear in mind that she had known Bill about -six months and that his style rather appealed to her, because he was -artistic in a crude sort of a way, and besides, he wore his clothes -with a certain amount of grace that was good for the female eye to look -on. - -So they tied up together and Bill began his life of ease and -prosperity. The next week was announced as her grand farewell -appearance, and she was the recipient every night of a testimonial of -so substantial a character that, as she herself put it, her salary -seemed like pennies for candy. In these many testimonials might have -been recognized the fine Italian touch of Bill, who had a Hermann-like -knack of waving his hands in the empty air and producing real money. -And while she was busy picking up the nuggets and gold bucks which -the enthusiastic miners flung at her, he was attending to his end of -the contract by arranging a tour. He had a few schemes under his hat -that would have brought him in all kinds of money if he had had a fair -swing, but he was born with the soul of a grafter, and that is very -much like a taint in the blood, in that it can never be effaced. It may -disappear for a while, but it is always liable to turn up at the most -unexpected time. - -When the week was done the company started--the company in this case -being a couple of miners, who were in hard luck and who went ahead of -the show; Bill and the girl. - -I saw her the other night in a famous eating place on Broadway putting -away a chop and a small bottle, and I wondered then if she remembered -San Bernardino that June morning when everything she had in the world -was held in one small bag which Bill carried. - -The plan of procedure was simple. She was to get a date in a town, Bill -was to go around and boom her as the best that ever hit the Coast, -and tell of the hit she made in ’Frisco. Then when she came on the -stage to do her dance the two hobos were to start the cheering. Toward -the finish of the act one of them was to walk down the aisle to the -footlights and toss up a handful of gold coins, and then the other was -to follow suit. That would start the crowd giving up; for after all, -people are like sheep, they will always follow a leader. - -It was a good stunt, and there wasn’t any chance for a failure. - -It worked out just as Bill figured it would, and it kept him busy -enough looking after the money end of the game. - -It was the turn in the tide for her so far as her fortunes and -popularity were concerned, and she simply created a furore wherever she -appeared. In those days she wore a twenty-dollar gold piece around her -neck. It was held by a string which ran through a hole she had bored -herself with a great deal of labor. It was the first piece of money she -had ever received over the footlights and she said it was her mascot, -and declared she would always keep it. It might have been her mascot, -but I’ll bet a hundred to one that she hasn’t it now. - -Put a good looking girl on the stage, have her make a hit so that she -is talked about, and she’ll attract more men than a leg show in Paris. -There’s an irresistible fascination about the stage that makes even -bald-headed old papas fall. It’s a hard thing to figure out, but it’s a -fact, nevertheless. - -In this particular case they flocked around her like sheep for a -shelter when a storm is in the air, and the girl took to wearing good -clothes, ordered from ’Frisco, and using to their full capacity the -services of a maid. - -And then there came upon the scene the other man. He had hit the Coast -from Colorado, and his mine was turning out the yellow stuff so fast -that he had more than he could do to spend it. He was busily engaged -in the exciting pastime of buying everything he saw when he met the -girl that Bill was leading along the golden road to wealth. There was -nothing half-way about his methods, so he promptly went out and bought -the biggest diamond he could find, put it in an envelope upon which he -wrote in lead pencil: - -“The best stone for the nicest girl; come and have a bottle of wine -with me after the show.” - -He didn’t need to sign his name to it, for the stage hand who received -a ten-dollar gold piece as a tip for taking it to her pointed him out -as he sat at one of the tables well up toward the stage. - -“He seemed to be kind of stuck on you,” he remarked casually; “will I -tell him you’ll see him?” - -She put the ring on her finger and looked at it critically, holding -it first this way and that so that the light would catch it. The -inspection evidently pleased her, for she said: - -“Sure; he’s entitled to it after this.” - -That is how it came about that, still in her stage dress, she went -directly from the stage to the table where Croesus sat and smiled on -him, while the diamond flashed like a calcium. - -One bottle broke the ice, two put them on a friendly footing, and three -made them lifelong friends. They were on the fourth and their heads -were close together. He was talking in a low tone, while she was -listening intently and nodding her head in affirmation every moment or -so when Bill happened along. - -He didn’t like the looks of this and he showed it plainly. He touched -her on the shoulder with an air of proprietorship and remarked curtly: - -“Come on.” - -“Who’s your friend?” asked the wine opener; “introduce me.” - -“I’m the real one,” said Bill. - -“Husband?” asked the other, laconically. - -“Not yet,” she answered. - -“Oh,” and his eyebrows were lifted a trifle. Then he turned to Bill. -“Sit down and have a drink; I want to talk to you.” - -Then the fifth bottle was brought on. - -He held his brimming glass aloft. - -“Wish me luck, old man, for I’m going to take this little girl away -from you,” and his blue eyes looked into Bill’s black ones with a -steady and disconcerting gaze. - -“I guess we’ve got something to say about that,” said Bill, putting his -glass down suddenly. - -“Not much. You see, I’m going to give you a thousand dollars and that -will be your meal ticket until you find a new prima donna.” - -“You made a mistake,” said Bill, “you meant $5,000.” - -“I agree with you; I did make a mistake; it’s $2,500, and you’d better -grab it quick, because it’s easy money and it’s the limit, too.” - -The girl was playing with the ring, turning it around her finger -aimlessly, never once looking and saying no word. Bill drained his -glass, put it down, and then looked at the stage. - -“Do I get it now?” he asked abruptly. - -“Yes, now.” - -He held out his hand, palm upward, with a suggestive movement, and -in just fifteen seconds it held an order on the Assay Office for the -amount. It was as easy as going into a store and buying a blue flannel -shirt. Thirty days later--a record for speed, by the way--the girl -opened in San Francisco as the star in a farce comedy on which ten -thousand dollars had been spent before the curtain went up. She had -talent, but not enough to make good, and after a week’s losing run the -play was shelved. She gained a lot of experience and had a suite of -rooms at the best hotel in town, which was something for a girl who had -previously been housed in an eight by ten. That was what gave her a -running jump into the profession, so to speak. She landed on both feet -now, but none of her friends would dare bring up the subject of the -glorious West to her. - -That were best forgotten. - -[Illustration] - - - - -WHEN FISTS WERE TRUMPS - - -There was no reason why they should have called the play “The Casino -Girls” except that it might have sounded attractive to the out-of-town -people, and the word Casino, in the mind of the average manager, is -always good for the money. But it was a good show, nevertheless, with -lots of nice girls in tights and spangles, and you could spend two -hours there about as well as you could anywhere. - -But this isn’t to be a story about a show in general, nor is it written -with the object of handing a bouquet to the estimable gentleman who had -the “Casino Girls” under his wing. He had troubles of his own, but he -was paid for that. If some one would sit down beside me for an hour or -so--that is, some one who knew--and tell me nice little stories about -all of the girls--or shall I say ladies?--with that show, I am quite -sure I would have enough material to last me for a good many weeks to -come, and it wouldn’t be scandal, either. I should leave that for the -religious papers and a few of the sanctimonious dailies. - -But it happens that just now I have only one good card up my sleeve, so -I’ll play that for all it is worth, and then wait for something else to -leak out and find its way to the mahogany desk where I do stunts like -this one. - -You will have noticed if you have seen the show, one of the young -women who is a bit more athletic than the others. She has a fist that -can hand out a scientific punch and an arm to back it up. She wears -tights with the rest of the crowd and doesn’t attract special attention -until the olio is put on, and then she shines forth as a specialist. -She punches the bag in a manner that is truly marvelous, and what she -doesn’t do to that pear-shaped leather pendant couldn’t be done by -anybody--man or woman. - -The medals dancing on her chest as she uppercuts and swings would -signify that she is an artiste of more than usual merit, and the -self-assurance and confidence she displays during the brief time she -is on show that she is quite sure of herself and that she knows the -business from the make-up box to the bow at the finish. - -Furthermore, in addition to her other accomplishments, she has been -known to kick the crown of a hat held six feet from the floor, which, -by the way, is no mean trick. - -Now a few turns of the leaves of the calendar backward, a wiping out -of recent years, and you are at the beginning of the story. Not in New -York, but in Ohio--the finish is in the big city, as all good finishes -are. - -A good-looking, rugged girl was there; a normal girl whose only -heritage was health, strength and ambition, which, by the way, in many -cases, is better than money. She took in all the shows that came to -town, and had about as good a time as any other girl could have under -the circumstances. She didn’t get stage struck. She had no ambition to -sing or dance before the public, nor did she give a rap about Romeo and -Juliet. Nothing like that for her. - -You see her time hadn’t come and she had not yet struck her gait. - -The first intimation she had that she was stung with the theatrical bee -when she saw a bag-punching act in which the man made many misses, but -faked it through so that it looked like the real thing. - -That was what she had been waiting for all that time and she never knew -it. The next day she bought a bag, had a platform rigged up and started -in to practice. She worked in a woodshed, I think it was, with no one -to teach her, and she hammered and punched until she was about ready to -drop from exhaustion, but she never gave up. She would travel anywhere -to see a bag-punching act and get a few tips, and although there were -not many in the business at that time, especially out in Ohio, the few -she did land told her all they knew and that wasn’t half enough. - -She had reached that stage when she was fairly good, but didn’t know -it, when there blew into the town a 120-pound boxer of about the fourth -class who could pound the leather just enough to get a salary that -would pay his board and buy a few drinks, but the fact that he was -a bag puncher was enough for her, so she made his acquaintance and -hustled him around to her improvised gymnasium to show her what he -knew. To her surprise there was nothing in his routine that she wasn’t -familiar with, and when she went at the bag herself she did a few -stunts that made him open his eyes in amazement. - -“Who put you next to that?” he asked. - -“No one; I learned it myself.” - -[Illustration: She has been known to kick the crown of a hat held six -feet from the floor] - -“Ever do an act?” was the next question he shot at her. - -He had a quick mind--anybody has who knocks around on the road for a -few seasons--and he was already beginning to figure. - -“No, but some day when I get good I am going to ask some kind manager -to give me a chance.” - -“You don’t have to wait any longer, Sis; you can come with the show -right away and we’ll do an act together.” - -Here was a meal ticket that would be good for many a hard winter when -the other fellows were eating snowballs, and, if he could help it, it -wasn’t going to get away from him. - -And that is the beginning of the story. - -It didn’t get away from him, for he married her as soon as he could -find the money to pay a minister, and that didn’t take very long. - -He fixed up an act which might have been better, but which was good -enough to get work with reasonable regularity. There was only one thing -to it and that was her bag punching, and if it hadn’t been for his -hustling around and getting dates he would have been a rank case of -excess baggage. In the meantime, he was teaching her how to box, and -when the act grew stale they had a boxing finish that never failed to -go big with the crowd. - -All this time she was learning. She hunted up every bag puncher of note -in the country and gathered in the tips, and when she wasn’t busy with -anything else she was framing up something new for herself. All this -tended to give her a muscular development that was worth having and -that many an athlete would have been proud of. - -Her reputation was on the increase and she began to be known. The first -step had been made, and it became a comparatively easy thing to get -booking in Europe. The skate she was tied to began to swell up a bit, -and during the seven days they were on the ship bound for Liverpool he -got it into his head that he was the real one and that she was a side -issue. - -“Don’t ever forget,” he said to her when they reached London, “that I -am the real fellow. I dug you out of a woodshed and put you where you -are now and if you try to get gay with me, I’ll send you back there, -and I’ll get another one just as good as you are.” - -He thought he was the real candy boy, and he started in to cut a wide -swath. He chased every petticoat that came along, blew in their joint -salary at the cafes, and the only time she saw him was when they were -doing their act. - -In Berlin she happened to walk in the cafe connected with the music -hall at which they were working, and she saw him sitting at one of the -tables trying to fill a 160-pound blonde with Rhine wine. - -“Don’t you think it is about time to cut this out?” she asked. - -“Didn’t I tell you to keep away from me and not butt in where you’re -not wanted?” he said. - -“Yes; but I think I have something to say. I’m not a wooden image, am -I?” - -“Who is this woman?” asked the blonde, languidly. - -“I’m his wife, if you want to know,” was the retort, “and anyone would -think you had no home by the way you hang around here.” - -“Tell her to go away; she annoys me.” - -That was enough for the girl. With one swift jerk the blonde was pulled -to her feet, then a vicious right hook found its way to her jaw, and as -she dropped to the floor the “meal ticket” walked away. - -It was the first blow she had ever struck except in a friendly contest -with the gloves, and it stirred her blood as nothing else had ever done. - -It did another thing--it set her to thinking, and from that time on she -began a course of good, hard training. - -Something definite and tangible had become established in her mind -and she was after it like a hound after a rabbit. She paid as little -attention to him as if he had never existed, and he carried on his love -affairs--very numerous ones they were, too--with a free hand. He became -a hot proposition, and he blew like a drunken sailor on every girl -who caught his fancy. She lived like an automaton, doing everything -mechanically except the conditioning work she was engaged in. At every -show they boxed together, and once in a while, when she would get a -chance, she would whip in a hard one in order to lay bare his weak -spots. One night she hit him in the stomach. It was a short, sharp, -snappy punch, and she felt the shock of it up to her elbow. - -He turned white under his grease paint and then wobbled back a couple -of paces. - -When they came together again he whispered savagely: - -“Cut those out or I’ll hand you one the next time.” - -“It was a slip,” she said. “I didn’t mean it.” - -“It’s a good thing for you that you didn’t,” he answered, surlily. - -From Berlin they went to the Casino, in Paris, and if the trick that -was pulled off there had never happened I wouldn’t be writing this -story. - -Paris to him was like a bone to a hungry dog and he was a hot sport -from the night they hit the town, while she was a joke because she -wouldn’t mix with the bunch and play the game of love on her own hook. - -But all the time she was getting ready for the stunt that was to give -her revenge and freedom together. - -At last it came. - -When he stumbled into the dressing room one night he had the beginnings -of a good-sized jag. He had been putting away his share of absinthe and -he began to abuse her. - -“You’re a dead one,” he said, “and I don’t know what I ever saw in you. -Here I’ve put you on your feet and give you the chance of your life to -make good, but you don’t connect. Get in with the crowd and be a live -one before it’s too late, for you’re getting to be a shine.” - -“What do you expect me to do when you are mixed up with a bunch of -cheap soubrettes, and drunk half the time?” - -“Why, do the same as I do, of course. There’s that guy that came in -last night and wanted to meet you. He’s got all kinds of coin, and----” - -“Shut up,” she cried, “what do you think I am?” - -“Not much.” - -She began working at her gloves viciously, pushing the padding away -from the knuckles so as to leave the fist with as little covering as -possible. You know the trick if you’ve ever seen boxers just before -a contest. It isn’t considered the right thing to do, but when done -properly makes a punch well landed about twice as effective. When she -was through there wasn’t much hair in the centre of her gloves, and -then they were ready to go on. They sang their opening song, juggled -the Indian clubs, after which she went at the bag. That concluded, they -were to go three rounds to a quick finish. - -They were ready. - -He went forward to the footlights to make the usual announcement. - -“My partner and myself will now box three exhibition rounds,” etc., etc. - -“Time.” - -When a man has been sparring exhibition rounds very long he is apt -to grow a trifle careless, and to take chances that he wouldn’t take -under ordinary circumstances. It was so in this case, and at the first -rush he got a stiff, straight left in the mouth that brought the blood -oozing from between his lips. - -“What the hell,” he began in amazement, but he didn’t finish, for she -was on him in an instant and a short right went home to his ribs. He -caught a look in her eyes that suddenly sobered him, and he began to -stall and cover up. He retreated a few steps, and she said tauntingly: - -“What’s the matter, are you afraid of me, you cur?” - -He wavered for a moment and then she went after him again. - -He swung his right with all his might and caught her on the ear. -Somewhere from out of the audience there came a sibilant hiss which -was taken up by a hundred at once. She needed that punch just about -that time, and it spurred her on, even though it hurt for a moment. She -bored in, and throwing down her guard drove a right and left to his -stomach--his weak spot. There was the place, but she had forgotten it -in the excitement. - -He dropped heavily and awkwardly on his back, rolled over slowly and -pulled himself to his feet. He came up with a realizing sense that -he must protect himself against this woman who was taking an unfair -advantage of him, and in his ears rang the shouts and applause of a -delighted audience. He knew they were not for him, but he would fight, -anyhow, and show them what he could do. They were to see that an -American boxer was no slouch. He saw her standing there waiting, with a -grim smile on her compressed lips and he made up his mind that he would -knock that smile off. He straightened up and went at her like a bull. -She didn’t back off as he thought she would, and when he pulled back -his right he got a jolt on the jaw that turned him half way around. He -went in again and she hit him in the stomach. When his head dropped his -nose met an uppercut that made the blood spurt in a stream. The sight -seemed to madden her and she went at him fiercely and vindictively. -There was revenge behind every blow and she felt that she was evening -up the insults and humiliation of a year. He was groggy and almost -helpless and there was pandemonium in the audience. Some of the women -had gone out, but those who had stayed had risen in their seats and -were cheering on this American girl who was fighting like a man. She -heard nothing and saw only the man she loathed and hated. She noted his -puffed and bleeding face and knew she had him. - -“Put up your hands,” she said sharply. - -He obeyed mechanically and she walked over to him. He tried to cover -up, but she feinted him into an opening, and then drove a straight -right to his jaw and he flopped over in the wings crying: - -“I quit, I quit; I didn’t think you’d do this.” - -She didn’t even look at him as she went past to her dressing room. - -Ten minutes later he came in with a trace of his former bluster. - -“What are you trying to do, anyhow?” he began, but she shut him up. - -“I’ll lick you again right here if you don’t keep your mouth closed. -From now on until the end of this engagement _I’m_ running this act, -and I’m going to collect the money for it, too, and any time I catch -you doing anything I don’t like _I’m_ going to beat your head off. Any -time you think I can’t do it start something. In just two weeks more -you can pack your clothes and shift for yourself, for I’m done.” - -That’s all. - -She has been shifting for herself ever since, and is doing pretty well, -thank you. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: Rackets where pretty girls cut capers to the music of -male voices] - - - - -KID AND HIS TEN THOUSAND - - -Just another restaurant scene with waiters and guests and steaming -dishes and wine. - -It’s the same old thing, repeated many times a day, but it’s like a -stage on which a thousand plays have appeared. The setting is always -the same--it’s only the scene that changes. - -I just want to call your attention to that red-cheeked boy at the table -over by the window. I said boy, although from the standpoint of years -he is really a man. But he lacks experience to bring him to a man’s -real estate. Years, you know, don’t always count in this world, that -is, not in all things. In this woman is excepted, because years count -for everything with her. - -This particular boy has just had his first experience, and that is -the excuse for this story--if an excuse is needed. He has laid the -foundation stone upon which he is going to build his life, and in the -building he will use many stones of many colors, sizes and shapes. - -You see him sitting there disconsolate, miserable and wretched. His -home, as luxurious a one as anybody would want, is not more than a -dozen blocks away, and he will wind up there in the course of the next -forty-eight hours, for he is practically broke. - -I call him The Boy With The Ten Thousand Dollar Bill. - -Just a few years ago his father died. A few weeks later the family -lawyer was in the drawing room reading the will of the deceased, and -near the end of the document he came to a clause which stipulated: - -“On his twenty-first birthday my son shall receive from the balance -of moneys unexpended a bill of the denomination of $10,000 to do with -as he shall see fit, and he shall not be asked to account for the -expenditure of it to anyone in any way whatsoever.” - -That was a curious item for even a curious will, but the estate was big -and the founder of that fortune felt evidently that he could afford to -experiment with a mere ten thousand, even after his death, that the -lesson might be of benefit to the heir. - -The object is obvious. - -The boy became of age, and on that day he received the bank note which -to him seemed like a fortune, so he felt that he owned the world. - -A man can do a lot of good in New York with that amount of money, and a -boy can do a lot of harm. - -This boy knew in advance the good fortune that was coming to him, and -in looking around he made up his mind that the first thing a man of his -means should buy would be an automobile costing $4,000, so the day he -got the money he bought the car, and he received in exchange a bundle -of crisp five hundred bills. - -He must have thought those bills represented the wealth of Croesus, -or that they were magic, and no matter how many he might use, some -mysterious agency would replace them. - -At 11.30 o’clock that night the new automobile was backed up against -the stage door of a Broadway playhouse, and half an hour later it was -filled with as many girls as could possibly be crowded in. - -In that startling way the boy with the big bill made his debut into the -society of the line. He gave the girls a dinner that they are talking -of yet, and before two hours had gone by they were calling him pet -names and incidentally trying to get a line on the actual size of his -bank roll. They worked individually, and each one could in fancy see -herself installed in a fine house, mistress of unlimited means and the -wife of an especially easy mark, made to order for a chorus girl. - -You see he was so liberal that he deceived them, although, as a matter -of fact, young ladies with their wide experience ought to have known -better, and have figured out the limit of his possibilities. - -These ten thousand dollars were left by the dead man to be a bait for -the wolves, and he had arranged it so that the hand of his son should -feed it to them bit by bit. There were other thousands behind these -and they were to be protected by the knowledge of the fate of the ones -which had gone before. It was willed that ten thousand dollars of -experience might be bought with it, and the boy was doing his share of -it very well. He left his home and took a nice little apartment so that -he could have more liberty, which he needed just about that time. He -lunched with a soubrette and dined with a singer. If he liked a show -or fancied one of the girls in it, he engaged a box every night for -the week. The crowd dubbed him The Little Millionaire, and he deserved -the title, for he was certainly playing the star part, and he was -always present at what are known as rackets where the chief source of -amusement were girls who cut capers and danced to the music of male -voices. - -His automobile, which always carried a bunch of freight from which -ribbons and feathers fluttered, denoting the sex of the wearers, of -course, shot up and down and in and out in a most spectacular manner, -and it, as much as anything else, helped to make him popular. - -He must have known a bit about finance, for it looked to those who were -watching his career as if he was spending about ten thousand a week, -and so he got the reputation of doing--as sometimes happens in this -world--that which was impossible. - -But through it all he never showed his hand. - -He was dining one night with an especially nice little girl of the -stage to whom he had shown a lot of attention--which means in stage -parlance that he had bought her presents worth accepting. - -They had come to the third bottle of wine, and to her way of thinking, -the time seemed about ripe for what she had in mind. - -“A man who’s been in the business a long time was telling me the other -night that I ought to have a show of my own,” she mused, as she sipped -her wine. - -She had made a careful and skilful cast and she waited. - -“Why don’t you?” he asked presently. - -That was quicker action than she had dared to expect. - -“I ought to have done it two years ago when I had a friend that wanted -to start me out on the road. Don’t you think I’m as good as Blanche -Bates?” - -“How was it you didn’t go?” he queried, ignoring her question. - -“Well, you see, I didn’t like this party, and I wouldn’t accept favors -from no one I didn’t like. It don’t cost much to put a show on if you -know how, and there’s a lot of money in it if it’s a hit.” - -“About how much?” - -“Twelve or fifteen thousand dollars would do it up in great shape. I -think a nice little comic opera would be good. The kind Lillian Russell -has. All she makes good on is her looks and that’s not so much. I could -take a few music lessons while the play was being fixed up and it -wouldn’t be long before I could make them all sit up and look me over.” - -There was a moment’s pause and then she aimed at the bull’s eye: - -“What’s the matter with you backing it?” - -“That’s what I was just thinking about,” was the answer. “I’ll look -into it and if it’s all right I’ll see my broker and give you a chance -to see what you can do as a star.” - -He was talking like an old timer and he had her going in a minute. But -that was only one of his jokes and for two weeks he kept it up. Then he -told her of some enormous investments he had made which had tied him up -temporarily, while she had to go around explaining to her friends that -it was all off about what she had been telling them. - -There was one proposition this gay young sport hadn’t figured on, for -all going out and nothing coming in makes a quick and, as a rule, a -spectacular finish. A fellow starts out like a three-time winner and -comes under the wire with nothing but a bundle of junk, without even -knowing his right name. - -Two months of the three had gone by and the most remarkable part of the -whole affair was that there was any money left. But toward the latter -part of the game he had been growing wise, or he thought he was, at any -rate. He stopped the five-dollar tips and he was cutting out a night -here and there. He might have retired with honors if he hadn’t met -Blanche. - -Good-looking, slick, clever Blanche, the regret of whose life was that -she hadn’t met him first and got it all in one solid chunk. He didn’t -know it, but he was made for Blanche, and what was more to the point, -she knew it. In fact, there were very few things she didn’t know. - -His talk about his brokers didn’t switch her in the least. There had -been a time in her life when she might have believed it, but that time -had gone by. She had lived in a fool’s paradise just once and that was -enough for her. - -He actually wanted to marry her, but she wouldn’t consider it for a -moment, because she didn’t figure him out as a future proposition for -more than a couple of thousand at the most. - -“You’re all right, Harry,” she said once, “but we won’t have any -marrying just now. What we will do is go shopping. I want to furnish -a flat so I can really have a home of my own and you will be just as -welcome there as if you owned it yourself, so come along and we’ll pick -the things out. You have very nice taste in such matters, I know, and -we can have a good time buying.” - -Good speech that, and very nicely delivered, and he liked her well -enough to find no flaw in it. But when the time really came for the -buying there was something else she had to do, so she said: - -“Don’t you bother your head about this; just give me the money; I know -what I want; I have the list all made out. I’ll buy them and fix them -up and when everything is ready I’ll have you come up and look at them -and tell me what you think. I know my taste is not as good as yours, -but I’ll do the best I can.” - -Please bear in mind that he was only a boy--just twenty-one years -old--then you will understand perhaps why it was he fell for so old a -story. - -At this point you’ve got it all figured out. In your opinion she took -the coin and simply faded away. - -Nothing of the kind. - -He saw her once every twenty-four hours at least and she reported -progress, and then one day he got a note telling him to come up and see -the new place. - -She received him at the door herself and if the little flat had been a -palace she couldn’t have been more delighted. It was so very fine that -when she told him she had gone into debt just a little bit he promptly -asked how much and paid up without even so much as a murmur. It was so -easy that she ought to have given it back to him a little while just to -hold. - -When he went away he had a latch key and was about as proud a fellow as -it was possible to be and walk straight. - -As in a play so in a story--the finish is everything. - -It must be good and it must be quick. - -The earlier parts of the story or the scenes may lag, but nothing like -that will do at the end. - -Blanche had been on the stage, and consequently she knew the value of -“finis.” - -He was to go on a hunting trip for a week, and in her opinion the -critical moment had about arrived. She intuitively divined the end of -the string. One night at a little dinner in the flat she talked to -him about money matters, and such was the charm of her manner that -presently he was telling her all about himself, and the romance of the -ten thousand dollar bill. - -“And how much have you left of all this?” she asked softly. - -“Oh, I don’t know, about seven or eight hundred.” - -“Well, I think you’ve been very, very foolish. You’re going away on a -week’s trip and a hundred really ought to do you. Just give the rest -to me and I will take good care of it until you come back, and then -you will have it. You want to be careful of what you have now; you are -altogether too liberal, and you do too much for people.” - -That was the reason when he went away on that trip that he was a trifle -shy financially, and so far to the bad that he had to borrow to get -back in good shape. - -From the Grand Central station he took a cab to the flat. It seemed as -though he couldn’t get there quick enough. He went up the stairs two at -a time. He came to the door. - -There was a light, dim, but still a light, shining feebly over the -transom. He put the key in the lock, turned it, opened the door and -went in. He took four steps in the private hall. Then a man’s arm went -around his neck and a voice asked: - -“What are you doing here?” - -He had nerve and he wasn’t the least bit flustered. - -“If you’ll let go that strangle I’ll tell you,” he said. “Where’s -Blanche?” - -That was the opening for the story, which he told very well under the -circumstances. - -“She never owned this furniture,” spoke up the man, when the tale had -been concluded. “This flat is rented furnished. She left here about a -week ago, and I live here now.” - -Now we get the curtain. - -He has finished his dinner, and he’s going home. That’s the best place -anyhow. What right has a boy like that to be on Broadway with ten -thousand dollars? - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: He often made an honest dollar teaching American women -how to smoke “hop”] - - - - -AN ORIENTAL NOCTURNE - - -It’s just one little step--in New York, anyhow--from the Caucasian to -the Oriental. As a matter of fact it’s only across the street, and that -doesn’t count for any distance at all. The Chinese have settled down on -that little part of the city which is split into wedge-shaped blocks -by Mott, Pell and Doyers streets, very much like a flock of birds -alight on some tree, and with apparently as little reason. They have -brought with them their manners, their customs, their habits and their -traditions. They have imported their own gods, and even the furniture -for the joss houses. They have introduced to American men and women the -choices of their Oriental vices, that of opium smoking, and they have -provided places where their patrons may enjoy the drug. They wash your -shirts and iron your collars; they take your money and smile at you; -they go to your Sunday schools and sing hymns in queer cracked voices -that would be worth big money to a comedian, and they profess to be -converted to your way of thinking, but they are smooth and wise. - -They are never weaned from the worship of Confucius or Tao, or Buddha, -as the case may be, but don’t you see when a Chinese wants to learn -the language of the people with whom he lives, it is very nice to have -as a teacher a nice looking girl, and the English of the Bible is no -different than any other English. So, by saying he has foresworn the -gods and the faith of his fathers, he gets his education directly from -the red lips of a daughter of the white devils, and sometimes he puts -on the finishing touches by marrying her. - -Can you beat it? - -Much he thinks of women, for in that Empire from whence he comes a -woman is a chattel, a bit of merchandise, worth so much in money or -goods, as the case may be, and he buys her as a white man buys a horse. -She is his wife, his mistress, or his servant, and the price fluctuates -accordingly. - -When Yen Gow, the slickest Oriental that ever cooked a pill, hit Mott -street for the first time, he noticed that there were very few women of -his race in the colony, and being a man who made money, no matter by -what means, he considered it was an evil that he was in duty bound to -remedy. He had a varied career, and among other things being an expert, -he had taught American women how to smoke “hop.” - -Incidentally, it is pat to say here that Yen Gow represents a man and -not a dummy, and that this story is absolutely true in every detail and -is very far removed from fiction. - -If you haven’t what you want, get it, is a maxim practiced by a certain -class of people in all countries in the world whose methods, both from -a moral as well as a legal standpoint, are not considered to be exactly -right. So being shy one female of his own blood and color, Yen took a -3,000 mile ride to ’Frisco to remedy the defect. No one knows just how -deep he had to dig for that slant-eyed lady, dressed in the clothes of -a boy, whom he smuggled into the top floor of a Mott street tenement -one night. But it was his investment, and he spent his money like -another man would buy ground or buildings. - -He fitted the room up with couches and curtains and furniture, but -first of all he fitted a good, strong lock to the door that couldn’t be -tampered with either from the inside or outside unless one had the key. -There was only one key and he had it. When you buy property that has -feet you are not inclined to take chances. - -Having attended to all of the details that he considered necessary, and -frightened the lady by telling her that the people of New York were -cannibals who liked nothing better than Mongolian flesh, he began to do -business. - -He first lounged into the fan-tan joint of Hop Lee on Pell street. - -“Have you ever heard of Moy Sen?” he asked. - -“Moy Sen; who is she?” - -“Who is she? Were you born yesterday? There are three hundred and -twenty girls in ’Frisco, and they are as little like Moy Sen as the -earth is like the sun. Why, the viceroy of the Shang-tuan province -heard of her and sent an envoy with nothing to do but look at her and -if she was what they said she was, to bring her back even if it cost -him ten thousand taels.” - -“Did he get her?” - -“Can a child get a rainbow? She heard he was coming, so she dressed in -the clothes of a working boy and ran away to New York.” He stepped a -little closer and whispered: “She is here now.” - -Then he cunningly told his story, and when he had finished he had made -it clearly understood for what purpose she was here, and added further -that being an utter stranger she had placed herself under his care. - -“Now, if you care to see her I will take you.” - -Nothing could be simpler--nor plainer. - -In figuring up his profits--which were large--Yen Gow got into the -habit of multiplying them by two, and then mentally cursing himself -because he had not bought two slaves instead of one. With no conscience -and no morals, he was a thing of stone whose only thought was the easy -acquirement of money. If, by cutting off a finger or an ear from his -chattel he could have increased her value, he would have done it with -as little compunction as lopping off a chicken’s head. - -When the money didn’t come in fast enough he took to beating her, and -it wasn’t long before the slim, brown body of the girl began to take -on bluish spots where the knots in the rope had struck and left their -imprint. She had never known there was such a thing in the world as -love, but she began to hate with a fierceness and vindictiveness that -any woman is capable of when she has been wronged, no matter of what -race or nationality she may be. - -Revenge follows closely on the heels of a woman’s hate, and it is -always deadly. One woman can hate another woman and still smile on her -as if she was the dearest and best friend in the world, while she is -waiting to let go her poisoned shaft. But she has no smiles for the -man she hates any more than a cat will purr when it has just had an -encounter with a dog. - -Many a night when the sightseeing crowds were going through Chinatown’s -streets the girl looked at her captor, and let her tapering hand slip -inside the loose fold of her silk blouse until it caressed the jade -handle of a long, thin and keen-edged blade. If he had known how near -death he was he would have put his back against the wall and pulled -out that big American revolver he always carried in his sash. But not -knowing he went along with his head up in the clouds. - -Because her heart was the heart of a woman she stopped feeling for the -knife and set her mind on other things, such as any caged animal would -under the circumstances. It was finally concentrated on the key--that -slim piece of metal which he never let out of his keeping day or night. -It gave her courage to live the life she was leading, and the thought -spurred her on, for at last she had an object. - -The long, lean, gray wolf of the prairies will follow its prey for -days. Hungry and thirsty and tired it will trail like a shadow, never -once deviating from the heels of its victim. Through snow, and rain, -and sleet, and wind, surmounting all obstacles it will stay until the -end, and the end to the wolf always means the feast. - -Somewhere in the veins of this Chinese girl there must have been one -drop of wolf blood, for once she set her mind upon the possession -of that key she never wavered. It was before her night and day. She -planned a thousand ways to get it, but never one was right. She watched -him with furtive eyes, but for all the good it did, she might just as -well have been looking out of the window of the dreary brick wall of -the other building. - -Once when he was sleeping she crept silently to his side and felt for -the inner pocket of his blouse. Slight as was her touch he must have -felt it, for he moved uneasily and she fluttered to the floor like a -leaf from a falling tree. She tried again, but with the same result. - -But out of what seems certain failure often comes success. - -“I am hungry; get me something to eat quick,” he demanded when he awoke -in the morning. - -She started up and set about her work while he walked over to the table -to get his water pipe. As she passed back and forth from cupboard -to stove her glance fell upon the couch where he had slept, and for -one brief moment it seemed as though she was going to fall. A sudden -weakness came into her knees and it was with a great effort that she -kept from crying out, for there in plain view was the key. In an -instant she had it, and she had taken the first and easiest step to -freedom. - -He smoked, then ate, then smoked again, but this last time it wasn’t -tobacco that soothed him--it was opium, and when at last his drowsy -eyes closed she was by the door pushing the key into the socket. It -turned the lock. Then she opened the door, passed out and locked it -on the outside. She ran down the steps as if she was pursued; out on -the street, when the thought of those white devils--those eaters of -human flesh--halted her in terror. But no one spoke to her and she was -reassured. Across the way she saw the sign of a temple, and she made -for it as a shipwrecked sailor makes for land. She went up one flight -of very dark and very dirty stairs and then saw a half-opened door. She -peeped in. The room was empty, but at the back were the images of the -gods she knew in China; before them was the shrine, and back of them -was the sacred place where no one dared go. - -But nothing is sacred where terror is, and before ten seconds of time -had been ticked off by the clock on the wall she was nestling at the -heels of Kwon Guet, the God of Might, the safest spot in all the -quarter. - -If you will notice when you visit a Chinese joss house you will observe -that there is nothing thin nor weak about the keeper. He looks like a -man who loves the good things of life and gets them, too. His life is -one of ease and he feasts like a nabob. When a Chinese wants a favor -from a joss he first sends offerings of food. These are put in fine -dishes and placed on the altar. Then he prays, and begs that this feast -be accepted in the same spirit in which it is sent. He may believe or -he may not believe that that thing of wood eats what he has left, but -the keeper knows and waxes fat. Many a time has he smacked his lips -over a sucking pig, roasted to a turn, and chickens are on his daily -bill of fare. - -Two hours after the girl had gone through the open door the keeper -awoke. He yawned and then stretched himself, leisurely. He was in no -hurry, for he knew there was a breakfast awaiting for him on the altar, -and it was such a breakfast as a man of his distinction was entitled -to. He knew to a grain of rice what had been put there the night before -just as he had known it for years. - -Presently he was ready and he sauntered out of his little room with no -unseemly haste. The wick in the vessel of olive oil was burning with a -steady glow and the faces of the gods were as placid and emotionless as -the day they left the carver’s shop in Pekin. - -“Ai yei.” - -He rubbed his eyes and stepped back a pace in alarm. - -One of the dishes was empty. It was as bare and clean as the palm of -his hand. He ran back to the room in the rear and roughly woke his -assistant. - -“You have eaten before me, you swine,” he shouted. - -“Eaten?” queried the other. “I have not eaten since yesterday.” - -“Come and look then.” Together they both went, and when they arrived at -the altar another dish had been taken. - -The keeper looked up at the stolid countenance of Kwon Guet, saw a -shred of the white meat of a chicken and a grain of rice on his lower -lip, and then dropped face downward on the floor as if he had been shot. - -He grovelled in abject terror while the assistant gazed at him with -wondering eyes, until he, too, looked up, saw the same sight, and then -he went down beside his master. There they both lay until combining -their courage, they crept fearfully backward beyond the range of the -vision of those green jade eyes. - -“It is a curse,” whispered the keeper, and the other nodded his head, -too frightened to speak. - -That was only the beginning, for as fast as the offerings were brought -they disappeared, and nothing was left but empty dishes. For eight days -this continued, and then, on the night of that day, the keeper, grown -bold, found the desire to see a god eat growing in his heart. So when -the lights in the shops had gone out and the noises in the street had -died down to whispers, he went out into the darkened temple and sat in -a corner with his back against the wall. The flickering lamps burned -dimly and cast long shadows across the bare floor and with solitude -came fear. He looked at the heaped-up dishes hungrily and then at the -joss, but the religion of his ancestors held him fast, and what might -have been nothing more nor less than a block of wood to another man of -another race was something to him that was endowed with the power to -pardon and punish or even cause instant death. - -Suddenly there came to him a noise like a sigh, long-drawn out and -deep, and as he shrunk back still further in his corner he felt the -blood in his veins run cold. A dish moved and his lower jaw dropped as -though he had been stricken with death. Something seemed to wind itself -about that bit of crockery and drag it slowly in until it disappeared, -but there was no sound. His breath came in gasps and he felt as if he -would choke. Then he saw the dish replaced with the food gone. Those -same unseen hands took another one and still another, but he didn’t -see, for he had sagged down in a lifeless heap and terror had numbed -his senses. As he went over he groaned aloud, and there was a sudden -movement back of the altar which almost caused Kwon Guet to topple over. - -At three o’clock in the morning Chuck Connors, with his hands thrust -deep in his trousers pockets, was walking along Mott street, homeward -bound, when a Chinese girl came running out of the joss house door. So -great was her speed that she almost collided with him. - -“Ha, there, git onto yerself,” said Chuck, putting up his hands to fend -off an imaginary blow: “wot are yer tryin’ ter do--shoot de shoots?” - -“Velly much aflaid,” said the girl, looking behind her. - -“Well, wot de yer t’ink uv dat,” said Chuck, “Who’s chasin’ yer, -anyhow?” and he took a step toward the doorway. - -But she wouldn’t have it that way, and taking hold of his arm she -almost dragged him away from the place. Chuck knows a little Chinese -and a lot of pidgin-English, and he managed to get some kind of a story -out of the girl, and then he took her home and put her in the care of -Mrs. Chuck until the morning. The next day she was taken to a mission -house in Brooklyn, where she stayed until one night when a sporty -laundryman smuggled her away to Savannah, Ga. - -The joss-house keeper buys his grub now, and he’s looking a bit thin. -Incidentally he pays more attention to the temple than ever before. - -So, you see, good comes out of everything. - -[Illustration] - - - - -A COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION - - -The turn of a street corner, the going this way instead of that, the -casual introduction to a certain woman, and a thousand other things -often prove the turning point in life, sometimes for good and sometimes -for bad. To every man opportunity comes once at least. The successful -ones are those who have recognized their chance and taken prompt -advantage of it. But anyone can preach a sermon, and money doesn’t -always follow in the footsteps of education. - -That will do for a starter to this story of a woman, a dinner and two -men. You will notice that the woman comes first, the dinner next, and -the men last, which is as it should be. Women should always be in the -lead, which fact will be more fully recognized when their ability and -genius become more generally understood and appreciated. - -The dinner in this story changed the current of three lives so abruptly -that it almost became a tragedy, and if you like you can take this as -a moral, and beware of dinners, unless, of course, you are looking for -a change, in which event you can take this as a tip and dine with the -crowd early and often and see what happens. - -[Illustration: There was disclosed the figure of a young woman rather -scantily clad] - -The son of a wealthy Eastern brewer, born with a gold spoon in his -mouth, and taught to believe that the world was made for his especial -benefit, after blazing his way along the White Light thoroughfare for -a few years, and making a name for himself as a spender of rare -ability, took it suddenly into his head to reform. A good many hard -nights had brought out a crop of fine wrinkles at the corners of his -eyes, and high living had added several inches to his waist line. But -he was still good looking and ruddy cheeked, and there were a number of -charming ladies living on certain side streets who knew him well enough -to call him by his first name, and who were always glad to see him -whether he did the sucker trick of opening bad wine at $5 a throw or -not. In his mind the first step toward reformation meant marriage with -some nice respectable young woman who had been correctly brought up, -and whose family tree would bear investigation, and as his income was -somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 it wasn’t hard to find what he -wanted, for ninety-nine women out of a hundred would cheerfully fasten -themselves to a monstrosity if there was a bank book in the inside -pocket. - -He picked out the girl he proposed to turn from a Miss into a Mrs., -paid attention to her for thirty days without a break, then he proposed -and was accepted, and the date of the marriage was set for two months -later. It was a case of thirty and sixty days, with no discounts off. - -It is usual in a case of this kind to give a farewell dinner to the -bunch, to have one last good drunk and then a laborious climb aboard -the water wagon until after the honeymoon. So he hunted up one of his -best friends and told him the glad news. - -“Never again for me,” he said, “and all the Dotties and Lotties and -Totties can strike my name off their lists, for I’m going to marry, -old man, and settle down to business. But I’m going to have one big -blaze before I go, and I want you to get it up, for you can lay out a -dinner better than anyone I know, and besides, I’m going to have you -for my best man when I get hitched. Now go as far as you like and damn -the expense. Have a stag with all the good fellows there that we know, -and we’ll set off a few fireworks that will give them something to talk -about.” - -The banquet room of a big hotel was engaged, and the French chef got -an order to lay out a spread that would make an old Roman feast look -like a Bowery beef stew. Then the enterprising best man, who was -something of a high roller himself, set his wits to work to devise a -novelty that would top anything in the banquet line ever seen in New -York after the lights were turned on. About fifty invitations went out, -and in response to them on one eventful Saturday night, half a hundred -dyed-in-the-wool sports, of the kind who buy diamond rings for little -ladies who dance well, settled themselves in very comfortable chairs, -and prepared to have the time of their lives and wish good luck to the -man who was going to become respectable. The dinner was only a side -issue, for it was to be nothing more nor less than one great drunk, and -that was understood from the start. So the wine flowed as freely as -water in the spring when the melting snows flood the brooks and swell -the rivers, and for every five men there was one waiter to see that no -one went thirsty. From ten until twelve the black-jacketed servitors -drew corks and filled glasses, and then the best man pulled himself to -his feet, propped himself between the arm of his chair and the table -and commanded order that he might be heard. - -“There is a pudding coming,” he began, “and in view of the fact that -I invented it myself I would like to have you fellows sit up and take -notice.” - -Then he motioned to the head waiter and sank back in his chair. Five -men, each one holding up his end of a platform about four feet square -on which was a monstrous concoction of pastry, staggered in. A vacant -place had been cleared on the table, and when it was placed in position -a yell went up from the crowd. - -“I’ll take a slice off the top,” sang the bridegroom, as he waved a -glass of wine aloft. - -“Cut it, Bill,” said the best man, and one of the waiters, grinning, -went at it with a huge carving knife. He slit it from top to bottom in -two places, and as the crust crumbled away half a dozen birds fluttered -out, and when the pastry cook’s creation was demolished there was -disclosed a young woman rather scantily draped and with a figure worth -missing a train for. - -“Good evening, gentlemen,” she said, smiling, and then she stepped out. - -People who make a study of such things will tell you for every man -in the world there is just one woman who belongs to him. They may be -thousands of miles apart, and it may so happen that they will never -meet, but the fact remains that they were intended for each other just -the same. He may marry and she may marry, but there will be no real, -true happiness until they live their lives together. When this girl, -trim and slim but shapely, stood on the table, the man who was going to -be married looked on her and knew then that there was no other woman -in the world for him--not even the one whom he had promised to marry. -The others stood up and cheered and applauded her, while he sat there -staring almost stupidly. Her bronze hair tumbled down over her bare -shoulders and her laughing eyes took in the scene. - -“And who is the one who is going to be married?” she asked smilingly. -“I want to drink with him.” - -“Get on your pins, old man, and drink with the lady,” called one, and -he obediently arose and held a glass of wine toward her. - -“So you are the one?” she asked, looking him over critically. “Well, -here is that the woman you marry is as good a fellow as you look to be.” - -That was at midnight. - -When the clock struck two every guest was still in his place, and -seated in the lap of the man at the head of the table--the host, the -man who was to marry, become straightened out, and shake the crowd--was -the girl. He had one arm around her, and they were drinking out of the -same glass. Of course it wasn’t at all proper, but you see everything -goes at a bachelor’s dinner, and in view of the fact that this was -a last wild fling, apparently, it was all right. It was nobody’s -business, anyhow, for a man may do as he likes even if he is on the -verge of his own wedding. - -“You will surely call,” she was saying between sips. - -“Surely,” was the answer, “if you will allow me.” - -“And if I don’t?” - -“Then I will call anyhow.” - -“Now you’re just the kind of a man I like,” she whispered. “But what -are you going to do after you’re married?” - -“I don’t think I will marry,” he said; “at least I’ll not marry the -girl I intended. You and I are going to talk that over, because----” - -“Why, I’ve only known you about two hours.” - -“It wouldn’t make any difference if you’d only known me two minutes, it -would be just the same.” - -“I suppose so, but you see a good many men have talked to me like that, -and promised me everything, but it’s always the same in the end. Men -say things that they mean at the time, but it doesn’t last.” - -He was really in earnest, though he was drunk, and the next afternoon, -when he was sober enough to know what he was doing, he wrote a note -to his _fiancee_, telling her that he was sorry, but it was all off. -There were reasons, of course, but he couldn’t explain, and would she -kindly release him from his engagement, which had been entered into too -hastily, etc., etc. You know the old story. - -In the end he got his freedom in a tear-stained letter, then he went -and threw a high-ball under his belt and squared away for the pudding -girl. - -She was making about $40 a week and living at the rate of about $150, -it didn’t take a wise man to see that, and so he was on the moment he -looked over the ranch. But it cut no figure with him at all, for he was -too well satisfied to be bothered about a trifle like that, especially -at the start of the hunt, so he took things as they came and made the -best of them. - -One night he was there, and they had become confidential. - -“Who did it all?” he asked, as he waved his hand to take in the -elaborate furnishings of the room. - -“So you have reached the curious stage?” she asked. “What do you want -to know for?” - -“Because I think so well of you that I want to do all this sort of -thing myself. Who did it?” - -She looked thoughtfully out of the window for a moment, and then, as if -she had suddenly made up her mind, she turned and said: - -“Would it make any difference to you if you knew?” - -“Not a bit.” - -“Not even if it was someone whom you knew?” - -“Not even then.” - -When she told him the name it was that of his best friend, the one who -was going to be his best man at the wedding. - -Here was a complication. - -Now you can see what an apparently harmless dinner did. - -It wasn’t very long ago, so it’s only a step down to the present day. - -The Hungarian gypsy band in a big cafe uptown was playing its head off, -and every table was occupied. Over in one of the corners--a choice -position, by the way--at a table on which were half a dozen empty wine -bottles, sat two men and a woman. If you will look at them again you -will notice that their faces are very familiar. Yes, that’s right, it -is the pudding girl, the brewer’s son and the man who was going to be -next to the real one at the big show when two were made one and the -minister was paid double for working overtime. All three are a bit -unsteady, naturally, for the soldiers on the table tell the story, -consequently they are well primed for a scene of this kind. - -The brewer’s son is talking to the other man, and the girl is playing a -listening part, and playing it well. - -“You only think you love,” he says, “but all you have done is to spend -a few hundred dollars--or thousands, it makes no difference. You’d -spend it anyhow in some other way. I’ve broken off my marriage for her, -and that’s something. You’re a friend of mine and why don’t you let go?” - -“That’s all right, and I agree to what you say. I haven’t the money I -once had, and I don’t think I can keep the pace up much longer, but I -don’t want to see Maud go up against it. She’s used to nice things. -Suppose the Governor turns on you and cuts you off, what are you going -to do then? You won’t have any more chance than I have. I know you’re -all right now, but Maud’s got to be taken care of, and if I can do -anything to put her on Easy Street I’ll do it.” - -He reached for a half empty bottle and refilled his glass. He drank -slowly and when he had finished he went on. - -“Have you got as much as $10,000?” he asked, abruptly. - -“Easy that.” - -“I mean ready money?” - -“Yes, ready money.” - -“Then I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You put $10,000 in the bank in Maud’s -name and I’ll quit, but you also got to promise me that you will look -after her and do everything for her that she wants. How about that, -Maudie, all right?” - -As he spoke he patted her caressingly on the shoulder while the -brewer’s son, flushed to the roots of his hair with the wine he had -drank, dived into an inside pocket for his check book. - -“Will you be the best man, Joe?” - -“Best man for what?” the girl spoke for the first time. - -“For our wedding, of course.” - -“Not so you can pay any particular attention to it. You’ll have to -chloroform me to get me in front of a minister. I’m no Sunday-school -scholar, and no man can own me. I believe every woman should be -independent, and when a woman marries she not only sacrifices her -freedom, but herself. I like you both, and I’m glad to know that I’m -worth $10,000 to you,” and she nodded toward the brewer’s son. “For -that I’ll play fair with you, and if we ever agree to disagree we’ll -do it like two good fellows. Joe, don’t forget to come around and take -dinner with us once in a while, will you?” - -P. S.--A story in a daily newspaper published later tells about the son -of a wealthy brewer committing suicide by shooting, in his home in a -town near New York. The cause for the rash act is not known. Strange -that it should be the man who was going to reform, but didn’t, isn’t it? - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE END OF THE ROAD - - -They call them _demi mondaines_ and _nymphs du pave_ in Paris, and it -doesn’t sound so bad, but here a spade is called a spade with coarse -brutality and vice doesn’t receive even a very thin coating of veneer. - -Take a walk any night along the streets where women congregate--you -know the kind of women I mean--and study the faces. Look for weakness, -and strength, and character. Look for good and evil. You don’t have to -be a mind reader, just a plain, ordinary, everyday sort of a man with -average intelligence. - -If you look for the outward signs of degradation in the uptown -districts you’ll be disappointed; you’ll have to turn your face -and your steps Batteryward to find that. Vice has a degrading and -demoralizing influence and its victim, in following that unwritten law -of nature that governs the universe, is ever on the downward path. -In some cases it is a gentle descent, while in others it is simply a -series of steps each one lower than the other, and at the last there is -nothing but pity for the poor devils of women to whom no man lifts his -hat or bows his head, and who cease to live in merely existing. - -And for eight out of every ten there are eight men somewhere whose -hands gave the push that sent them on the downhill road. - -But once in a while--once in a very great while--justice comes to a -man as it did in this case, and that’s the story. - -[Illustration: She had such a superb figure that she once posed for a -sculptor] - -Locked up securely in the City Prison like a rat is locked in a trap, -or a dangerous beast is fastened behind iron bars, is a pretty little -black-eyed French girl. - -Julie, her name is, and those who see and talk to her find in her -a great charm; a charm, that had she been placed in a different -atmosphere or had the lines of her life been cast in different places, -would have been so far-reaching as to make her a power. She had such a -charming figure that she once posed for a sculptor. Many a woman’s hand -has shaped the course of destiny in this world of ours, and the power -behind the throne usually wears petticoats. - -This Julie takes her imprisonment calmly, because she is a philosopher -by force of circumstances. She knows the metal bars can resist her, -consequently she doesn’t throw herself against them and there are no -tears in her eyes because she can never cry again. She doesn’t know -what they will eventually do to her and she doesn’t care. If it is -decreed that she shall go forth free, good; then she will go. If it -is decreed that for the rest of her life she shall be doomed to wear -that narrow blue prison stripe, she will at least be fed and housed -and cared for, and on rainy, stormy days she will be under shelter and -not compelled to walk the streets with dripping skirts until the gray -morning comes over the roof tops. - -You see, she has the comforting creed of a fatalist--that what is to be -will be, and that one thought is to her like a narcotic--she sleeps at -nights. - -Because of that she doesn’t hear the moans and sobs of the woman in the -next cell, who has the feathery crime of petit larceny hanging over her -head instead of murder. A mere trifle which means nothing more than a -few weeks--or months at the most--in jail. A rest like the going away -from the hot city streets when July comes, as the rich people do, or to -the South when winter winds blow. A place where the thermometer always -registers about the same and the meals come regularly, which is not a -thing to be despised by anyone, much less a woman of the lower half. - -If the life of this Julie were to be told year by year it would take -a book of many thousands of pages, and the pathos, comedy and tragedy -would be about evenly divided. You would have the tale of how she once -asked a man if he had change of a $50 bill. Then when he pulled out his -money she grabbed the roll, cried out: “Here comes the police,” and -dashed into a hallway in the twinkling of an eye. It was a good joke -and she spent the proceeds for a new dress, for she was of the kind who -make even jokes profitable. - -That she was saved from arrest many times was due to the fact that -she stood in with the police, and she was considered to be one of the -most successful stool pigeons in the business. She was born with the -instinct of the hunter, and hunter she was. In her own inner circle, -however, she was known as The Slasher, and was feared accordingly. - -It came about in this way. - -She and another woman of the streets were rivals in many ways. When -they first met they took an instinctive dislike to each other. The -other one was a blonde, tall and stately--the kind you read about in -cheap novels. She was an English girl, and when it came to a knockdown -and drag-out argument she was able to deliver the goods in fine shape. -Their first quarrel was over nothing, and before it was finished -the lady with the golden tresses had taken her French sister by the -shoulders and flung her down an area bruising her badly. - -The Latin blood in the black-eyed one boiled, and she cried out for -revenge, which she proceeded to work up in a truly Latin manner. She -made friends with her former enemy, said that she was in the wrong and -was sorry for what had happened, and that she wanted to be forgiven. -The blonde fell like a farmer before Hungry Joe, and they both went off -to celebrate. The celebration consisted in tucking away many cocktails -and highballs, and inside of two hours the British lady was a sodden -wreck, and so helpless that she had to be carried to her room on the -second floor rear of a house of no reputation. - -Julie stayed with her long enough to pull out a razor and cut three -gashes from the bridge of her nose across one cheek. Then she slipped -out and went on her way as though nothing had ever happened to give her -a moment’s worry. - -That little stunt put the blonde out of business, in that section of -the city, at least. It is said she went further downtown, where there -is less of a premium on beauty and style. - -Like other women of her caste Julie found it necessary to have a -protector, and when she first appeared in the role of hunter she cast -about for one who would suit--one who would fight her battles and upon -whom she could lavish the affection that was not bought, or that still -remained unsold. - -Being a good looking girl, educated up to a certain point, and with -pleasant ways--the kind of ways a man would look for in a girl if he -was selecting a wife--she had no trouble in attaching to herself a -young fellow who was a good mate for her. She let it be understood at -the start that he was to belong to her and that he was to be at her -beck and call. She wanted to revel in the joys of complete ownership. - -He was willing enough, and in fact it rather suited him, because he -came into immediate possession of a wife, a home and income. - -It is to be supposed there was some affection in the case, for it -wasn’t a cold business proposition. It was bad enough, even from the -best side, but she liked him in a way--you can put the word love in -here if you like--but I am of the opinion that her feeling was that of -a dog-like devotion, and his was one of knowing a good thing when he -saw it. - -But she was jealous, too. - -“If I see you speaking to any of the other girls,” she said to him -once, “I will leave you right away.” - -That was in the early stages, and now notice how a woman’s affection -shifts. - -“If you flirt with any of those girls I will kill myself,” she said six -months later. - -First she would leave him and then she would kill herself. - -That brings the tragedy to the last stage. - -“I will kill you.” - -There are no peaceful lives cast in such a groove as that. - -He began to grow a bit tired of her, even though the money did come -to him regularly. You see, he had no occupation, and he had to do -something with his time, and that something wasn’t good. - -Then it was that the quarrels began, a few words at first, but -gradually increasing in bitterness until one night he came in half -drunk and taking her by the throat almost strangled her. She said -afterward that she thought she was gone, because red lights danced -before her eyes. - -But she was game and didn’t whimper, not even when he struck her in the -face with his clinched fist and threw her to the floor. She took her -medicine gamely, for she realized intuitively that it was her medicine, -and it was a part of the life she was leading. - -The strange part of it all was that she never shed a tear. - -Her neck hurt her, and when she looked in the mirror she saw the marks -of his strong fingers and in that instant she was a changed woman. The -flickering flame of her affection turned to a steady glow of hate and -from that moment she began to figure on revenge. She stood still and -white and cold, and every tick of the clock on the mantel was a stroke -of doom for him. There was nothing melodramatic about her at this stage -of the game, for her street training served to make her calm at times. - -Woman-like, she at once took up with another champion and this time she -picked out a man who was peculiarly fitted by force of circumstances -to help her. He was to be not so much a companion as stepping-stone, -and in that she simply followed out the natural instinct of the average -woman who purrs and strikes indiscriminately and who makes merchandise -and capital of her favors. - -“He beat me,” she told this new one in talking of the one who had been -supplanted, “and I want you to help me get even.” - -The promise was made on this tainted honeymoon and for one hour every -night they went out together looking for their prey in all of the -places where he had been known to go. - -For two weeks it was a fruitless search, and then the news came to her -in an indirect way that he had been seen in the old haunts. - -The good pot-hunter never really hunts--he lures the game to the -decoy--and because she had been years upon the trail she at once -corrected her first mistake and sent a letter as bait--a tender missive -full of regrets and endearing terms; such a letter as only a woman -could write--a letter like a silken bandage to blind the eyes and shut -out the real view of things. - -It came to his hand as she had expected it would, and when the time -arrived he hurried to the rendezvous to heal the breach and once more -place himself on friendly terms with his income. - -There are enough facts in this story to carry it, but it is not an -absolutely correct recital. There are reasons why it should be changed -and so I have changed it, but not enough to destroy its identity. - -On that street at night, with people hurrying to and fro, they came -face to face, but before he could speak to her, the other man stepped -out and seized him. - -“Come with me, I want you,” he said roughly, and he wheeled him around -with a deft movement. There was no other word spoken and only for an -instant was there a brief struggle. - -All the while the woman had been fumbling at her bosom before she drew -out a pistol. - -Her time had arrived. - -She levelled it at the retreating back of the held man and pulled the -trigger. A child couldn’t have missed a shot like that, and the bullet -bored into his back, throwing him forward slightly. - -It had been her intention to shoot but once and make that one shot do -the work, but when she saw that he was hit the lust of blood came on -her and she pulled the trigger twice more, each bullet finding its -mark, before a policeman ran up and threw one arm around her neck -and with the free hand took hold of the still smoking weapon. It was -the old trick of the force taught to probationers before they are -considered fit to go forth and guard the public interests. - -While her victim was slipping slowly downward to the pavement she -screamed, with as clear an intonation as if she wanted to be sure it -would be a matter of record: - -“And now he will never beat me again.” - -Half a dozen men carried the limp dead body into a store and she was -taken there, too, and such was her ferocity that she tried to kick the -corpse of her quarry. - -“He beat me, he beat me,” she shouted, “and now he will never beat me -again. If I had not killed him he would have killed me.” - -[Illustration: Disguised as a sailor boy she shipped on one of Uncle -Sam’s ships] - - - - -THE THROWBACK - - -One of the greatest schools in the world is Little Old New York, where -anyone can learn anything and anyone can do anything--or do anybody -if they should happen to have but a modicum of brains and native -shrewdness. - -It is the haunt as well as the home of the crook; the respectable -trickster; the lady who works and the lady who doesn’t. The -amalgamation of many races and many creeds has tended to produce -cleverness and wit to a high degree. - -One of the greatest of financiers comes from Russian peasant blood on -one side and poverty-stricken French on the other. In the blood of a -Tenderloin queen there is Irish and Spanish, and it is hard to tell -which side has contributed the most beauty. The combination of races is -the chrysalis--the female product is the moth. - -In the squalid tenements of the East Side there is beauty in embryo and -the figures of Venus are barely hidden by cheap calico wrappers. - -Where the Poles are settled, voluptuous women are wedded to weak, -undersized men, and the result is either very good or very bad, -according to the domination of the sex. Very beautiful flowers often -grow and bloom in loathsome places, and many a handsome woman who rides -in state along the avenue wouldn’t care to have her antecedents known -to the world. - -There is such a thing as pre-natal influence, and a throwback, taking -on the good or bad characteristics of a previous generation, is an -accepted fact. - -And now we will introduce the lady as she sits in the courtroom, -smiling as though she hadn’t a care or responsibility in the world. -She has the innocent face of a child and the manner of a cherub, if -you know what that is. If an artist were to paint her portrait in one -of her moments of relaxation he might be justified if he called it -“Innocence.” - -“She’s a peach, all right,” remarks a court officer, and that means a -lot when it comes from such a source. - -She has the blonde hair and the fair complexion of the Teuton, and the -black eyes of the Slav--a rare combination, if you’ll take my word for -it. She’s coy, and winning and demure, but with a brain so active that -nothing to her is impossible. - -Two generations ago a dashing, handsome young lieutenant of the German -army fell in love with a sloe-eyed girl who had been born of Slav blood. - -He was brilliant but discreditable. - -His romances and intrigues were many, and his expenses were about four -times what his income warranted. One day he forged a check, and when -he skipped over the border to escape arrest he left the woman and a -baby girl in a cheap room with not enough money to keep them a week. He -forgot them as utterly as if they had never existed, so in the course -of time she who gave up honor added to that her life. - -She died in the hospital of a disease that is not mentioned in -the medical books, and the youngster was shipped to a charitable -institution. At the age of nineteen this waif, orphaned, and stolid of -character, with not even good looks to recommend her, had by dint of -hard work and frugal living, saved up enough money to take a ship for -America, the land of gold, where fortunes were made by simply wishing -for them. - -Half way across the sea she came to the notice of an Irish sailor, and -by some strange turn in the inexorable wheel of fate, they fell in -love with each other; he with his brogue, and she with knowledge of no -language except that of the Fatherland. - -Their courtship was over a rugged road, but it came to a happy -conclusion, for before the ship sailed on her return voyage they were -married with the aid of an obliging minister assisted by a Castle -Garden interpreter, and Connell--that was the sailor’s name--was -looking for a job alongshore. - -Two scantily furnished rooms was the best they ever knew, and in those -two rooms the wife who talked broken English with a Limerick accent -died, but not until she had left a blonde baby girl with the fair -complexion of that dashing lieutenant. - -As she grew up, the public school gave her an education, and when she -was old enough she got work in an office. She was the belle of the -ward, and that old longshoreman father was very proud of her. But -before that she had one little adventure that is really worth a story -by itself, and it shows the kind of a girl she is. She had a little -love affair with a sailor on one of Uncle Sam’s warships, and when -he was ordered to Cuba she took it into her head to go along. It was -arranged that she was to take the name and place of a fellow who was -about to desert. She came near getting away with the trick, and as it -was she lasted for ten days before she was found. Then, after a brief -interview with the commanding officer, she was put ashore when harbor -was reached, and enough money was given her to get back to New York. - -It was a clean case of throwback to the army ancestor, and the -resemblance was so great that she might have been his sister. She held -her head high, as became that one strain of good blood, good enough to -stiffen her pride, but not good enough to shape her morals, for the -taint was there in its full strength. - -The elderly business man who employed her began flirting with her -mildly, and he wound up by falling desperately in love, and so hard was -he hit that at the end of six months she was installed in a handsome -apartment at which he was a constant visitor. He took the one step that -always leads to another, so that by the time twelve months had been -rolled off on the calendar he had made her home his home, much to the -detriment of his own respected domicile. - -So great was the fascination of those black eyes that this sedate old -gentleman forgot he ever had a home other than the one she was in; a -wife, or even children. She became so necessary to his existence that -she became a part of his life. - -She might have walked this primrose path to the end had he not died. If -he had lived there would have been no need for this story. - -When he took that long, last journey her income came to an abrupt end -and she was cast on her own resources with not even her longshoreman -daddy to stand by and encourage her. - -All this, you understand, is not a matter of fancy. It is, for the most -part, court and police records. - -She took up with a young fellow of about her own age who had about as -little prospects as she had, and with the rent paid for three months in -advance and just enough ready money to keep them going that long, they -cast care to the winds and proceeded to enjoy themselves. One night, -when the funds were getting to a low ebb, she, while ransacking a desk -for a mislaid letter, found a half-used check-book which had belonged -to her elderly protector. - -“I could sign his name better than he could himself,” she remarked, -“and I’ve done it, too.” - -“Do you think we could swing one of them now?” said the man, sitting up -straight as the inspiration came to him. - -“Why, that’s absurd; he’s dead.” - -“I know he’s dead all right. But fill one out for $75 and I’ll see what -I can do with it.” - -It was an easy trick for her, and in a moment she had handed him the -paper. - -“If I lay this, little girl,” he remarked as he went out, “we’re on the -sunny side of Easy street for the rest of our lives.” - -That heritage of brain stood her in good stead while he was away, and -before he had returned she evolved a scheme that was worthy of a better -cause. - -It was this: - -She would send him out to rob a letter box; they would open the mail -thus stolen and search it for checks. She would copy the signature, -make note of the bank, get blank checks of that institution and then -commit the forgery. - -It was almost too easy and the keynote of its success lay in its -simplicity. - -Of course, the laying of the spurious paper required nerve, but of -what use is a man if he hasn’t nerve? When he came back unsuccessful, -she explained her scheme, and they at once proceeded to put it in -operation. With wire, to which was fastened an adhesive mixture, he -prepared for the robbery of the mail boxes while she awaited results. - -It has been told time and again how it worked and they themselves have -admitted that their income rarely fell below $100 a day when they cared -to work. - -But at the end of every ready-money proposition of that kind there is a -trap. Sometimes the road is very long and the final tragedy is averted -for a considerable period, but whether long or short it is bound to -come sooner or later. - -The girl had grown to be a pastmaster of the art of forging signatures -and success in getting the money had made the man bold. He began to be -less cautious and the finish came so sure and sudden that it almost -stunned him. - -He was cleverly harvested by the police, who at once set out to get -more than enough evidence to convict, for they looked upon him as the -most dangerous of criminals. A spotter was sent out with instructions -to ingratiate himself with the girl and, if possible, get a line on -just the kind of work that had been done, and their second interview -was very interesting. - -“You take Billy’s place for a while,” she said to him, “and we’ll get -enough money to get him out.” - -“How?” asked the man. - -“How? Are you stupid? Billy didn’t do anything but lay the paper. I -filled out the checks every time. Didn’t you know that? It’s all my -scheme. Billy only helped me and did as I told him. But he’s too nice -a fellow to go up the river for a thing like this.” - -It seems strange that with all her astuteness she should have given her -hand away to a comparative stranger, but you must bear in mind that her -side partner and confederate had been snatched away from her and she -felt the need of some one to whom she could talk and in whom she could -confide. - -There is where she made a mistake, but it happened that it wasn’t a -fatal one. - -Bear in mind that she gave her hand away and told all she knew, and in -that telling there was enough to convict her half a dozen times over. -But she was game to the last ditch. - -“I’m very sorry,” remarked her supposed confederate to her one evening, -“but I’ll have to arrest you. _I’m_ an officer, you know.” - -“I always ought to be guided by my first impressions,” she retorted. “I -had an idea you were wrong when I first met you and if I had stuck to -that you would have known nothing.” - -“That’s right; but as it is I’ll have to take you down to headquarters.” - -He acted as if it was a job he didn’t relish very much, and if the -truth were told he would have let her make a getaway of it if he had -dared. - -In the prison she was popular as soon as she stepped inside the gates, -and there was no one who would believe that a girl with a face like -that would be guilty of harming anyone, much less being a confirmed and -expert forger. - -So the trial was called. - -She treated it as a joke, and was by far the most composed person in -the room. Her partner, to his credit, swore that he was the one who had -done all of the robbing of the mail boxes, and all of the forging of -checks, and he even went so far as to imitate several signatures, but -that was offset by the evidence of the detective. - -It was an easy matter to convict him, and he stood facing a term in -prison. - -Her trial was merely a bit of comedy in which she played the star part, -and when the last scene had dropped she was bowing her thanks to the -judge, the jury, the lawyers and the spectators, and smiling all the -while like a girl with a new doll on Christmas morning. The red was in -her cheeks and there was a look of roguery in her black eyes, and she -sailed out of the courtroom amid a perfect shower of congratulations. - -And it was all for one strain of blood. - -Father an Irish stevedore, mother a Slav peasant whom centuries of -oppression had made apathetic, grandmother also a Slav, and grandfather -a German noble. She had gone back one generation to get that criminal -taint, and she may have gone back further than that to get the good -strain that made the whole world smile with her when she smiled and -turn enemies into friends. - -[Illustration] - - - - -FROM THE WOODS TO BROADWAY - - -Jane her name was--plain Jane--but she wasn’t plain by any means. She -was far from that. She could smoke a cigarette, drink a bottle of -wine, and wear a Paquin gown with grace, and in these three things -a woman has a chance to show what she is and what she can do. For -my part I would consider them a test, just the same as performing -certain mathematical calculations, and showing a proficiency in -geography are tests in civil service examinations. There is nothing -that gives a woman so much poise and self-confidence as smoking a -cigarette daintily. It gives her a chance to think, you see, and appear -unconcerned, and it is an ambush behind which she may hide in time of -trouble. - -This particular Jane had all the vices and charms that a young woman -who is known to the crowd by her first name ought to have, or might -be supposed to have. Men who were introduced to her found themselves -calling her Jane inside of the hour, and that was because of her -genius, for there are a lot of women in this world whose baptismal name -no man would ever dare to use, even though they had been acquainted for -years. - -There is just as much difference in women as there is in drinks. It -isn’t necessary to go into details on that subject, for every good hard -drinker knows the different sensations of the different brands the -morning after. - -[Illustration: For three solid hours he sat there trussed up like a -chicken] - -Jane blew into the big-city with a West wind, a dress suit case, on -one end of which were the initials of her right name, and the drummer -of a wholesale lace house who had caught her eye and won her regard by -giving her some of his samples. - -Your attention is called to the fact that a drummer’s existence is a -cinch, especially if he has samples that he can afford to give away. - -This one had a mustache that curled at the ends, a bank roll that -looked like a toy balloon into which a kid had stuck a pin--which was -Jane’s fault--and a nerve which was a little bit harder than Harveyized -steel. He used the nerve in his business, and besides, it came in -handy so far as Jane was concerned because he had a wife in Harlem. He -planted Jane in a furnished flat, where he paid the rent for two weeks. -Then because he had a champagne taste and a beer purse, he went to a -pal of his who was a stage manager on Broadway and got the lady a job -carrying a spear and wearing pale pink tights in a spectacular show -that was about to be produced. - -He was sitting in her front room warming his shins at the steam heat -when he broke the news to her, and this is the way he did it. You -sports can take a tip from this so you can see how it is done, for no -man can ever foretell when he will be called on to produce the same -line of talk. - -“Do you know,” he began, “that you are the best fellow in the world and -that the more I see of you the more I like you?” - -“Do you?” asked Jane, simply, for she was nothing more nor less than a -country girl. “I am very glad of that, but you know the rent was due -yesterday and it hasn’t been paid yet.” - -“Now,” he went on, ignoring the touch, “I know you well enough to know -that you would like to be independent and make your own way in the -world. I want to see you where you will be in a position to support -yourself, and so I have arranged with a man who is under obligations to -me to give you a chance and put you in the chorus of the ‘Ice King.’ -You’ll get $15 a week at the start and then you’ll be jumped to $18. -After that it’s up to you whether or not you come to the front and get -the real good money with the yellowbacks.” - -“But I have never been on the stage,” she said. - -“Don’t I know that, and haven’t I fixed it? You’ll be broken in all -right and all you have to do is as you are told and you’ll get your -money every Monday night.” - -So it was that the girl from Peapack, N. J., became independent and -self-supporting, and was able before long to send a hundred-dollar note -to the folks at home, for whom she still had a deep regard. You see, it -is only the girls who save their money who can do that sort of thing. - -When the young fellows around town wanted to see a show, some one would -suggest that they go up and see Jane, and although she hadn’t a line to -speak nor a note to sing, they would line up in the front row as if she -was a star. It didn’t take the manager of the show very long to find -out that Jane could draw like a porous plaster and then he jumped her -salary up to $25. - -With that she went to a fashionable hair dresser and paid $200 to -have her hair turned from chestnut blonde to a hue of a stick of pale -molasses taffy, the kind you get for five cents a throw, which sticks -in your teeth and plays the deuce with the filling. - -Girls of Jane’s kind are like boxers, in that their prosperity is -manifested outwardly without delay. The aspiring young knuckle-duster, -as soon as he wins a prominent battle, will at once hie himself off and -blow in a chunk of the purse on a silk hat, patent leather shoes, a -frock coat and a cane. With the balance he will annex a diamond, then -he immediately becomes the real thing. - -A girl has no use for frock coats and canes, but she goes strong on -hair, so her loose coin goes for a gallon of bleach strong enough to -change the faith of a Hindoo fakir, and that is the strongest thing in -the world, except, perhaps, an African after a hard day’s work in the -slaughter house. - -She had a flat on Central Park, South--that’s wrong, it was an -apartment, because she paid over $1,000 a year for it, whereas flats -only cost about $40 a month-and she entertained the bunch with cozy -little wine dinners that would make a man leave his happy home in a -minute. - -She was still getting her $25 a week, you know. - -Then she tore the drummer’s name out of her address book, for he was a -back number who had shown a decided tendency to cold feet. - -She described him to the butler, and said that if he ever put in an -appearance he was to be dismissed with the single word: - -“Skiddoo.” - -“I don’t understand,” said the butler, whose previous job had been on -Fifth avenue. “What does Skiddoo mean?” - -“It doesn’t make any difference whether you understand or not, just you -say it to him and he will know, and that’s enough.” - -And all that night this cheese sandwich with the side whiskers kept -repeating the word to himself so he wouldn’t forget it, and he wrote -it down on his cuff. He also traced it out on a card that he stuck -in behind the hat rack in the hall. In his heart and soul he thought -it was some foreign word which meant that the lady wasn’t at home or -didn’t care to be disturbed. - -That’s the worst of being a butler instead of Chuck Connors. - -The traveling man with the immaculate gall had reached the worrying -stage because the girl was doing so well and he had been pushed off -the track. If she had stuck to her little furnished flat and the cheap -togs he would have gone on his way whistling a merry tune, just as all -men do. But she was on the high wave and sipping the cream off the top, -and he thought there ought to be an armchair waiting for him by the -fireplace of her new ranch, which was very natural, for all men are -cast in the same identical mould. They don’t care for what they have, -and are always hunting for something that’s hard to get. - -If you look like the goods you’ll have them all going, but as soon as -you tell your hard luck story you’ll get the sandbag where it will do -the most good. - -One night, after the show, Jane and a bunch of the merry-merry with -money to spend, or burn, or throw away, was in the front room playing -dollar limit poker, when the drummer, with a choice collection of high -balls stowed away under his vest, and in a fit condition to either -fight or cry, came up in the elevator. He had overdrawn his salary and -was prepared to buy wine, if necessary, and he was dressed like a man -whose credit is good at the best clothing store in town. - -He held his thumb against the electric button for a moment, and because -the butler was busy with a sauterne cup, very choice, being of the -Barton and Guestier vintage of ’84, the kind Smithy always orders when -he wants to be real flossy, the maid turned the knob and came face to -face with him. - -He made his little spiel, shoved in and stood in the hall on one foot -waiting for the glad hand and the happy cry that he felt sure was -coming. - -“What’s his name? Who is he? Why don’t you get his card?” he heard Jane -say. Then the maid came back. - -“Will you please give me your card?” - -“That won’t be necessary,” he remarked airily. “Just tell her Harry is -here and she will know.” - -He heard the maid telling her little story and then Jane’s silver tones -floated out to him. - -“What, that lobster? How did he get in? He must have had a shoe horn, -and I suppose it will take a load of dynamite to get him out.” Then -something else and all the girls laughed. - -He pulled himself together and walked to where the voice came from. - -The heat of the room was beginning to affect the cargo he was carrying -and he hit both sides of the wall about eight times before he got to -the door. He pulled the curtains aside and looked in on the game. - -“Just thought I’d call,” he said, grinning. - -“Well, didn’t I always tell you that you had bad thoughts?” she asked. - -“Thought you’d be glad to see me,” he went on. - -“Still thinking?” she queried. “I’ll see that raise and raise you back -ten more.” - -“I wouldn’t mind taking a hand if you’ll play fair.” Just then the -butler came in with the drinks. - -“Henderson,” remarked Jane without even so much as looking up, “what -was that word I taught you--do you remember it?” - -“Yes, ma’am.” - -“Well, what was it?” - -“Skid-doo, ma’am.” - -“Very good. Now turn around and say it to that man.” - -“Yes, ma’am.” - -He turned slowly and with great dignity to the drummer who was bracing -himself up against the door, and commanded: - -“Skid-doo, sir.” - -“So _I’m_ to be fired, eh?” - -“Say it again, James; it may be some minutes before it takes effect.” - -“Skid-doo, sir.” - -“Suppose I don’t go?” - -There was no answer to that, but Jane hadn’t been in New York a -whole year without being on to her job, and she was able to face any -proposition that ever came over the hills. - -“Get me a piece of rope, James.” - -“Yes, ma’am,” and away he went, just a bit faster than usual, -wondering, no doubt, what the eccentric and erratic mistress of his -was going to do next. He got the rope all right and returned with -it in short order, because this seemed to be a case where haste was -necessary, even at the expense of dignity. She took it from him and -walking over to the drummer, said, as she deftly passed it around him. - -“You had me on a string once, Harry, and now I’m going to get you on a -rope.” - -“Stop your kidding and be nice, Jane,” he spoke up, trying to look -upon the whole thing as a joke, but while he was expostulating she -had knotted the rope around both his arms and signalled to the butler -to help her. “I want him tied over there,” she said, pointing to the -piano, and before he knew it he was seated on the floor with his back -up against a slab of mahogany, being held by the servant while Jane was -making knots like a sailor. - -When the job was done the game was resumed and nobody in the room paid -the slightest bit of attention to him. He threatened and begged and -finally he swore, and then Jane poured a glass of ice water over his -head to cool him off. - -“I always thought you had a mean disposition,” she remarked, “and now I -know it.” - -“Well, you wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for me,” he shouted. - -“No, nor you wouldn’t be there if it hadn’t been for me,” she retorted. - -For three solid hours he was kept trussed up like a fowl ready for the -oven, and at the end of that time the game came to an end. - -“I’m going to bed now,” said Jane, “and in half an hour the butler will -come in and untie you. He will help you to your feet and when he says -skiddoo to you I hope you will understand what he means. Good night.” - -For thirty minutes the clock ticked monotonously and the back of the -man on the floor was beginning to ache horribly. At last the silvery -chime announced the half hour and then Henderson stepped softly in. - -One by one he untied the fastenings and it was a tough job in view of -the fact that a woman had made them. After that he helped the visitor -to his feet. He assisted him on with his coat, handed him his hat, and -together they walked, without either saying a word, to the hall door. -The butler swung it solemnly open, slowly waved his hand, bowed deeply -from the hips and said: - -“Skid-doo, sir.” - -“Go to hell,” came back the answer, as Harry shot down the stairs. - -“How did he take it?” asked Jane the next morning. - -“He took it all right, ma’am, but he was very uncivil, ma’am.” - - - - -THE WHIMS OF CURVES - - -The fellows who buy wine and eat terrapin at their midnight lunches--I -ought to say dinners--had found a new attraction, and for a brief while -she was the idol of the hour. But the trouble with these idols is that -they don’t last, and the finish as a rule is very disheartening, and in -many cases pathetic. - -Of course, every once in a while a wise one will come to the front who -will do a little bookkeeping with herself, and when the smoke of battle -will have cleared away she finds she has enough to tell everybody to go -to blazes if she cares to be rude. - -But that is the exception rather than the rule. Quick money, you know, -is like a dream, in that it only lasts while you are asleep. You think -you are in a mansion, and when the knock comes on the door you discover -that you are in the same old hall bedroom, and realize that you have to -get up just as you have been doing all your life, and work ten hours a -day--or eight, as the case may be--in order to get enough money to pay -what you owe. - -The girl that all the bloods were buying dinners and flowers for came -from the West not so very long ago, and she didn’t leave any of her -good looks behind her, either. She hit the town with a dress suit case, -a good complexion and a taking way with the boys, and that’s all the -capital any skirt wearer needs in Gotham if she is only introduced to -the right crowd of spenders and keeps away from the pikers who have -their bank rolls lashed to the mast or bottled up so tight that when -they do release a bill it smells like an Egyptian mummy which has been -packed in a vault since the time of Pharaoh. - -[Illustration: She put herself up at auction and was promptly bid on] - -This lady hit the trail which led to the show houses. She had no idea -that she was an Adelina Patti or a Sarah Bernhardt, but she knew she -could carry a spear as good as any old-timer, and she was prepared to -make good. - -“Got a job for me?” she asked the first stage manager she happened to -run across. - -He looked her over and then remarked casually: - -“I don’t think so, for all the star parts are given out for the -season, but you might go over and see Frohman and ask him if you can’t -understudy Maude Adams.” - -“Don’t strain your voice on my account,” she said, by way of a -come-back. “I’m looking for about $18 a week in the line-up, and when -it comes to tights, I guess there ain’t any of them who has anything -on me. You had me flagged for a Sis Hopkins, but you want to throw -some sand on the track because you’re sliding. I don’t sit up at night -reading Romeo and Juliet, and where I come from they think Shakespeare -is a new kind of breakfast food. Can you get busy now?” - -“I guess I’ll have to if I want to get rid of you.” - -“Well, you’re learning, and that’s a good sign.” - -So after he had looked her over again very carefully, he concluded -she’d do for the chorus for a starter anyhow. - -A stage manager who is used to hiring ladies whose talents lie in their -legs has a system of his own in picking out good ones that don’t need -padding, and he never makes a mistake any more than a red squirrel will -stow away a bad nut for the winter. Face, neck, hands and arms tell -the story and they never fail, and so he knew she could wear the usual -size, and if anything stretch them a bit. - -That was the beginning. - -One night four young men about town sat in a theatre box watching the -merry maidens tropping on and telling in song how happy they were that -the Princess was going to be married to the poor but handsome gink -whose father had a cobbler’s shop one block from the palace. - -“Get onto the curves of the girl with the black hair,” said one, and -in a minute there were four pairs of eyes looking at one pair of silk -tights. - -“Great,” said another, enthusiastically. - -“Who is she?” asked a third. “I never saw her before.” - -“Well, Ben certainly has an eye for beauty. I wonder where he gets -them? Let’s see him and ask him to put us on, for she’s all right.” - -Incidentally, Ben was the first name of the stage manager. - -It isn’t necessary to go into details, for general results save a lot -of time, but a couple of hours later four enthusiastic young fellows -and a dimpled brunette sat at a round table in a sporty cafe, and when -any of them wanted to address her they called her Curves. - -“What are you trying to do?” she asked, when it was first sprung, “give -me a nickname?” - -“No,” was the answer, “simply a trademark.” - -And they all understood. - -So because of that she began her career with the world by the tail on a -downhill pull. - -Not to know Curves and have her call you by your first name when you -met was to be the deadest kind of a dead one, and the witty stories she -could tell over a quart of wine soon began to be circulated around town. - -As is often the case, women were her enemies and men were her friends, -and she slid along in a happy-go-lucky way, letting the morrow take -care of itself. - -There was no question but that her figure was the making of her, just -as Jennie Joyce’s legs made her famous from one end of the country to -the other when she was a reigning favorite at Koster & Bial’s old place -on Twenty-third street two decades ago. - -The photographer who secured some good poses of Curves in tights found -himself busy printing them to supply the demand, and it was as easy to -get her before a camera as it was to get a kid to a candy store. If she -had received a dollar for every time she wrote across the bottom of one -of her photographs “Sincerely yours, Curves,” she would have had a bank -account that would have been broad, wide and deep. But she was simply -a good fellow and she made no attempt to live by her wits. Like many -another poor devil, she probably thought she would always be young, -good-looking and popular. She didn’t know that those whom the public -applauds to-day it kills to-morrow, and that it takes but a week in New -York to make a favorite less than a memory. - -But there was one incident in her career that stands out in relief from -anything of the kind that anyone had ever done before, and it is worth -telling. It was characteristic of her to do a thing of this sort, and -she was the one woman in a hundred who could have got away with it. - -A soulful-eyed, chocolate-skinned Brahmin priest had come to town to -spread his faith, and because he talked in an exceedingly entertaining -manner and told some curious and interesting stories he came to be -a fad. It wasn’t that the people who went to see and hear him were -interested in his religion, but it was because he was a novelty that he -filled his lecture room every afternoon. Two men and Curves dropped in -one afternoon at a time when this spreader of a new creed was telling -about the money it would cost to do good in the world, and on that -subject he was particularly eloquent. - -“You Americans,” he said, “don’t know what it is to make a sacrifice; -you don’t know what it is to deny yourselves any of the good things -of life. Your men would not forego their cigars or wine even if the -spiritual salvation of the world depended upon it, and your women would -not permit themselves one particle of physical discomfort nor cheaper -wearing apparel even though a hundred souls were the price. The whole -world is selfish and wrapped up in itself, and religion is either a fad -or a jest. The man with a million gives a few thousands and thinks he -has done well, but he denies himself nothing. The woman with a check -book doles out dimes and fancies herself a philanthropist, but will she -make any sacrifice for the general good?” - -“Here’s one who will.” - -Two-thirds of the people in the room turned around and looked at -Curves, and one of the fellows with her took her arm and whispered: - -“What is the matter, are you dotty?” - -The ox-like eyes of the religious enthusiast seemed to blaze up a bit. - -“You will make a sacrifice?” he asked. “What can you give?” - -“I’ll give myself,” she answered, and she stood up defiantly. - -People who tell this story, as well as a few who were there, say that -Curves had a most elegant tide on at the time and didn’t know what she -was saying, but that doesn’t alter the story, because this is simply a -recital of facts which can be verified by a whole lot of the fellows, -and the sequel can be found on record among the marriages in the Bureau -of Vital Statistics by anyone who is interested enough to look it up. - -“It is very praiseworthy,” continued the priest, “but how do you -propose to put your gift to a practical use? You say you will give -yourself. Do you mean by that that you will devote your time to this -work which I am trying to carry on?” - -“Not that way so you can notice it, but I have a lot of men friends -here and each one of them has asked me to marry him more than once. I -like them all and as marriage is a lottery anyhow, they can bid for me, -and you get the money.” - -As she spoke she was climbing up on the table in the center of the -room. “I am ready for the first offer and I don’t care who makes it, -for I’m taking as many chances as anybody else.” - -Now here was a situation that reads like a romance, and here was the -one in a thousand to get away with it. The women were shocked, of -course; the men were interested, and as for the priest he didn’t know -whether to take it seriously or not, until finally what might have been -an awkward situation was relieved by a man who said: - -“Well, if she’s game enough to have herself auctioned off, I’m game -enough to make a bid, so I’ll say $500, with the proviso that the cause -of religion, which our revered friend represents, shall get half, the -other half to go to the lady who shows such a praiseworthy spirit.” - -Then three gaunt females over forty arose in the majesty of their -outraged womanhood and stalked from the room, while a dozen others -moved uneasily in their seats. - -The Brahmin was still figuring. - -“Am I worth no more than $500?” put in Curves. - -“I’ll make it $750,” said one of the men who had accompanied her. - -“You paid twice as much for a horse last week, Billy,” she retorted. - -“I didn’t think of that. Let it go at $1,500, for there’s going to be -competition.” - -The priest’s hand was nervously fingering a silk handkerchief. - -“Two thousand,” the first bidder’s voice came like a bullet from a gun, -and Billy laughed nervously. - -“Go ahead, Billy, it’s up to you again,” and Curves nodded at him -encouragingly. - -“She’s worth it, Bill,” whispered his friend. “Your Panhard cost you -$11,000 and it takes $100 a week to keep it going. Curves can be very -economical when she tries,” and he laughed at his joke. - -“Twenty-five hundred,” bid Billy. - -“Sold,” cried Curves, “although _I’m_ worth more.” - -“Very extraordinary,” said the priest, wiping his forehead with his -handkerchief. “This could happen in no other country in the world.” - -“Write him a check, Billy, for what you owe him,” said Curves, “and -then we’ll go out and get married. And don’t you think it would be nice -to have him to dinner with us?” - -“Sure thing, and we’ll have the other fellow who bid along, too. By the -way, who is he? I don’t ever remember to have seen him before. Do you -know him?” - -Now what a chance here for a climax, for a real whipping finish, as it -were. It might be arranged so that the girl would say sadly: - -“Yes, he holds the mortgage on the farm and has threatened to foreclose -it if I don’t marry him. Oh, Billy, you must save me.” - -Then Billy would pull out his check book, pay the villain off to the -penny and the man would go tearing out of the door shouting: - -“Foiled again, c-u-u-rses on you, but I’ll have revenge,” with the -accent on revenge. - -But no such thing happened, because you see Curves never had an -interest in a farm, and it is very much to be doubted if she knew -anything about a father or mother. The result was that she said: - -“Oh, I suppose he’s some guy that’s been to the show and got stuck on -my shape.” - -The honeymoon lasted six months, which was enough for Billy, and he -beat it to New Orleans, while his friends told Curves that they thought -he had committed suicide. - -[Illustration: She went into the smoking car and calmly lighted a -cigarette] - - - - -CHEYENNE NELL; TRIMMER - - -The gambler in this story came from the West to get a little New York -money. He had been getting it for years from the Sierra Nevadas to El -Paso, and from Seattle as far east as Omaha, which he said was far -enough for anybody who liked fresh air, but he had struck a run of bad -luck and one of his pals told him that the best way to break it was to -trim a New York sucker. - -“They’re fly guys there all right,” remarked this same man, casually, -“but the flyer they are the easier it is to trim them. I would sooner -stack up against a stock broker that runs one of those bubble machines -and can speak sixteen different languages than get into a game with a -Kansas farmer any day. The farmer knows he ain’t in it and he’s got his -eye out for a job every time; his coat is buttoned up so tight that -he has contraction of the lungs and his heart doesn’t beat right, but -the gink that knows it all thinks he’s so damned smart that he’s got -everybody in the world in his corral, and those are the fellows you -catch with their vests open.” - -All homely philosophy, but as true as gospel and worth looking into. - -So Big Ben--that was his name in the country where slouch hats are the -real thing--pulled his freight one night and hit the Overland Flyer -for Gotham. His name was Big Ben no longer, for the cards he carried -in his vest pocket read: - -BENJAMIN F. VAN BUREN, MINING ENGINEER. - -He bought tickets for two at the station, and there is the heart of the -story, as one of the tickets was for Cheyenne Nellie. - -The lady in the case is worth a paragraph at the very least, for she -had the reputation of being the best short-card dealer in Texas, and at -a game of bank, whether playing the cards or handling the box, she was -there with the goods and never asked any odds on account of her sex. - -She had the long, slim hands of a card player, and if she hadn’t taken -to the pasteboards she might have been a piano player and getting all -kinds of money for hitting up the ivories at swell concerts. She was -soft of voice and soft in manner, and all you had to do to make a lady -out of her was to wrap her in a silk robe and she’d make the horses in -the street turn around and look after her. - -On one memorable occasion she went into the smoking car of a Denver -train and calmly lighting a cigarette, smoked it without deigning to -notice the men around her. - -The trip was settled in a minute and in this way. - -“It’s a long ride, Nell,” observed Ben, “to the place I’m going, and -I’m afraid I’ll get lost or lonely, so if you’ll come along with me -I’ll tog you out like a queen and give you the time of your life. Will -you carry my brand for the trip?” - -“How big is your bank roll?” she asked, with an eye to the practical -side of the proposition. - -“Twenty-seven hundred, and two thousand to draw on if I lose out.” - -“That’s enough for a starter. What are you going to do--short-card ’em -or bank ’em?” - -“Anything and everything including stud, and if I get the big bundle -we’ll hike for that place across the big pond where the real games are. -What’s the name of it--I forget now. I had it written down somewhere, -but I guess I’ve lost it. It begins with an M I think, and there was a -fellow at the show the other night who had it in his song about how he -broke the bank there.” - -“Oh, you mean Monte Carlo.” - -“Yes, that’s it. We’ll go there and I’ll put you up against the game, -for you always were hell when it came to a no-limit play.” - -One night stop-over in Chicago to see a show, and then, twenty-four -hours later, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Van Buren, of Portland, Oregon, -registered at the Waldorf-Astoria. - -“Kind of like a theatre, ain’t it?” remarked Ben, as they sat in the -palm room after dinner. “Looks like Romeo and Juliet where the gal is -on the gallery and the fellow with the skin-tight pants is asking her -to come down and talk it over.” - -Men who are supposed to know say that New York is the loneliest place -in the world, that is, if you don’t know anyone, and that a desert -island is a center of population compared to it if you are not in -right. On the face of it that looks like a good argument, but it is -going to be disproved right here. Go to a big and fashionable hotel and -register, then sit around and be a bit conspicuous, look like ready -money, and above all, easy money, and you’ll draw people like a Jack -rose draws bees. They’ll find you out just as easily as the ferret -gets to the timid rabbit--by going after you--and unless your heart is -covered with callous spots and your pockets are fastened with safety -pins, when you come to count up at night you’ll find you are short a -bit of change. In this world, you know, things are not always what they -seem, and the fellow who looks the wisest and talks the loudest isn’t -the smartest any more than the man with the retreating forehead is the -stupidest. The one with the cranium of a cocoanut may have spent all -of his life developing the instinct of the hunter and the cunning of -the fox, and that queer-shaped thing on top of his shoulders is the -sign which he has hung out and which says as plainly as if the words -were printed on his forehead: “Come on, boys, I’m easy; come and get my -change.” I know all about this and speak from experience, for I used to -sit in a poker game with a Dutchman who looked like a pinhead, and when -the rest of us walked home he used to take a cab, because he had all -the money, and his name was Schneider, too. What do you think of that? - -So before a week had gone by, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Van Buren were -nodding and saying “How do you do?” and “Good morning” and “Good -evening” to about twenty or thirty men who made the hotel their -headquarters. Incidentally it was given out that Ben was on here to buy -some machinery for one of his mines in Nevada and that he wouldn’t mind -having a little fun with anything that came along so long as the stakes -were not too big for a man of his modest disposition. - -The tip went down the line in the usual channels and then one rainy -night a man who said confidentially that he was a banker suggested that -as there was nothing else to do Mr. Van Buren could, if he felt so -disposed, walk around to his hotel where there were two or three other -good fellows, and they might have a little game of draw. - -“None of us want to go into big money, you know,” he said, -apologetically, “for it’s simply a game among friends and it’s about -as good a way to pass the time away as I know of. We don’t, as a rule, -play with strangers, but I guess you’re all right, so come along.” - -“Look out for a cold deck, Ben,” whispered Nell as he started; “play -light and close to your skin at the go-off, and it won’t hurt to lose a -little at the start.” - -Wherever you go or whatever you do in this world, always take a woman’s -tip--not the tip of every woman of course, but when you find one who -delivers the goods at every jump out of the box and calls the turn on -the case card nine times out of every ten, then be wise and attune your -ears to her siren song, even though the notes seem to be a bit cracked -at first and the cadenzas strike you as being skewed and off the key. - -There were five in the game, counting Ben, and up against the wall, -like a new kind of decoration, was a Senegambian, whose business it -was to see that the gentlemen had cigars to smoke and wine to drink -without limit. Between deals they talked about business, how stocks -were selling, what chance there was for a flyer in Steel, and if Depew -intended to resign from the Senate or not. The play was light and -reckless and no one there seemed to care whether he won or lost. - -“We play two or three times a week,” explained one to Ben, while the -African was getting a fresh pack, “and I consider poker the greatest -thing in the world to take a man’s mind off his business. Is there -any stock in your mine for sale? I wouldn’t mind taking a block if it -looked right. So this is your first visit here? Well, we’ll try and -make it pleasant for you while you stay, but you must reciprocate if we -ever hit your country. Will you show us some shooting?” - -It went that way until Ben got to feeling a little easy in his play -himself. But he couldn’t lose. Everything came his way, including -jackpots, and when the silvery chimes of the clock on the mantel -reminded them that it was one o’clock the play came to an end and the -man from the West cashed in a matter of $72. - -“It was only a friendly game, Nell,” he said, when he woke her up -from a sound sleep half an hour later. “They are simply a lot of good -fellows and I couldn’t help winning, but they want revenge to-morrow -night and then I’ll get some real money.” - -“Three thousand miles is a good long walk, Ben,” she said, “and that’s -a little tune you want to keep humming to yourself all the time. The -easy marks at cards all died during the time of the big wind and only -the fly guys are left. You’re in a strange barn this trip, so don’t -think that everything you see is hay.” - -From playing three nights a week they got down to playing every night, -and Ben always came back with a small winning, but he wasn’t getting -the money he was after and it got on his nerves. - -“It’s only chicken feed _I’m_ winning,” he complained to her one night, -“and it just about pays expenses.” - -“Well, just you keep your shirt on, for I’m in with some nice old dames -who think they are the real ones at bridge, and I’m thinking of getting -a little of that same kind of feed myself--the real killing will come -later. You never want to be in a hurry about those things, you know, -because if you hurry them it’s all off. Get those fellows to play up in -the room some night so I can look them over and see their style.” - -“I’m next to their play all right,” he said, “They’ll stand to lose so -much and no more and there ain’t one of them who would bet a thousand -that he was alive.” - -“Invite them up, anyway. You’ve been drinking their booze and smoking -their good cigars long enough. You ought to put up for them once in a -while, and if they are all right you will have a few decent friends, -anyhow.” - -That’s how it happened that the play came off in No. 723. - -It was the smallest kind of a small and inoffensive game, unmarked by -any incident or episode until one of the men, looking his hand over -with unusual care, remarked in the most casual manner possible: - -“If I had the nerve I have a hand here that I would like to bet big on.” - -“How big?” asked Ben, taking another look at the cards that had been -dealt to him. - -“I don’t know much about poker, but I think a thousand would be about -right to start with.” - -“Mine looks worth that much to me,” said Ben, with his face like a -mask. - -“I’m game; does a check go?” - -Over in one corner of the room, with a novel before her, sat Nell. She -was almost directly opposite Ben, and as he looked up he saw the upper -lid of her left eye droop slowly, recover, and then droop again. He -skinned his cards and looked them carefully over. The pips showed four -kings and an ace, pat. It was worth big money in any four-handed game, -and he knew it. - -“Does a check go?” came the query again. - -“No, I weaken; I thought I had a better hand. You’ve got me beat from -the start.” - -It might be made a long story from this point on, but there is not -room here to tell in detail how half an hour later Nell rose from her -comfortable seat in the armchair in the corner, and walking over to -the table manifested a slight interest in the game, and after one or -two more hands had been dealt, thought she would like to play if the -gentlemen didn’t object, which they didn’t. How she played like any -woman would be expected to play, losing angrily and winning sweetly, -until on one of her deals, Ben found himself in possession of a hand -which only needed the ace to make a royal flush. The limit was raised -before the draw, then taken off altogether, and the money began to pile -itself on the mahogany. Then they drew for cards, and when Ben looked -things over he found in his one card draw the ace that made his hand -good. - -“Mine is worth $500,” remarked the player opposite him. - -“I’ll kiss mine good-bye,” said Nell, as she dropped her pasteboards in -the discard. - -“Raise you $500,” put in Ben, looking at the first bettor. - -“Five hundred more,” was the third man’s bid. - -“It’s too hot for me,” was the comment of the fourth, as he pushed his -cards away from him. - -It was raised in jumps of $500 until there was about $11,000 up, and -Ben had been boosting every raise as fast as it came to him. - -Then the call was made and the show-down was worth going miles to see, -for the battle at the finish had narrowed down to Ben and one other. - -“Take a check for the next bet?” asked the other. - -“No,” came the terse answer. - -“Then I’ll have to call you. But I’ve got you beaten!” - -For answer Ben spread out his invincibles. - -For a moment the silence was painful. - -“Are they good?” asked Ben. - -“You know damned well they are,” came the answer. - -Then Mr. Benjamin Van Buren, mining engineer, of Portland, Ore., -gathered in the oof in the most leisurely manner possible. - -“Now you can buy me that new hat you promised me, can’t you, Ben?” said -Nellie. - -“I sure can buy you a dozen hats now if you want them.” - -Exactly thirty minutes later three men were lined up against the bar -below. - -“You can talk from here to the Coast, if you want to,” said one, “but I -tell you the woman did the trick. Didn’t she deal the cards? I tell you -she short-carded us. She’s a gold mine.” - -[Illustration: She had one or two fights on her hands, but she always -won out] - - - - -TRAGEDY OF A DANCE - - -It was just a plain unpretentious flat in New York, the kind that is -rented for about $40 a month. You know the style--four or five rooms -and bath and a narrow little space which is dignified by the name of -private hall, and which is supposed to be the real thing in living -apartments. It was furnished in the way in which anyone would expect, -and an auction sale wouldn’t net more than $50 for everything that was -there. - -In the front room sat a man who wasn’t as old as he looked, but whose -apparent age was caused by ten hours a day in an attempt to make a -living for himself. For twenty years he had been ground down by fate, -and at the end of it all he had nothing, and he was in debt to the -world for exactly three score of years. - -Now at the last mile post he had come face to face with a tragedy. - -In one calloused hand he held a telegram. In the other was the -photograph of a girl--good looking in a way, saucy, blue-eyed and -blonde. It had been taken in theatrical costume and that told half of -the story. The other half was in the telegram. - -He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and read again: - -“Your daughter died in the hospital here to-day; please advise as to -the disposition of the remains.” - -It bore date of a Southern city, and was signed by the manager of a -barn-storming company of show people. - -If you read the newspapers you must have read part of the story. You -will read the rest of it here--the part that wasn’t told, because an -ordinary chorus girl isn’t of sufficient importance to take up more -than a very little space in the prints, unless, of course, she does -something so violently tragic and sensational that she rises above the -common herd and becomes at once a figure of almost national importance, -like the young woman who once tried to shoot a senator, or the one who -danced nude before a select company of young spendthrifts, or the one -who made $50,000 in stocks with the kind assistance of a “gentleman -friend.” - -Just four months before, the old man’s daughter had been working in a -big dry goods store--a mill that grinds pretty fine sometimes--and one -day she attracted the attention of a man who was putting a show out on -the Southern tour. He saw talent in her, or at least he thought he did, -but if the truth were to be told he fell in love with her, and came to -the conclusion that she would make a better traveling companion than -anyone he had seen so far--this season. He had a code of morals that -was iron clad, but wouldn’t stand investigating. In his eyes they were -all cattle, and like cattle he graded them. - -But this isn’t going to be a moral story, because it is the truth. - -If you want morality nowadays you will have to go to fiction, where the -man always marries the girl and they live happily ever after. It sounds -nice and leaves a sweet taste in the mouth, but it is a long cry from -the truth except in a few rare cases. - -So here’s the picture, about as commonplace as it can be made. - -A girl with visions of the stage, a dream of a life of ease and luxury, -imagining that some day she will be a performer of merit; a violent -hatred of the unending routine of the store, and ready at a moment’s -notice to turn her back on the old man in the flat. - -Isn’t that the way? - -Bring them into the world, care for them and nurse them. Worry over -their little troubles, deny yourself that they may have more; sacrifice -everything for their happiness, and then at the critical moment when -they might become a comfort instead of a care, presto! along comes a -man with a line of talk that would make a cat on a back yard fence -take to cover, and away they go, saying good-by if they happen to -think of it, and forgetting that there are such things in the world as -obligation or gratitude. - -But this isn’t really what I started to say. You see, I have a brother -who is a minister, and I am under the impression that he is teaching me -bad habits--that is, if it is a bad habit to sit down and preach about -a lot of things that are wrong when you would probably do the same -things you condemn in others. It’s a case of don’t do as I do, but do -as I say. - -It’s a cinch to tell other people to do the right thing, but it’s -another thing to be on the level yourself. - -After that little digression I’ll show you this girl on the road -singing choruses with the bunch, and just a bit swell-headed because -she was in a position to call the manager by his first name. That -didn’t help her with the rest of the crowd any, and they called her -names when they were where she couldn’t hear them, while at the same -time there wasn’t one of them who wouldn’t have changed places with her -in a holy minute. - -She had one or two fights on her hands, but she always won out. - -The manager found out she had a figure that would have been worth a -place in the front row of the merry-merry of Weber and Fields when that -firm was at its best. Here was a chance that a good, clever, astute -fellow like him couldn’t very well overlook, and he proceeded to have -her taught a few dances of the kind that are not sanctioned in polite -society, or even on the stage, or which make any pretence to being -legitimate. He was working on the principle that all is grist that -comes to the mill, and he was also looking ahead. - -There are, as a rule, a pretty gay lot of boys in those Southern -towns, and they are not averse to paying a good bit of money for a -show after the show, especially if it is the kind that is forbidden. -If the sensuous dance of the Nautch girl can be imitated in all of its -windings, twistings and quiverings by a shapely American girl whose -disregard for clothing amounts to almost contempt--that is, on certain -occasions--there is enough money to make it an object not only for the -performer but the manager. - -“I am going to put you up against a proposition that will make the hit -of your life,” was the way he started it. - -“That’s me,” she said; “what is it?” - -“Why, do a stunt in the altogether for the sports.” Then he took a -couple of extra puffs at his cigar to keep his nerve up. - -“The altogether--what’s that?” - -She had an idea what it was, but she wanted to get it straight. - -“Oh, it’s all the rage down here--you dance without much clothes on. -All the girls are wild to get some of the money, but there’s nothing -doing with them, for your figure will make them look like a lot of -kippered herrings that’s been smoked for a week. You see, we’re in this -business for the coin, and we might as well get it and get it quick. If -we don’t there’ll be a thousand others after it. It’s a case of take it -or leave it and it’s up to you. How about it?” - -He stiffened her up so she was willing to make good. He told her she -had enough curves to make the Venus de Medici look like a barn door, -and that she was a peach with the original bloom on, all of which she -believed because it was pleasant for her to hear, and was getting a bit -stuck on herself. It was a modern case of showing Eve all over again -where the golden apple grew, and inducing her to reach up and get it. - -The first trick was to come off at Memphis, Tenn., where a lot of hot -sports wanted something so full of ginger that they would have put ice -on the backs of their necks to keep the temperature down below the 100 -mark. A committee of two called on him at the stage entrance, and after -declaring themselves asked him if he had anybody with the outfit who -could make good. After the preliminary skirmish it settled down to a -question of price, and the matter was soon arranged, and half an hour -later Daddy’s girl got the tip that she was expected to be on the job -when the clock struck twelve, with a carriage to and from the hotel as -a compliment to her superb figure. - -No good hardened old pelter would have halted at this hurdle, and would -have gone at it with a keen relish, but you must know that this was -the first season out for this girl, and when it came to the time that -she was to let go all that kept her from appearing in the costume that -Mother Eve is supposed to have worn in the Garden of Eden, she promptly -lost her nerve. - -“I don’t think I can do this thing, Jim,” she remarked to the manager -as they were leaving the theatre together. “It didn’t seem so bad at -first, but now I don’t quite like the idea of it. I never did anything -like this before, you know.” - -“Of course I know,” he answered quickly, “but you want the money, don’t -you? Do you want to be a piker all your life? Why, you’ll get more for -a stunt like this than you can make in a month doing anything else. -Just think of that.” - -He was keen enough to see, however, that she was inclined to quit at -any moment, but there was no proposition an old seasoned campaigner -like him couldn’t handle, and when they went into the hotel cafe -together he had framed things up to his own satisfaction. - -“I’m going to blow you to a bottle of wine to-night, and while we’re -waiting for it we’ll have a cocktail.” - -He figured on dulling her sense of morality with drinks, and he went at -it in the most businesslike manner possible. - -Before the wine a cocktail with a cherry, then another cocktail. Three -pints of extra dry, most of which she lapped up simply because it was -champagne and was expensive, and then she was in a mood that was at -once mellow and reckless. - -“Come on,” he said, when the last drop had been drained. “Come on, the -wagon is waiting and if you make a hit you won’t need to bother about -those new dresses you wanted last week, for here is where you get next -to a real gold mine. Why, there ain’t a girl in the show that wouldn’t -go to the deuce to get this chance.” - -She assented, but through it all she had a hazy idea that it was wrong -and that she ought to back out. But just think of almost three pints -of wine seething and bubbling inside of her while she is trying to -discriminate between right and wrong. I tell you it’s impossible, for -when the corks pop often enough it’s hell let loose, and a girl has to -protect herself in the breakaway every time, with the odds against her. - -And now, a big room, carpeted, with palms on pedestals here and there, -giving it an air of luxury, and a platform at one end. Fifty men, young -and old, seated in chairs that were lined up like a regiment were -waiting expectantly. The smoke from many cigars and cigarettes filled -the air, and the monologue man who was trying to interest them with -funny stories knew he was up against it and that he was only filling in -time until the big show should be ready. He told everything he knew, -but never a smile was cracked, and when he came to a finish he walked -off angrily. - -The three musicians began a new tune with mournful cadences, but with -a swing that suggested sinuous movements. The two violins wailed out -the minor chords, and the piano trailed the bass. Somewhere from behind -came the sharp snap of a man’s fingers and the lights went down and the -theme of the music was changed. - -“The Dance of the Dawn, gentlemen,” came a voice from out of the -darkness and the fifty straightened up in their seats expectantly. - -A shape crept out upon the stage and moved in time to the music. -Then the lights gradually began to go up a little at a time until at -last the face and figure of the dancer were visible. She was clad in -transparent gauze, with Turkish trousers and a bolero to match, and her -swayings were artistic and graceful. But there was no reason in them. -They were mechanical and lifeless. She moved by instinct and intuition -and the impression the dance sought to convey was lost. The manager -himself worked the cymbals which punctuated the finish of each measure, -and at the final crash the stage was once more shrouded in darkness. - -Lights up and then the second announcement: - -“The Dance of Nature.” - -That soothing music was born in the brain of a Calcutta idealist who -knew how to put the tip of his finger on the pulse of the senses. Three -second-rate performers ground it out, but with all their mediocrity -they couldn’t kill its charm, even though they dulled it somewhat. - -Here was the real thing at last, and fifty pairs of eyes were -glistening in anticipation. - -The moment’s wait seemed like an hour, and then a girl’s voice broke -what seemed to be a spell: - -“Oh, I can’t, Jim, I can’t.” - -“You’ve got to, it’s too late to back out now.” - -“I won’t, I tell you, not for anybody.” - -The next instant the nude figure of the girl was catapulted out upon -the platform--a figure which dropped to its knees and then tumbled over -on its face and lay there in a quivering heap sobbing violently. - -A tall man with snow-white mustache rose slowly from his seat in the -second row. He turned around to face the rest, and then said, as calmly -as if he were in his own house: - -“Gentlemen, I protest; this must not go on. It is disgraceful.” - -He picked up his hat and coat and started for the door. - -In five minutes the room was empty. The girl had been pulled back of -the scenes by a cursing manager, but she might as well have been dumb -for all she heard. - -“You’re a mutt,” he was saying; “here you’ve had your chance and quit, -and you’ve made a sucker out of me, too. I can’t look any of those -people in the face again.” - -Of course, he didn’t consider where she figured. - -Then he walked out and left her there with a skirt wrapped around her -as her only covering. - -The janitor found her when he came to turn out the lights. - -She was partly dressed then, and shivering. He helped her finish -dressing, and then he went out to get her a drink to warm her up a bit. - -Later she wandered out and got another drink to make her forget and -still another that her mind might be blank. - -At daybreak she was in the hospital in a state of coma from which -nothing could rouse her. She never came back again, and when the -call-boy in the theatre in the next town was calling out: “Fifteen -minutes--first act,” she died. - -Yet his friends say the manager is one of the best fellows in the -business. - -[Illustration: She had danced the fandango in a way that made the -Mexicans cheer] - - - - -THE MONOLOGUE GIRL’S STORY - - -It was after the show that there were four of us sitting at the round -table in the back room of The Dutchman’s on Third avenue. It’s a pretty -good place, that self-same back room, and the big steins of beer are -pretty good, too, with a heaping plate of pretzels always on the side -and a sandwich to be had by pressing the button. - -There was Al Fostell, the German comedian, who ought to have been in -the legitimate long ago; Harry Ferguson, famous for his impersonation -of _Happy Hooligan_; Harry’s wife, Lulu Beeson, the Star of Texas, and -so great a dancer that she has a Richard K. Fox medal about as long as -her arm, which any beskirted performer can get by beating her at the -soft shoe buck; and one other, whom I shall simply designate as The -Girl, because, even though she plays a star part in this, she doesn’t -want to be known to the general public. - -The Girl was brilliant, versatile and clever. She took it into her -head to become a dancer once, and among other things she learned the -fandango. She went to Mexico with a troupe and danced that famous -measure in a way that made them cheer her to the echo. She played faro -bank and won enough to keep her in clothes for a year. - -The talk had drifted on marriage and Fostell started things. - -“I have been married a good many years, more than I care to tell,” he -said, “and I have been trying to induce my daughter to call me uncle so -they won’t get on to me. I claim that a performer’s domestic life can -be just as pure and happy as that of a business man. I agree that there -is a lot of immorality in the profession, but you’ll always find a lot -of outsiders helping things along. There are times when we seem to be -targets for the whole world to shoot at.” - -“In my opinion,” put in Ferguson, “the performers who are in the -business to make a living on their merits are for the most part decent -people whose lives are an open book. The women of the chorus of the -big shows on Broadway--the kind who haven’t a line to speak and who -couldn’t speak it if they had--are responsible in the main for all of -these sweeping charges of immorality. Our children are born in the -shadow of the theatre, and a great part of their lives are spent in the -green rooms and dressing rooms. We try to do the best we can by them -and bring them up properly.” - -Then The Girl, who can tell stories and sing in a most charming way, -and who for that reason has a salary that is worth considering, broke -in: - -“You men with wives sit back and talk of morality and all that sort -of thing and you don’t know what it means. You two are lucky because -you have married good women who look after your interests and bring -your children up as best they can under the circumstances. You only -see things from the viewpoint of the male animal, who is used to being -waited on and catered to. The average man says, ‘I am handsome,’ ‘I -am great,’ ‘I am distinguished,’ or ‘I am the real one,’ as the -case may be. He sees a girl whose appearance catches his fancy and -straightway he must have her. He likes her and that settles it. It -makes no difference whether or not she likes him--her feelings are not -to be considered. He is the one. If his passion is a strong one he -pursues her to the finish and hounds her. If she still holds out he -becomes actuated by a motive of revenge and so he sets out to try to -injure her, to prevent her from making a living that she may feel the -pinch of poverty. He uses all the influence at his command to crush and -humiliate her, and then he taunts her. - -“Boys, I’ve been through the mill and I know what I’m talking about. -I’m a kid no longer, and I wouldn’t marry the best man on earth, nor -tie myself up to him for either a definite or an indefinite length of -time. No double acts for me, but monologues from now on until I get my -23. - -“Let me tell you something you never heard before. - -“One night I went down to the Battery and sat on the sea wall there -for hours looking at the water smashing away at the rocks. It was -moonlight and almost bright enough to read a paper. I had enough to -think of while I was sitting there and I thought it, too. I know what -it is to have a whirring sound in your brain, for I had it then. I was -trying to get up enough courage to throw myself overboard, for I really -wanted to die. I had seen all of life and of men that I wanted and had -enough. I had been driven by a man from the place where I lived to the -jumping-off spot as coldly, and calmly, and deliberately as a drover -would direct the course of a steer to the abattoir. He had made living -impossible for me. - -“Those noises in my head had reached that stage where they were like -the sound of the L road trains going past your windows at night when -you’re trying to sleep, but the stronger they grew the less they -annoyed me, and the idea came to me that if I wished hard enough death -would come very easy. - -“You know that old act of mine where I used to imitate a woman who -had gone insane from grief at being abandoned by her lover? You know -what a hit it always made. Well, it’s nothing like the real thing. -Heart-breaking grief in its highest form is quiet. It doesn’t want the -limelight or stage center, but a dark corner and seclusion. It wants to -be left alone. - -“The next thing I remember was someone saying to me ‘Come out of here; -what are you trying to do--drown yourself?’ - -“And there I was in the water up to my waist with a policeman holding -me by the arm. He turned me around so that I faced the wall again and -we walked back to where he helped me up. Then he took me, all dripping -and so cold that I had no feeling at all, to the station house, where I -was charged, under a most absurd law, with attempted suicide. They were -humane enough to send for an ambulance and I was taken to the hospital -and fixed up so I could appear in court the next morning. The man was -there--the man with his sneering smile and his air of well-fed comfort. -He had come down to look me over. He probably wanted to see the girl -who had refused nearly everything that money could get, simply because -she was not for sale and couldn’t be bought like a new scarf or a hat -of the latest mode. He also wanted to parade his prosperity before -my misery, probably that before anything else. Even he must have -pitied me because of my position, and he edged over to where I was and -whispered: - -“‘It isn’t too late yet, and I want to help you.’ - -“‘You mean that you want to get me out of here?’ I asked. - -“‘Yes,’ he said eagerly, ‘I want to get you out.’ - -“‘Well, if I were you,’ I told him, ‘I wouldn’t take any chances -because if I get out of here and you ever speak to me again I will do -the very best I can to kill you.’ - -“He shrank back as if he had been stung, and so great was his terror -that I almost laughed at him. Then he turned and walked away. - -“That is the curtain of my story. I could begin at the beginning and -make it a long one, but what’s the use? I could make a romance of it, -or even a tragedy, and now that I am my sane self I could even make it -a comedy. I could go over the list of things he promised me and what -he promised to do for me, and you would think he had all the wealth -of the Bank of England at his back, but his mind ran in a groove so -narrow and his manner was so offensive that the only thing that kept -him in the human being class was the fact that his nostrils were not -shaped like those of a swine, and that instead of grunting he used -language that was fairly intelligible. But for once he was toppled from -his self-built pedestal and he crashed down in the wreck of his own -self-conceit. Men like that make the world seem immoral and immoral -in fact, and a few such as he would degrade the noblest profession in -the world. Egotists and atheists, believing in nothing save self, they -taint a community like a plague. - -“Bring us some more beer, Billy, for I’m going home. I’m tired and dead -to the world.” - -“I wouldn’t like to be the man you hated,” said Ferguson. - -“My boy, I can neither hate nor love, I am simply numb. I have had -seven proposals of marriage, both in the profession and out of it, -but there was nothing doing. I am absolutely emotionless. I ask no -favors on account of my sex and I owe my allegiance to no man. But I am -watching my tormentor growing gradually old. I see him once in a while, -you know, and I am keeping track of him. It’s my one joy in life. The -gray has come into his hair and it is turning white and the wrinkles -are spreading themselves over his face like avenging fingers. I know -he is not really happy, although he pretends to be, and some day, in -some luxurious apartment, he’ll lie dying. A million dollars will not -give him one more breath nor would a hundred millions add one more day -to his existence, and when he is very close to that gate which always -opens inward and from which there is no retreat and I really know that -he is going, then I will laugh; not the kind of a laugh you know, boys, -but the kind of a laugh that follows a soul across the border line of -death and which keeps echoing for ages.” - -“Did you ever play the part of _Ophelia_?” I asked. - -“No, but I could.” - -And we all believed her. - - - - -A TWISTED LOVE AFFAIR - - -This is the story of a wooing that went astray. - -There are many such stories floating around, and they are all good, if -they could only be told. But there is the trouble, for, like family -skeletons, they are sunk so deep in the cellar or locked up so securely -in the closet that there is no getting to them, even for a minute. - -How these two met or where they met is of no material difference, and -here is where a romantic touch might be introduced. The truth is that -they came face to face with each other on the boardwalk at Atlantic -City. He had been up to old Vienna while she had taken in the show on -the Pier. A dozen or more of those high steins of Pilsner had made -him a bit reckless, and that was his only excuse. She was lonely, and -that was hers. It’s a great combination, like guncotton and a match. -All right apart, but let them meet and the result is pyrotechnical. -When they were twenty feet apart there was a sudden flash of lightning -of the vivid brand they have on the Jersey shore, followed by a crash -of thunder heavy enough to make a cigar store Indian step down and -crawl under his pedestal. Then a few drops of rain about the size of a -quarter, and a general scurrying for shelter. - -The man whistled for a covered rolling chair, and the girl with eyes -shut and head down ran directly into his arms. - -[Illustration: Atlantic City is the place for sporty girls who play the -game to the limit] - -She recoiled like a rubber ball that has been thrown up against a brick -wall, while he felt to see if his watch was still fast in the mooring -at his vest. - -“Oh, I beg your pardon,” and she gathered up her skirts as she prepared -for another flight. - -“Don’t mention it,” he answered with admiration, “but I think you could -beat Jeffries if you were trained down a bit.” - -“Sir!” - -“Now don’t sir me; it’s raining and that blanket of yours won’t stand -water. I’ve an option on the only chair in sight. It’s yours; help -yourself, and if you don’t mind I’ll go as far as my hotel. Are you on -the job?” - -“I don’t think----” she began severely, when the lightning broke out -again and interrupted her. - -“You don’t have to think,” he said. “Jump in and keep out of the wet. -People don’t think at Atlantic City; they get on the job quick,” and he -motioned the walking delegate with the perambulator to move up. - -“All right,” she said, resignedly. - -“Of course it’s all right, for you get home dry while I have a chance -to meet a good fellow. Now let’s introduce. My name is Ben. There’s -another part to it, but it don’t make any difference here. What’s -yours?” - -“You don’t lose any time, do you?” - -“Never was known to so far. Come on, what is it?” - -“Bess,” she answered. - -“Bess; great; sounds like a sport. Not hard to say and rhymes with -‘bless’ and ‘yes’ and a lot of other words. Now, Bess, you and I are -going to have one little drink just to celebrate. You know the old -saying--wet out and wet in. The wise gink who’s pushing this van is -heading me back to where I came from, I see; Old Vienna. I wonder if -he gets a commission? Just because I like you, and because your hair -matches my tie I’ll blow you to anything you like from a second-story -stein up to a bottle--large or small, according to your capacity. How -about it?” - -“I suppose you think because you got me in this absurd wicker basket -before I could call a policeman and have you arrested for insulting -me that any proposition you make from now on will not be objected to. -Perhaps, because I made the fatal mistake of being alone on the walk at -night, you, too, have made a mistake.” - -“I never make mistakes, but this time I overlooked the fact that I am -hungry. So we’ll get the large bottle and something to eat on the side -and between drinks we’ll tell each other the story of our past lives, -and we’ll make a bet on whose is the best.” - -Half an hour later they were like a couple of chums who had known each -other for years, and she was calling him Ben as if she had been raised -with him. - -That was not quite a year ago, and it is only introduced in order that -the story might be told from the very beginning. - -A thousand trifling things happen in life which often turn the tide or -change the course of events. A man, because his watch is a few minutes -late, misses a train which is wrecked and thus saves his life; again he -goes down one street instead of another, for no reason that he knows -of, and avoids a catastrophe or misses an opportunity; he goes here -instead of there and something occurs which changes the course of his -path from that point on to the grave. Call it fate if you like, but -whatever it is it is inevitable and inexorable, and no human will has -been found that is strong enough to resist it. It is like the call -of “Hands up” coming from the desperado with a revolver. There is no -alternative. In some cases it is impulse, a seventh sense, or pure -luck--good or bad--according to results, or even intuition. The wise -man says that what is to be will be and trails along in contentment. -Others fight it out and come forth beaten in the end. - -The two of this story came back to New York hopelessly in love -with each other, and at that time, so far as I know, it wasn’t the -commercial love of the twentieth century, ready to switch and change -as soon as the sun went under the first cloud. They met two, three and -four times a week, first in one place and then in another, and they -knocked about town like a pair of happy-go-lucky Bohemians with the -rent paid a year in advance. - -“Some day,” he said to her once, “when I am quite free to do as I like -I’m going to marry you, and then all of this running to cover like a -pair of rabbits chased by a brown ferret that you can’t see will stop.” - -“How do you know that I would marry you even if you wanted it?” she -asked. - -“We’ll argue that point when the time comes,” was the answer. - -“Now that we’ve known each other for so long a time--at least it seems -long to me--I’ve a confession to make to you. I ought to have told you -before, but it isn’t too late now.” - -“Save your confession as I’m saving mine,” he said. “I never knew -these past life stories to do any good, for both men and women make -mistakes, and they ought to do with them as the doctors do with their -failures--bury them.” - -“But we are doing wrong now.” - -“The boy up the farmer’s tree filling his pocket with apples is happy -until he is caught. My motto is to get as many apples as you can until -you hear the farmer coming and then beat it while you have the wind -with you. It doesn’t require as much nerve as you think, and any time -the game isn’t worth it quit. The beaten man in a fight, if he is game, -always gets as much applause as the victor and sometimes a great deal -more. I have seen the time when it was better to lose than to win, -strange as that may seem. I don’t believe in figuring on what is to be -years from now because I may be dead. There is no to-morrow in life--it -is all to-day. If battles have been won, cities destroyed, empires -established and colossal fortunes swept away in an hour what chance has -a man--a mere atom on the earth--to speculate in futures? The typhoid -germ upon an oyster, the invisible microbe of consumption eaten or -breathed in with a thousand other death-dealing mites, can kill him as -surely as a thunderbolt or a drop of cyanide of potassium. Upon your -hands and your face at this moment are the bacteria of lockjaw only -waiting for a scratch or a wound of some kind to enter your veins. Yet -you do not worry about that. You see you have me talking about things I -do not like and it will take at least another pint to get the taste out -of my mouth. Accept my advice, if the sun is shining for you now don’t -fear the coming night.” - -Through all the winter he never knew where she lived or how she lived -and he didn’t care, and that was because he was a philosopher, and -she knew as little about him as he did about her. A future meeting was -always arranged upon the heels of the previous one. Her name was Bess -and his was Ben and that was sufficient. - -Very queer, of course, and almost unbelievable, but true nevertheless. - -And all the while the match was getting nearer to the guncotton and -neither knew it. Playing with fire had come to be such a habit with -these two that they didn’t fear the flames. - -It was at a nice little afternoon luncheon that she became first -serious and then confidential. They had reached the coffee stage--the -proper time to put your elbows on the table and talk--when she said: - -“Ben, I want $5,000.” - -At that particular moment he was lighting a cigarette and he didn’t -look up for a full minute, which is a very long while if you only know -the real value of time. - -“What for?” he asked, finally. - -“I am married, you know. I mean you don’t know it, but I’m telling you -now, and I want to get a divorce. I have been collecting evidence and -I have all I want, but I shall have to get a lawyer, and I shall also -have to live until the case is disposed of.” - -“Why didn’t you consult me?” - -“Why should I until I was ready?” - -“I’m a lawyer.” - -“Would you take the case?” - -“No, but I could advise you.” - -So he did, and being a very smart lawyer instead of giving her a check -for the money she wanted he gave her what in his opinion was $5,000 -worth of advice. You see, the substance of his love of the fall had -fallen away to a shadow, and hard-headed business men don’t invest in -shadows or even pay money to build a monument over a sentiment that is -either dead or dying. Hearts are rarely trumps; spades have the call -to-day. - -“I’m going ahead anyhow,” she went on, “and I suppose when I am free -that even your memory will suffer from an attack of dry rot, and that -you’ll forget everything you have ever said to me--or deny it, which -amounts to the same thing in the end.” - -So the next day she told her story to a lawyer, not the story of Ben -and the dinners, but the tales of the man to whom she was married, and -when she produced certain dates and facts she was told she had the -clearest kind of a clear case and that it would go through with bells -on, with hubby paying the shot. - -The complaint was drawn up and the papers served; and here comes the -great part of this recital. - -Just one week later a clean-cut, well-built young business man, of -about 35, walked into Ben’s office and asked for a consultation. - -“You have been recommended to me,” he began, “by a business friend of -mine. I have been sued for divorce by my wife. My morals are none too -good, but neither are hers. Will you take the case and defend me?” - -“Yes,” said Ben, “I’ll take it,” and he called a stenographer. “Dictate -your story to her and then see me to-morrow, when I will have the -papers drawn up. If your counter charges amount to anything at all we -can beat her--that is, if you want to beat her. As I understand it you -don’t want her to get a divorce from you?” - -“That’s it exactly. It isn’t that I care a rap, but I don’t care to be -made a scapegoat, and I think when she knows what kind of an answer I -have she’ll drop the whole case and take to the woods, which will suit -me down to the ground.” - -At 11 o’clock Ben saw the transcribed notes of the amanuensis and he -hadn’t read more than ten lines when he jumped from his chair as though -it had suddenly become red-hot. - -“Miss Bates,” he called sharply, “bring me your note book.” - -In she came and handed it to him. - -“You’ll say nothing about this?” - -“No, sir,” but there was the suggestion of a smile around the corners -of her mouth. - -He thrust it in his pocket and in a minute was out of the door. - -There was a little luncheon date on with Bess for 12 o’clock, but he -couldn’t wait. He was at the appointed place a full hour before the -time, and he sat at the table glaring at the door. Exactly on the -stroke of the hour she came in smiling. - -“Why, Ben, what’s the matter? You look as though you had been struck by -a blizzard.” - -“I have. Read that,” and he handed two typewritten sheets to her. -“You’ll have to drop that case of yours, and drop it quick, too. Your -husband had the nerve to retain me to defend him; and in his counter -charges he names me as your co-respondent, and I’m damned if he hasn’t -got every move we ever made pat and to the minute. He’s been on to -everything.” - -He looked up suddenly and a look of suspicion came over his face. - -“What is this, a job? Have you two been working me?” - -“You contemptible thing,” she whispered, “you have the mind of a street -sweeper. How dare you talk to me like that after all our----” - -Two tears came into her eyes. - -“If I were a man I would fight you and you wouldn’t dare to fight back. -You’d run. Do you hear that--you’d run away, because you are a coward. -I could make you run away now if I wanted, because you are afraid.” - -Then she turned and walked out of the place without even so much as -looking behind her, and the man was left with a lot of typewritten -sheets clutched in one hand and a stenographer’s note book in the other. - -There was never any suit, but if you happen to New York any day during -the winter months I’ll show you this couple--Bess who made a little -mistake and stepped out to where the daisies grow once or twice--and -her husband, who won because he was willing to wait. - -It sounds like a romance, I know, but it’s all true, every word of it, -for the little stenographer told me the most of it. - -[Illustration] - - - - -WEDDING RINGS AND FOOTLIGHTS - - -There are several titles which would cover this story with equal -aptness, and one of them is The Siren Song of the Burlesque Lady. -Another one that would sound well is the Corralling of the Willie Boy. -In fact they would do well together--a great deal better than the lady -and the boy did. I call him boy in this story, but he is really a man -so far as years and stature go, that is all, and he is learning a lot -every day, so much so that if he keeps on he will some day be a man in -everything. - -The burlesque show with which this perfect lady was a spear carrier, -as well as a few other things, hit the Bowery early in the season, and -opened up with a roar that could be heard many blocks. It was the same -old thing only a little more so, and the line-up was composed of a -bunch of husky dames who ought to have been carrying the hod instead of -giving an exhibition of beef on the hoof. The roster is a very familiar -one, with the beef-eaters sometimes in the background like scenery, -and then again in the foreground to give the boys a good look at the -tights, two or three ginger girls, who had a small amount of talent -with a great amount of nerve, who did stunts in the olio, and the usual -collection of Irish and Hebrew comedians, of which the least said -the better. The names on the roster would look like a collection of -heroines from the Waverly novels, with Pearl, Pansy and Myrtle in the -lead by a couple of good lengths. It was put together according to the -recipe of a well-known manager, which was this: - -[Illustration: They had a hot time in Minneapolis when the show hit -town] - -“The people who pay their money for these kind of shows, my boy, -don’t want beauty, or brains or talent. They’d go to sleep with Sarah -Bernhardt doing the death scene in ‘Camille,’ and they’d call Booth in -‘Richard the Third’ a frost. What they want is legs--good, big husky -legs that can take all the wrinkles out of the biggest size of pink -tights on the market. They want quantity, not quality. Give them that -and you’ll get their ten, twenty and thirty every time.” - -He wore big diamonds, had a bank roll the size of a Hamburger steak, -and so he must have been in right. Besides he always had a bottle of -wine with his meals, and he didn’t care what kind of wine it was, so -long as the label was attractive; which goes to show that his money was -coming in so fast that his palate couldn’t keep up with it. - -On the night the Fair Maids of Gotham opened, the Willie Boy, very fly -up to a certain point, but with a soft sucker part about as big as -a Derby hat, planted himself in one of the front seats. He had been -mixing up with sports all of his life, and as a result the corners -on him were as hard as flint. His roll was divided in four parts and -stowed away in four separate places for safety’s sake, and when it came -to a hurry touch he was prepared to dig down into his change pocket -and produce a few pennies with verdigris on them as the extent of his -capital. He had a block and a counter for every proposition that came -his way and when anything came off he always managed to land his -percentage and ride, even though everybody else walked. - -The orchestra had crushed through its preliminary canter, the lights -went down, the buzz of talk let up for a moment, and as he settled -himself back in his seat with a big cigar in his mouth the curtain slid -up for the opening chorus. The grenadiers in front swung their legs -coquettishly, and pranced about like two-legged pachyderms as they -delivered the goods in the shape of a song, which stated in very wobbly -and uncertain rhyme that they were very jolly, very entertaining, and -that they were out for a lark and were willing to take chances. It was -all very affecting, and it might have been going on yet if the star of -the show, known professionally as the principal boy, hadn’t butted in -like a football player when the cue, “Here comes the Prince,” was given -by a perfect lady with a forty-six-inch bust. She was so thoroughly -upholstered with rhinestones that she looked like some new kind of an -electric light proposition on legs. Willie sized her up with the eye of -a connoisseur, and he fell to wondering whether or not among all that -paving of cut glass there might not be a true gem. - -Suddenly, as the line in front swayed, then broke and shifted, he -caught sight of a tall blonde who had been fastened to it like the tail -on a kite. She wasn’t quite as wide as the rest of the bunch, but there -was something about her that attracted his immediate attention. - -And here you see again the delicate tracery of the Italian hand of -fate--that invisible, indefinite thing which stands always at our backs -ready to move us here and there, like chessmen on a board, whether -we like it or not. The male human pats himself on his shoulder and -congratulates himself that he has a will and a mind of his own, but -ever near him is that wraith which directs his movements, making him do -this or that and go here and there. There is no force, no threat and no -cajoling; it is simpler than a twist of the wrist, and the end of that -winding, twisting, intersected road, with its hundreds of sharp turns -here and there and its joys and sorrows, is the grave. - -So look at the boy with good red blood in his veins, with a gentle, -high-bred mother, a beautiful sister, and a home in which there was -nothing but refining influences, sitting bolt upright now in that cheap -theatre seat and gazing like one bewitched at this girl with the yellow -hair, bleached to almost a frazzle, and the pale, watery blue eyes, -with no figure at all and absolutely no talent, produced and spit forth -from a tenement to grow up in the city’s streets like a weed to finally -reach the most ordinary position in a most ordinary theatrical company, -where, standing on the lowest possible level, she was satisfied. Paint, -powder and rouge made her a ghastly sight, but in his eyes she was -framed in an aureole and was as beautiful as a Madonna. - -It was one of the things that no human being will ever be able to -account for satisfactorily. Personal magnetism undoubtedly plays a -part in it, as it does in many other things, but you wouldn’t think a -young fellow like this would go so far out of his class unless he had a -throwback strain of degeneracy imbedded somewhere in his system. - -The tribe trooped off to make a change of costume and the comedians -settled down to work. Then the ginger girls whooped things up a -bit, and an acrobat went through the routine of stunts, while a few -spasmodic outbursts of applause showed there were some people in the -house who appreciated his work. But the pair of eyes owned by the young -fellow in the aisle seat, third row, were looking for that blonde and -nothing else. - -Knowing everybody as he did, it wasn’t a difficult matter for him to -get someone who knew her to wait after the show and bring them together -in a rather formal way, although, in her case, that wouldn’t have been -at all necessary. She had as little use for formalities as she had for -conventionalities, which is not at all to be wondered at. - -“Meet my friend Willie; now let’s all go out and get a drink,” was all -there was to it, and ten minutes later four--two of each sex--were -planted around a table in a cafe not more than a block or so from the -theatre. - -“Like the show?” asked the Genial Giantess, who was keen enough to -smell a little love affair in the air. - -“Great,” answered Willie; “it ought to get the money this season. What -are you going to drink?” - -“I never take anything but beer after the matinee--it hurts my voice.” - -Strangely enough no one laughed, but with another girl and at another -time Willie would have laughed himself almost into convulsions, for he -has a keen sense of humor. - -The four ate and drank at that table until it was time for the night -show and then they separated, by which time Willie was so far gone -that he sat throughout the evening performance while she smiled -encouragingly at him from the other side of the footlights. - -That is how the courtship really began. - -For the rest of the week they were together all the time, and she began -to realize that she had at last reached the apex of her ambition and -found a man who looked like a wedding ring and a board bill proposition. - -A fellow like this can have a dozen affairs and no one will question -them, but when it comes to marrying there is a different story. To the -outsiders it bore all the earmarks of a week’s stand at first, and as -he never showed his hand no one was any the wiser, not even his most -intimate friends. - -A man’s declaration of love for a woman is a very beautiful thing so -long as he is honest about it and keeps within his own class. The slang -of the slums can be made as sincere as the most polished English. -But in a case of infatuation like this--it might be called temporary -insanity--it doesn’t hardly seem right there should be any ceremony. -The halo of romance existed only in the mind of the boy--for the woman -it was a business transaction with the obligations all on one side, -so it was with a flippant air that she promised to “love, honor and -obey,” and then after the briefest of brief honeymoons she went on the -road with the show, while the young husband at once set about preparing -a home for her when she should get ready to settle down to a life of -domesticity. - -At first he figured on taking her to his mother’s home, but when he -told of the hurry-up wedding and showed a picture of the woman to whom -he had given his name, the scene that followed forever settled the -question, and he knew that his soubrette wife and his mother would -never live under the same roof together. - -The morals of the members of a burlesque show on the road have come to -be a joke. Of course, there are exceptions, but they are very rare, -though I personally know of some good women who have gone on tour -through force of circumstances and have come through the ordeal morally -and physically clean. I regret to be compelled to record that the -Genial Giantess doesn’t belong in this class, and when the aggregation -had torn thirty weeks off the calendar they came back looking like -refugees from the San Francisco earthquake. - -“I ain’t got a cent,” remarked the blonde on the ferryboat coming from -Jersey City, “and I don’t have to have because Willie will stake me as -soon as I get to New York, and besides he’s got a flat fixed up for me.” - -That was the truth. He had a nice apartment for the homecoming, and -while he wasn’t as much in love with her as he was when they were first -married, he still felt that he had obligations and he ought to make -good. - -You know what I said in the beginning about fate? Well, listen. - -While the performers were on the ferryboat, and when Blondie was making -her celebrated remark, her Willie was up against a bar on Broadway with -a couple of men he had met some time before. They were talking about -women, and one, a commercial traveler, remarked: - -“I’ll put you up against a warm bunch if you want to get on the job -this week. We didn’t do a thing to them in Minneapolis when I was there -on my last trip. I had a big blonde on my staff, and the first night I -met her I loaded her up so that she had to be carried upstairs to her -room by three waiters. Here’s a letter I got from her last week, and -while she’s no ten thousand dollar beauty yet she’s a good fellow and a -thoroughbred sport. Read it, Willie. When she hits this burg I’ll put -you next and bet 20 to 1 that she’ll drink you to a standstill, for -she’s the biggest tank I ever ran across.” - -And when Willie read the letter which bore his wife’s signature and -which put him wise to a few things he had never before dreamed of, he -did what many another man would do under the same circumstances--that -is, many another wise man. He ordered a round of drinks, and then he -kept on ordering and saying nothing, letting the other fellows tell all -they knew, and the first chance he got he blew out and went home, not -to the place he had fixed up for Mrs. Willie, but to the home presided -over by his mother. He simply abandoned the flat and all of his day -dreams. They vanished like mist in the morning’s sun. - -A few days later he got a letter from his wife and in it she reproached -him for not meeting her, and furthermore she inquired what had become -of the flat he had fixed up for her. - -“I am broke, you know,” she wrote, “and I think the least you could do -is to help me out.” - -She signed it “Your loving (_sic_) and affectionate wife,” and it -almost gagged him to read it. - -He took a sheet of paper and wrote the answer. It contained but one -line, but it told a whole chapter. In due course of time it was -delivered to her. She opened the envelope and read the enclosure. What -she said was unfit for publication, for what she saw was only two words -and they were: - -“Forget it.” - -[Illustration] - - - - -TOLD BY THE MANICURE GIRL - - -“How long have you been here?” asked the man with the black mustache; -“I never noticed you before.” - -“Just a week to-day,” said the manicure, as she soused one of his fat, -pudgy paws in the scented water. She didn’t even take the trouble to -look up at him as she talked, but applied herself at once to the almost -impossible task of making his nails even presentable. It’s a hard job, -you know, trying to improve on one of nature’s bum pieces of work. - -The man leaned back in his chair contentedly, and with that air of -assurance which money begets, and he looked her over as he would have -looked over a new style of shirt in a haberdasher’s window. He noted -that her hair was dark chestnut in color and luxuriant, also that it -was undoubtedly all her own. The contour of her face was such as would -have attracted any man with red blood in his veins and a heart to pump -it. She had, besides, nice hands that were well kept, and a dainty -manner that was rather charming. - -“Don’t you ever get tired of doing this kind of work?” he asked, when -he had finished his inspection and had sized her up to his apparent -satisfaction. - -“I am always tired of it,” she answered, briefly. - -“How would you like to travel?” was his next question. - -[Illustration: “I wasn’t arrested, but I was put out as if I were a -common swindler”] - -Then she paused a moment and glanced up. She was smiling, and the two -dimples that came in her cheeks rather enhanced her beauty. - -Then he saw that she also had teeth that were white and regular, that -her lips were red and her eyelashes long. - -You know a bargaining man takes in all these things, just the same as a -buyer of beef on the hoof feels and prods the cattle in the search for -blemishes. - -“There is nothing in the world I would like better than to travel.” - -She looked him squarely in the eyes, and her smile was accentuated. -Then she resumed her work. As for him he leaned still farther back in -the comfortable chair and sucked complacently on his big Havana. - -“I knew you was a nice little girl as soon as I saw you.” - -“Did you?” - -The rapid, supple fingers never paused for a moment in their work, -and were trimming, rubbing and polishing those awful nails into some -kind of decent shape. The thick, heavy, hairy hand, with its spatulate -extremities, showed physical strength and nothing else. It was made -for work, and it had worked, too, in its day. It had been used to the -most ordinary and menial kind of labor, as the hands of its ancestors -had. It had lifted beams and handled picks and shovels. It had pulled -at ropes and tugged at heavy burdens. It had had little to do with -the gentler side of life, and even the big diamond ring on the fourth -finger could not hide its early career. - -But an accident happened--a money-making accident which some might call -opportunity--and the hands had been withdrawn from their labors, and -the callous spots had a chance to disappear--gradually, but none the -less surely. The movement of the slim white fingers caused him to look -down, and he was conscious of the fact that his heart was beating a bit -faster than usual. The blue smoke from his cigar curled up through his -mustache, it crept into his eyes and made them sting. Through the haze -he noticed that the girl had a bow of black ribbon fastened to her hair. - -“I’ll bet you’d be a good sport if you had the chance.” - -“That depends upon what you mean by the chance,” she said. - -He couldn’t quite analyze that, and so he blurted out: - -“Go down the line with me and I’ll show you.” - -She paid no attention to that. - -“How about it?” he persisted. - -“How about what?” - -“I’d just like to take you out to a little lunch for two. What time do -you break away from here? What time do you knock off?” - -“To-night, do you mean?” - -“Sure, yes, to-night.” - -“Just time enough to go home, and I never go out at night.” - -“Tush, tush, now. Be a good fellow, and if I like you I’ll take you on -a long trip. You know you said you liked to travel, didn’t you? Well, -I’m going to give you a chance, if you behave yourself and stick to me. -I’ve been looking for a girl like you for a long while, and you just -hit me right, so you’re on the job. I can make good, all right, you -needn’t be afraid of that, for I’ve got all kinds of money, and when I -meet anybody I like I spend it like a drunken sailor, see?” - -“Yes, I see; I knew you had money all the time.” - -“You did, did you; well, how?” - -“Because it is only men with plenty of money who would talk to a girl -the way you have been talking to me. It is only the men with money -who think they can buy everything in sight, especially if that which -they think they fancy happens to be the wearer of a skirt, and it’s -the men with money who think their money is better than anybody else’s -money, and their dollars are of more value than the dollars owned or -controlled by some one who has less than they have. Are you married?” - -“No,” he answered. He would have said more if he had known what to say. - -“Then why don’t you go and pick out some woman whom you like and who -likes you, and marry her and have it over with. Your time for being a -gay sport has passed; leave that to the young fellows.” - -Daintily she reddened his nails with rouge, doing them as carefully as -if they were works of art, and tapping each one gently in order to get -just the right amount of color. - -“I don’t think,” she went on, “that you quite know what you’ve been -up against. You may have heard the old saying, ‘a burnt child dreads -the fire;’ well, I’m the child in this case, although I’m no child in -years. As I told you before, I’ve been here a week, and it’s a great -relief to me to be working, for I’ve been on one of those little trips -you were just talking about, and there is nothing to it. You see,” -then she glanced up quickly, “perhaps you don’t want to hear this.” - -“That’s all right; go ahead, you can’t hurt my feelings.” - -“I was told that I was a good fellow and a nice girl, and I was led to -believe that I could have anything in the world that I wanted, and I -want to tell you right here that it is a beautiful thing to believe and -have faith in anyone. Some of the stories that men tell to women would -make great reading if it was only written right, but they would be all -fiction, because I don’t believe a man ever told a woman the truth in -his life. I’m talking from personal experience, of course. This one -man, who was really old enough to be my father, talked to me about my -future, and said, among other things, he would always look after me, -and I was serious enough about it to believe that he would, too. Then -one day he asked me if I wanted to take a little trip, and his words -were so much like yours when you spoke that you startled me. Isn’t it -strange that the nails of your left hand take on so much higher polish -than those of the right hand? I wonder why it is? There, _I’m_ through -now. Fifty cents, please.” - -“But how about the finish of that story? Did you take the trip?” - -“Of course I took it.” - -“Make the job a dollar and tell me the rest.” - -“I never would have believed that I would be sitting here telling that -story to a man whom I had only met once. You’re not offended at the way -I criticised you, are you?” - -“Not at all,” he answered, “go ahead and criticise me all you like. I -rather like it, it’s so seldom that I am criticised.” - -“You mean nowadays?” she asked, noting his hands. - -“Yes, since I got money. Go on with the story.” - -“The trip was to be to Europe--first London, then Paris, and after that -Berlin. He was a banker and so prominent that you would know his name -at once if I were to mention it, but there is where I draw the line. -I’ll save him that much, anyhow. When we left he had a large bag in -which he seemed to take an especial interest, for he would allow no one -to touch it but himself, and it wasn’t until we were half way across -that I found out that it was all full of money.” - -“Money?” queried the man with the black mustache, sitting bolt upright -in his chair. - -“Yes, money. That’s what I said, wasn’t it?” she asked, petulantly. -“Brand new greenbacks, pound notes, hundred and thousand-franc notes. -Oh, they were beautiful to look at, and I counted over the packages -because they were so pretty. You see, he said he was going over to put -through a big banking deal, and he cautioned me to say nothing about -all the money he had with him, for fear he would be robbed. When we -arrived in London we went direct to the Cecil, where he registered -under an assumed name, but I was down on the book as his wife, just -the same, and he told me to go out and get some clothes and anything -I wanted. He said he wanted to have some of the big bills changed and -that was the easiest way in the world to have it done, but he asked me -to bring all the change to him, and to pay for every separate article -with one of the new bills. I thought it was rather queer at the time, -but I did as he told me and I never in my life had such a good time -buying things. I brought back to the hotel a dreadful amount of change, -so much that it was a nuisance. - -“Every day it was the same thing over again until I honestly grew tired -of spending money. Think of that--tired spending. Before we left for -Paris he put over $15,000 of the change in a safe deposit vault that -only he and I knew about, because something had happened and he had to -get to Paris quickly. When we got there we went to the Grand Hotel, -where he registered under still another name. Again I went shopping, -and the only hard part of it was that I had a new bill to change every -time I bought anything, think of that, even if it was a little lunch in -a cafe, and many a time I have had to wait while they sent out for the -change of a thousand-franc note. We were there just four days when one -afternoon two men came to our rooms with the proprietor or manager of -the hotel, and the first thing I knew he was arrested on the charge of -making or having counterfeit money or something like that. Before they -got him out of the room he whispered to me that he had put $15,000 more -in a safe deposit vault in Paris, and he told me the name of the place. -He said it was in my name, too. - -“I wasn’t arrested, but I was put out of the hotel as if I had been a -swindler. I had enough money to get home, and so I came. I don’t want -any more excitement in mine, and I’m content to get along the best way -I can, without any fireworks or trips of any kind, unless, of course, -_I’m_ sure that everything is absolutely correct and all right. Suppose -I had been broke, what would I have done alone in Paris?” - -“What happened to the man?” he asked, ignoring her question. - -“He was tried and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment, and if he -had only married me, and I had my marriage certificate, I could go over -there and get $30,000 as easy as nothing. I don’t care so very much for -it, but still it would come in very handy and I wouldn’t mind dividing -it up with anyone who could help me out.” - -The man fidgeted in his chair, glanced out of the window, and then took -a long pull at his cigar. - -“Bored you, didn’t it?” asked the girl. “I knew it would, but you -insisted on my telling it, and you’re the only one that knows it. I’m -really getting garrulous.” - -“Do you think $5,000 would be enough to get the papers fixed up?” - -“Oh, yes, that would be quite enough, for I inquired about it. It would -take me there and back again and pay all expenses.” - -“And you’d give me half?” - -“Why, of course I would. Who wouldn’t?” - -You know the old saying about a sucker being born every minute. I could -go on and make the usual hot finish to this story, but what’s the use -when two lines will suffice. She got the money, of course, and he got -what is known in the language of The Line as the lemon. Very sour it -was for this hard, wise fellow, and they say that now every time he -passes a manicure parlor he turns his head the other way and says -things which wouldn’t look well in print. - -[Illustration: There were times when she did things that were -unconventional] - - - - -INVESTING IN A HUSBAND - - -Money makes the mare go. - -Sure. - -That is, sometimes, if it’s the right kind of a mare and there is -enough money. - -Take out all the “ifs” and “buts” and it will be all right. - -The world began with a man, Adam, and the woman came later, but the -finish will be different, for there will be a woman in the last ditch -giving or ready to give the avenging angel the stiffest kind of an -argument. - -This story differs from the Creation in that it begins with a woman, -as all stories of to-day should. And why not? for take the lady out of -the case and there’s no story and never will be. The slim finger of a -woman, you know, is in every pie. Sometimes it improves the flavor and -sometimes it spoils it--that’s a matter of luck--and there are men who -have tried pies or many fingers, whichever simile you prefer, and the -result in their cases is always the same. - -The girl in this story had birth, and blood, and breeding behind her. -She also had good looks and a little money, and that is about all -that anyone wants. Add to that a fairly nice disposition and you have -reached the limit. - -Of course, she wasn’t perfect by any means. She was a bit whimsical and -peculiar, and her moods were as apparent as the moving pictures thrown -on a sheet in the theatre. She was unusual in that her moods were -reflected in her face with all the truthfulness of a mirror. That was -the reason that some said she was good-looking, while others contended -that she was most ordinary. Take her as I’ve often seen her, when she -was cheerful and happy-go-lucky, and while there was nothing about her -features that was regular she was attractive enough for anyone, and she -could make a good many young fellows turn their heads to look after her -as she passed down the street. - -Then again something would happen, and she would seem to age ten years -in as many hours, and a crop of deep lines and wrinkles would spring -out like magic. But she had magnetism, and she was forever standing at -the fork of two roads, one of which led to good and the other to bad. -To her it was the toss of a coin which one she would take. - -It was while she was in a thoughtful mood, debating with herself, that -the man came along. There’s an apology goes with that, for he hadn’t a -vote yet, and he was very youthful in his ways and of that age where a -youngster is apt to tell more than is good for him, and to stray from -the field of fact. Of course, it’s not a crime--it’s only a period. -With his red cheeks and baby complexion he looked like a cross between -a stick of peppermint candy and one of Raphael’s cherubs. He was as -pretty a piece of embroidery as ever asked his mother for spending -money, and when the girl saw him she immediately threw out a line and -took him in tow. Inside of twenty-four hours she had her monogram -indelibly stamped on him, and he was hers. Hand in hand they went out -to see the world and become real sports, and it wasn’t long before -wine was the limit and it wasn’t half good enough at that. They left -a lurid streak up and down the line, but it soon faded out, for they -weren’t financially strong enough to make a splash that would attract -any more attention than a pair of tiny gold fish in a two-dollar -aquarium. - -After all, it amounts to nothing more or less than a question of -capacity--stomach as well as purse, and it is rarely that the two -harmonize. The man with the yard-wide thirst is often handicapped by a -purse with complete or partial paralysis. - -And then these two fell in with other company in the shape of a man -and woman whose nuptials had been attended by incidents of a more -or less exciting character, the star part of which was an elopement -which savored more of desire than genius in its arrangements. They -had succeeded so well in their new venture that they owned the entire -contents of a flat across the river in Jersey, and being still in -the throes of love themselves--or thinking they were--they were -headquarters for everything that seemed like an affair of the heart. -Some who were not their friends were unkind enough to say that it was -nothing more nor less than a case of misery loving company, and that -being on the coals themselves this couple enjoyed leading others to the -broiler. But that’s unkind and really ought not to be believed. - -However, many a racket came off in the flat, and they all went as hot -a pace as wind and weather permitted, until even a rank outsider would -have said it was time for a minister to get on the job and do what he -could to make things legal. - -The cork popped from a bottle of wine and the juice of the grape -sizzled out. - -“What do you say, Kid, let’s get married?” - -“All right, I’m game if you are; you can’t phaze me,” she said. - -“Well, how about to-night?” - -“The sooner the better.” - -Talk about quick action, it was here with a vengeance. - -Four people on a ferryboat, then an elevated railroad and the ringing -of a minister’s door bell. - -It’s all very simple. - -The dinner afterward in a cafe, very informal, you know, to harmonize -with the ceremony, with a couple of quarts for luck sandwiched in by -cocktails and highballs; then a few brief telegrams: - -“Married to-night; wish us luck;” you know the rest. - -It was all right, after all, apparently, and everybody did wish them -luck, even if there were a few bad spots in the job. But, you see, -they suited themselves and there was no one else to be taken into -consideration, not even the relatives. This going around and holding -consultations in advance is no good, and people who are in love or who -think they are in love don’t want advice of any kind, except the kind -that rings the door bell of a minister’s hut or buys a wedding ring and -sends it with the words: - -“Get busy before it is too late.” - -I’m no critic, and I don’t pretend to criticise here. I’m simply -telling a story which may or may not be true, but I’m not going to be -responsible for it any more than the man who rents a place and plants -flowers in the garden is responsible for the architecture of the house -on the premises. - -It is said that the bride in this case was kind enough to supply -the funds for the honeymoon, while the nice boy supplied the beauty -and called it even. In the eyes of the lady it seems a fair enough -proposition, but harsh things are liable to be said of such a -combination, even though it is no one’s business. - -When they returned from the fields of fruits and flowers the boy had -made up his mind, like the Count Boni de Castellane, that being a -husband was much better than holding down a job in an office, and so -they settled in New York like a pair of pigeons after a long flight. -He had no more idea of the responsibilities of married life than a -six-months’-old infant has of playing the races. With a place to sleep -and a feed bag always ready for his face he was satisfied, but that was -because of his youth. You see, marrying from the cradle has both its -advantages and its drawbacks, according to the way you look at it. - -For him every morning was Christmas, and the tree was always fixed up -with something nice with his name on it. Do you blame him for looking -pleasant? Press the button for a dollar, press it twice and you get -five. Just as easy as drawing money out of the bank when you have a -check book. - -But with all going out and nothing coming in it doesn’t last long, and -when he had swept up all the spare change in sight he began to cast his -covetous eye upon the big bundle that was tied up with a woolen string. - -He knew something about the racing game--just enough to get stung when -the time came--and he knew a man who was good enough to offer him a -half interest in a racing mare that had been kept under cover for a -year or so, but who could, if she was let out, beat anything that ever -wore pigskin. To that infantile mind of his this was the one great -chance of a lifetime and the thousand-dollar bill was the key which -would unlock the door to wealth. - -Money without working for it. - -Why it was a pipe. Besides, it made a beautiful and alluring tale for -the bride, who had reached that stage where she didn’t want her boy -away from her, not even for a minute. With the thousand he would make -the initial investment, and with the rest of the bank roll he would -bet. With paper and pencils they sat at the table one night and rolled -up two thousand to the fortune of a Rockefeller. - -How easy it is to make money that way. All you have to do is to begin -with any amount, even a penny, and if your pencil holds out you’ll -have a million in less than no time, but you can’t buy anything with -it--there’s the trouble. The man in the insane asylum who imagined -that every stone in the construction of the building was of pure gold -and that it belonged to him was just as rich in his own mind as the -wealthiest human being in the world--and happier, too, I’ll bet you. - -They planned it all out, even to the trip to Europe on the winnings of -the first big race, for she would carry odds of not less than 20 to 1, -because she was unknown. - -A little trip down to the bank and out came the money in brand new -bills that were very good to look at. - -So the first step was taken, and the boy made up his mind that he had -turned his back forever upon such things as ten-dollar-a-week jobs. - -It doesn’t require any ingenuity or brains for a man to separate -himself from such things as thousand-dollar bills--in fact it’s quite -easy. Consequently it didn’t require any brain work on the part of -the boy to deplete the account by just that amount within a very -short time. For his new bill he received in return a slip of paper -which stated that he was the half owner of the racing mare known as -Blue Monday, and that in consideration of his paying one-half of the -training expenses of the said mare he was to be entitled to one-half of -the winnings, less jockey fees and other incidentals. - -To him it sounded beautiful and it took not less than one quart to -celebrate this new business venture--paid for by the lady, of course, -but still, in view of the fact that they were one, it was all right. - -Then there began to come to him via the U. S. Mail, certain sundry -statements concerning the expenses of putting this fine bit of horse -flesh into the proper condition to bring home the money, and the -request for immediate remittance. There was variety enough about these -statements, too, to satisfy the most fastidious, and the amounts ranged -all the way from six dollars and fifty cents to an even hundred. The -clever mind of the bride took in the situation at a glance, but the -faith of the optimistic kid held as fast as a ship’s anchor to a rock -ledge, and he could see nothing but success in the near future. - -You know there is never a day so far away that it doesn’t come at last. -So it was that the day of the long expected race arrived and down deep -in the trousers pockets of the Pink Cheeked One was $150, the last shot -in the locker. - -“It’s all right, Kid,” he said to her. “It’s just as I thought, she’s -a twenty-five to one shot, and I’m going to plank every cent down. At -those odds we’ll take home with us $3,750, and I guess that’ll hold us -for awhile. How about it?” - -“But suppose she doesn’t win?” - -“Doesn’t win? What’s the matter with you--are you getting cold feet? -How can she lose? Didn’t we clock her this morning on the try-out and -didn’t she beat the track time? Wait till you know more about this game -and you’ll see where _I’m_ right.” - -I don’t know much more about it than that, but the files of papers of -that date show me that Blue Monday, mare, 3-year-old, was entered for -the Seaside stakes of $1,500, at odds of 25 to 1; there was a good -start, with her in the lead. At the quarter she had fallen back to -fourth, at the half she had crept up until she lapped the second horse. - -She finished seventh. - -I should say that blue-eyed boy was looking for a job the next day, but -I’m not fortune teller enough to know whether he connected or not. - -[Illustration] - - - - -TRAINING AN OLD SPORT - - -Come and listen to the siren song of the New York girl, and perhaps it -may interest you for awhile. There is no question about it unless you -are a bronze statue standing on a gray stone pedestal in some park, or -a cigar store Indian with an Hebraic nose and a wooden tomahawk. In -the first place the New York girl has been conceded to be a wonder and -about the best in the world in looks as well as in figure. She has a -fine complexion when she gives it a chance to show itself, and, like -the little girl in the story book, when she’s good she’s very, very -good, and when she’s bad she’s a peach. The thing is to pick out the -right one, and your chances for that are just as good as drawing to a -pair in poker. Some say it’s luck, while others favor the science idea. - -With that for an overture, let’s ring the bell for the curtain to go -up on the charming little two-act play, entitled “The Redemption of a -Sport.” - -The Old Sport has been up against every proposition the sun ever shone -on, and there was nothing he wasn’t fly to. He had paid board for -blondes and brunettes as well as a few Leslie Carters, to say nothing -of an Albino he once took a fancy to. He was an early and late bird, -and he was known up and down the line by his first name, which is a -distinction that it usually takes a lot of money or a number of years, -and sometimes both, to acquire, and even then it’s not a lead pipe -cinch that you’ll land it right. - -[Illustration: A light flashed out on the landing and revealed the -figure of a beautiful woman] - -This fellow was good to the girls, and could be relied on for a -five-case note on a hurry touch at any time, for he had no buttons on -his pockets, and he knew that safe deposit vaults in heaven are only -used for the storing of golden crowns in hot weather. - -“If I can’t take my money with me,” he said once, “then I’ll spend it -here, for if there’s anything in the world that I hate it is to think -that there’s going to be a lot of hungry relatives picking over the -bones of my estate before I get comfortably settled in the six feet of -real estate that no one can beat me out of. The money’s got to be spent -some time, and I’m going to be the one to get the credit for it because -it’s mine.” - -But there came a time in his life when he felt that he wanted to get -away from the mob. He had been stung by the bee of domesticity and -didn’t know it. What he did know was that he wanted a place with a real -woman in it, where he could hang his hat and that he could call his -own. If he had wanted to put his brains at work he would have known -that it was nothing more nor less than the law of nature which had him -fast--that same law which makes a bird build a nest in a tree, or a -wild animal pre-empt a bed of moss under the roots of a certain tree. - -It was the home instinct. - -So he began to cast his eye around for a side partner whom he could -have and hold, even if he had to coax her up to the altar with a -marriage license printed in red and gold and lasso her with a wedding -ring. From that time on he was always on the alert for the right one -to come along, and every time he heard a sound like a skirt he made -an investigation. In about ten days he turned down all the Dollies and -Mauds of the Line, for he couldn’t see where they would have a look-in -if the cook happened to leave in a hurry and he arrived home with a -backwoods appetite. You see he wanted a gas-stove performer who could -in an emergency tell the difference between a roast and a ragout in the -raw state, and who could juggle with a lot of cold grub in the ice box, -and turn out a square meal that was not only hot but nourishing. He was -tired of restaurant hash, anyhow, and he was longing for the kind of -biscuits that mother used to make. - -He figured for awhile on a girl named Elsie, who could make a cocktail -to beat the band, and who could also drink more and get away with -it than any of the rest. She was a good looker, too, and she had -trotted in double harness before, but he found out that she was a bit -promiscuous in her tastes, and he didn’t care to feel that he had to -stay at home all the time in order to keep her from entertaining any -stranger in a pair of trousers who happened along. So he put a red -cross, which means “Danger, Keep Off,” opposite her name, and began -looking in another direction. - -He changed his tactics completely. - -“I’m on now,” he said to himself. “I’ll hunt up some nice little -innocent girl who doesn’t know anything of the world, and who has taken -a course in a cooking school. I want the kind whose ambition in life is -to be boss of a nice three-story house, and who doesn’t care any more -for Broadway than a hobo does for a hot bath. I’ll just hunt up some -mother’s girl who has her hair hanging down her back in a big, thick -braid, and I’ll sing her a song that’ll make her think I’m the real -thing on wheels.” - -So with that very laudable and commendable idea he started out. He -didn’t figure that a tough old nut like he was had any right to go up -against a game like that, and that his play was to mix with people of -his own class. But you’ll find in nine cases out of ten that the worse -a man is or has been the more innocence and purity he wants when he is -figuring on giving a sky pilot a chance to make a dollar or two. - -But having made up his mind the kind of a field he was going to hunt, -the next question was how to break in. All the girls he knew were, -without exception, of the brand which are at their best when the lights -are turned on, who rent flats for business purposes, and who change -quarters when an intimation is made by the captain of a police precinct -that the change will do them good. To save his life he couldn’t figure -out this new proposition, and he was like the man who bought a new -double-barreled shotgun and then found out he couldn’t get a permit to -hunt the birds the old farmer owned. - -And now right here, at the critical moment, in steps fate, luck, or -destiny, it doesn’t matter which, for they are all the same, and -shuffles the cards for a new deal. - -An automobile on Broadway bumped hard enough into the rear end of a -hansom cab to almost throw the driver from his seat and to make him -swear a blue streak of profane eloquence. The usual crowd collected, -and in the bunch caught there by the sudden rush of curious and morbid -humanity was the Old Sport. He pushed with both elbows to free himself -and then stepped back testily. A girl behind him cried out with pain, -and he turned suddenly around to find himself face to face with as -choice a little blonde as ever carried books home from school, and, -furthermore, she had a braid down her back. - -“I beg your pardon, did I hurt you?” he asked. - -“I’m afraid you did; you stepped on my foot.” - -“Well, just take my arm and let me help you out of this crowd.” - -Easy if you only know how and the chance comes your way. - -The Old Sport wasn’t really old--not over forty--and he was there with -the looks, and the little lady rather liked the way he framed up, as -anyone could see by the way she cuddled up to him as she limped along. -His heart was beating it like a yeggman coming East on a brake beam, -and already he was figuring on how to handle this new proposition. - -If it had been one of those other girls he would have said: - -“You just send your trunk up to my place, and we’ll go around and have -a talk to a minister; how about it?” - -But he couldn’t say that to this girl with the pink in her cheeks and -the fluffy hair that had never been up against the peroxide. - -“Foot pretty bad, Kid?” was the way he broke the ice. - -“Oh, no, thank you, it’s all right now, but it hurt me a lot at first.” - -“Live far from here?” he came back again. - -“No, not very far; only Fifty-third street.” - -There was only ten blocks to go, and when they got to the last one he -knew all about her. He knew that she was living with her aunt, and -that she was taking music lessons because some day she hoped to be able -to teach. As they paused for a moment on the corner, he said: - -“If you should happen along on Forty-second street to-morrow about 2, -I’ll be glad to see you.” - -It was a bit crude, but it went all right and the date was made. When -she walked away he stood looking after her, and he noticed that she had -a nice trim figure, a dainty little foot and that she stepped out like -a thoroughbred. - -“You for me,” he remarked, and then he hustled back to find some one he -could treat, so great was his joy. - -So there’s the picture, to use a theatrical term, and the curtain goes -down on it for the end of the first act. - -Now, you and I and some of the rest of the thirsty crowd will go out -and have a drink between acts, but it’s a warm night and instead of one -drink there’s half a dozen. Time flies when you’re in good company and -the Old Sport was taking no chances. Ten interviews with the girl--ten -good, square, honest talks at the rate of a talk a day--and she -consented to take a chance with him and tell the folks afterward. He -was on the level, though, and when she went home a couple of days later -she had the little certificate with her, and after a few tears Auntie -was invited around to visit her new nephew and look over the new house. - -As for the Sport, he settled down as comfortably as an old buff -Cochin-China hen on a dozen eggs, and he made up his mind that he had -been missing a good many years of real dyed-in-the-wool happiness -while he was traveling The Line with the bunch and throwing all kinds -of booze under his belt. - -But when the weeks began to add themselves into months he grew a bit -restless of nights and it came pretty hard when any of the boys asked -him to come along and help them crack a bottle. He took the Mrs. to the -show once in a while, but it was always a case of hurry home as soon -as the orchestra began to play “My Country, ’Tis of Thee.” He didn’t -want to take a chance of being caught by any of the Merry-Merrys who -were out for the rent and guyed for “marrying decent.” Once or twice -he thought he had made a mistake and that the change was too great or -too sudden for him, but an hour later when he had his slippers on and -was planted in the big armchair in the corner, he knew he wouldn’t make -any kind of a change for the world, and he felt that he had lost a good -many years out of his life in not getting into this kind of a game -sooner. Like an old fire horse, he was all right as long as he didn’t -smell fire. But the time was coming, and it was as sure as rent, taxes -or death. - -It came when he went out one night to be gone not more than a half -hour, and when he tried his key in the lock it was 2 A. M., and the -girl, her eyes red from crying with the desertion and the loneliness -of it all, had fallen asleep, fully dressed, across the foot of the -bed. He was very sorry and penitent, but for all that he went out the -next night just the same, and after that he was never in. He was back -on the old trail, mixing once more, to the great delight of the crowd. -The novelty of home had worn off, and when his wife waited up for him -she usually found him too drunk to understand what she was saying to -him. From one step it is easy to take another, or, as the Chinese say, -the creeper always walks in the end. He took to bringing friends home -with him at all hours, especially between three and six in the morning, -and their arrival was always made apparent by the wild time they had -scrambling up the stairs. - -Now, in this story--as in real life--always keep your eye on the lady. -It doesn’t make any difference where she comes from, whether it’s New -York City or Lower Squankum, New Jersey, she is either one of two -things, very clever or very dull. There is no medium, for what may seem -to you like a medium is only a counterfeit and not the real article. -For every ninety-nine dull women there is one clever woman; for every -ninety-nine clever women there is one ace who tops the rest as easily -as Mont Blanc tops an ant hill. The wife in this case was not one of -the dullards, that’s a cinch. If she had been she would have made an -idiot of herself and acted the way the rest of them do--which is a -great nuisance and annoying to any man. She was a genius, and I ask you -to take off your hat to her--as I do. - -“I notice,” she remarked to Old Sport one morning, “that you never -bring more than one friend home with you when you arrive. Why don’t -you bring half a dozen, or three, anyhow? It would be much more -companionable.” - -He was a bit on his guard at first, but she convinced him that she was -serious about it, and then he began to congratulate himself that he had -his wife well in hand. - -Two nights later he arrived with half a dozen of the hottest hooters -that ever held an all-night session in a furnished flat. He let them in -with his key, and as they paused at the foot of the stairs, a clock -from somewhere chimed out a silvery “three.” - -“Come on, boys; open house here; everything goes,” said Old Sport. “My -wife says my friends are good enough for her if they’re good enough for -me. Come on.” - -He, with another, made the start up the stairs, but they hadn’t gone -more than a few steps when a brilliant light from the landing somewhere -fairly dazzled them. - -Directly in front of them, apparently in the act of stepping out of a -huge picture frame, was the symmetrical figure of an almost nude woman. -The light struck her just right and brought out every detail. - -“Great,” shouted someone from the foot of the stairs. - -“Shut up, you fool, it’s my wife,” answered the Sport. “Put out that -light up there, do you hear? Put it out.” - -But it blazed away as steadily as ever, and there was no movement on -the part of the figure, except that the full bosom rose and fell with -the regularity of her breathing. - -The Sport turned around on the stairs. - -“Come out of here, you fellows; this is going too far. Come on, -skiddoo, all of you.” - -And when the last one had gone out he slammed the door behind them. -What happened inside is none of your business, nor mine, either, -because I don’t believe in scandal, but any evening the Old Sport is -wanted he will be found at his home address with his wife and a kid who -looks like him. - -As for the lady; she has a genius that she is just beginning to -appreciate. - - - - -CONCERNING A SYRIAN BEAUTY - - -Transplant the Oriental to the Occident, or in plain words bring a -nice-looking girl from the East to New York, for instance, and nine -times out of ten there is sure to be something doing. Most of the -doings, to be sure, are under the rose, but every once in a while some -hint bobs to the surface and the news is wafted about by every breeze -of a whisper. - -In his very handsomely appointed suite of apartments on the upper -West Side is a young fellow who has good enough blood in his veins -to be game and take his medicine, and with sense enough to keep his -mouth shut. Across the bridge of his nose are three knife cuts made -by a blade that was very keen, which was held by a hand that knew its -business. His doctor tells him that it is not at all serious, even -though inconvenient--you know how doctors talk when there is a good fat -fee at the other end of the line. He also says that there is nothing -in the world that will prevent and eradicate those three disfiguring -scars, even after the wound has been thoroughly healed and every -possible surgical precaution taken. - -And there’s the rub. - -Through all the rest of his life this man, upon whom the world has been -smiling since his birth, will be marked with the signs of his folly. - -So much for the present. - -Now for the recent past. - -[Illustration: Put her in tights and she would have been an Oriental -sensation] - -The woman was a Syrian beauty with sloe eyes and an olive skin that was -like a piece of copper-hued satin, so soft and smooth and free from -blemish was it. There was a faint flush of red in her cheeks, too, as -if the hot blood was trying to break through the tender skin. Her lips -were red and full, and because of all that riot of color her teeth -showed whiter than they really were. She had, besides, small feet and -slim, trim ankles. - -Any wise man will appreciate that and understand why they are brought -into this story. Up to the age of twenty-five the male animal looks at -the female face and is satisfied. After that no such casual scrutiny -satisfies him. First face, hair and general contour, then ankles, and -often it is the last view which does the work or turns the trick, which -is the same thing, only it is expressed differently. This is with -the assumption, of course, that the man has enough discrimination to -want quality, not quantity. Quantity is unwieldy and unsatisfactory -from every viewpoint except from that of the gentleman who is in the -butcher business, and who wants a standing advertisement for his shop. -_Embonpoint_ is all right in sausages but not in women, excepting--and -that is understood--those on dime museum platforms. - -The first name of the lady was Dekka, the rest was unpronounceable and -we’ll let it go at that. She was a seller of Oriental goods, not from -a Tenderloin standpoint, but real merchandise such as is recognized -by the law--laces, draperies, bits of cunningly embroidered silks, -and even rugs, which she called carpets, with the accent on the first -syllable. Her stock was carried in a dress suit case which was handled -by her “brother,” who was also a Syrian, and he only resembled her -because he, too, had black eyes, an olive skin and dark crispy hair, to -say nothing of his small feet. - -Day after day they went in and out of houses, flats and apartments, -visiting none but the best, and calling an express wagon into service -when a rug display was necessary. She was the brains of the combination -and did all the selling. His job was done when he put the satchel down -by her side. Then he effaced himself and was invisible until she was -ready to exit, when he made a mysterious reappearance from somewhere. - -And that’s the soup of the story; the roast follows. - -The Jap valet to the young man of means and leisure announced to him -one afternoon that a dark lady--makes you think of the queen of spades, -doesn’t it?--wanted to see him and wouldn’t take no for an answer. - -“Bring her in,” said Jimmy, who was feeling in just the right kind of a -humor to see anyone, even a man to whom he owed money, and in a moment -she had slipped into the room as lightly as a cat walking on wet grass. -There was the sound of her French heels hitting the bare spots on the -polished floor that was music to him, and he wondered what there was in -the meeting of leather and wood that was so attractive and just a bit -different from anything he had ever heard before. - -She courtesied in a friendly, intimate sort of a way, and then spoke: - -“Good day; the lady? Can I show her some laces? Very fine.” - -There was just the faintest touch of an accent in her voice, but it was -rather pleasant than otherwise, and it seemed to have a very soothing -effect on him. - -“There is no lady here,” he laughed, “that is, not yet.” - -“Ah, too bad, and such a nice place, too. It is so beautiful.” - -She half turned as if to go, and he stepped toward her. - -“What have you got to sell? I might buy something.” - -“You are so kind; I have them here,” and she motioned to the next room. -“My brother bring them, then he go ’way. It is very heavy to carry all -the time.” - -“Yama,” called he, “bring it in, whatever it is,” and in a moment the -Jap came lugging the leather case. - -Jimmy noted how deftly the shapely brown fingers unfastened the brass -catches, and as she leaned over he found himself studying her with the -eye of a man who has seen and known a great many women of all kinds and -all nationalities with one or two exceptions, and one of the exceptions -was Syrian. A faint perfume, the odor of which he failed to recognize, -seemed to fill the room, and he knew it came from her, and he became -suddenly aware that he was taking more interest in the saleswoman than -he was in the goods she was about to offer him. - -When the bag had been opened and the contents tumbled out -promiscuously, without any attempt at order or display, she sat down -on the rug beside them. She picked out a lace scarf and carefully -smoothing out its folds held it before him. - -“Very fine,” she said; “all made by hand, see?” and she pointed to the -heavy embroidery. - -“It’s all right,” he answered, but he wasn’t looking at the silk, he -was looking straight in her eyes and wondering why it was he had never -met a woman with eyes as black as those before. - -“You are not looking,” she said. - -“I am,” he replied. - -“At the scarf, I mean.” - -“No, there is something better.” - -“But I am only selling the scarf to you,” and she began to fold it up -while her cheeks became more red. - -“What’s the price?” asked Jimmy. - -“Only $6, and very cheap.” - -“All right, I’ll take it; let me see what else you’ve got there.” - -And presently they were both sitting on the rug, he on one side of -the bag and she on the other. In a half hour he had spent one hundred -dollars, but to save his life he couldn’t have told what it was he had -bought and, what was more, he didn’t care. - -He laid the crisp new bill on her knee, and as she began to fold up the -remnant of her stock he asked questions. - -“You said your brother went around with you. Is he really your brother -or something else?” - -“My own brother; why should I tell you a lie?” - -“I don’t know except that there are a great many brothers and cousins -in this world who are not brothers or cousins at all, except as a -matter of convenience. You know, I think you are a nice little girl and -I fancy I’m getting just a bit gone on you. I don’t mind buying things -from you, but I should like it if you and I could be friends.” - -By this time they were standing up; the suit case had been closed and -it was still between them, as if it was a sort of a guardian. - -“Couldn’t you stay here and have a little lunch with me? We’ll have it -right away and you’ll be away in an hour. Where’s your brother?” - -“Oh, he always waits somewhere--outside, maybe.” - -“In the other room?” - -“Oh, no; sometimes in the hall and sometimes in the street; sometimes -he goes away and comes back again.” - -“Well, this time he can wait a little longer. Yama,” calling to the -Jap, “get some lunch and hurry up.” - -He picked up the barrier of a dress suit case and put it one side, then -he walked over to her and putting his arm around her waist, pulled her -toward him and kissed her squarely on the mouth. - -“Oh,” she cried, “what are you doing?” - -“Kissing you. I’ve bought your silks and now I’m ready to invest in -kisses, and I find,” he remarked, as he kissed her again, “that your -kisses are the best.” - -The blood leaped to his brain, and he held her so tightly that it -seemed as if he would crush her. - -“You’ve made me fall in love with you,” he said, and that strange -Oriental perfume which came to him from her seemed to make him mad. “I -want you to go away with me; will you? We’ll go wherever you like, and -you will not have to sell those things any more. You can have all the -money to spend that you want and you will be a lady.” - -Here was a picture strong enough to turn the head of any woman, much -less a Syrian straight from peasant stock, brought into the world by -accident, with a face like a Madonna and with a supple, pliant figure -that made men turn around and look after her. A girl who had known -what privation and hardship was, and who came of a race where women -were born to be servants and made to wait on men, the masters. Her -beauty had brought her nothing and now it had suddenly become an asset, -a stock in trade of so great value that for the rest of her life she -would know neither work, nor care, nor trouble. The blood rushing -through her veins made her dizzy and her head fell forward as her eyes -half closed. One brown arm crept up and around the neck of this strong, -broad-shouldered American, and it kept her from falling to the floor -in the excess of her emotion. He felt her going, and picking her up, -carried her to the big armchair over in the corner, where she cuddled -up like a rabbit. She was clasping and unclasping her fingers nervously -as he stood looking at her and her half-closed eyes never once met his. - -“What’s the matter?” he asked, bending over. “Can I do anything for -you?” - -“No,” she whispered; “I was only thinking of my brother.” - -“You don’t want to mind him; he’s all right wherever he is.” - -“Not that, but he might not want--he might not like you to--to love -me,” and she looked up at him. - -“We’ll take care of your brother all right. Because he is your brother -I will do what I can for him. Why, I will----” - -The voice of the Jap came from the other room just as Jimmy was -settling himself on the edge of the big chair, and had his arm around -the Syrian’s neck. - -“No,” it said, “you wait; I see.” - -There was an angry voice raised in expostulation, and then before the -man could move the brother came bounding through the parted curtains. -He paused for just one brief moment and then shrieked: - -“Dekka.” He said something else, too, but it was in his own language -and only the woman understood, but whatever it was it made her shrink -still lower in her seat and cover her face with her hands. He was on -Jimmy like a cat, and three times, even though the frightened Jap was -trying to pull him off, he cut, and each cut was across the bridge of -the nose, and the knife blade went as true and sure to the mark as -though it was in the hands of a surgeon on a patient who was under -ether. Then with one firm grip on the wrist of the girl he dragged -her to the door and out, while the faithful Yama was using the silk -scarfs--the ones which had just been bought--trying to staunch the flow -of blood. - -And that’s the story. - -And the moral of it is that every man should stick to his own race and -his own blood, Caucasian to Caucasian and Oriental to Oriental, for -there are some things in this world that don’t mix any more than oil -and water. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: The first pair are in the ring, the talk ceases, and the -show is on] - - - - -THE REJUVENATION OF PATSY - - -We’ll just take in a fight to-night for a change. I’ve had you Down the -Line, over on the East Side, in the wine joints, behind the scenes, -and in half a dozen of the so-called swell restaurants, and all the -time there have been all kinds of punching matches going on in a dozen -different halls, “Clubs,” they are called, just to sidestep the stern -arm of the law, but what difference does it make to a good sport so -long as the men are well matched and they are willing to mix it at all -times? - -Three rounds are the limit, but there is a lot doing between bell and -bell--enough to make even the most seasoned ringster sit up and look -around as if to say: - -“Now here is some punching that does a man’s heart good--it seems like -old times, when----.” You know the rest about the days of long ago, and -if you listen to him he will hand you a line of talk that will put you -away for the count. - -You may talk as you like about all the sports you know, but after all -there is nothing like a good go with the gloves between a pair who know -their business, and there are few men who have any red blood in their -veins who will not go a long ways to see a slugfest. Of course you’ll -always find up against some bar a bunch of dead ones who will stretch -their arms and say: - -“Not for mine; I’ve seen all I want to see, and I wouldn’t go around -the corner to get a ringside seat at a go between Roosevelt and Kaiser -Wilhelm.” - -There’s a screw loose somewhere in these fellows, or else they are -drying of dry rot and don’t know it. Nine out of ten of them are bigger -around the waist than they are around the chest, and they invariably -talk loud. - -There’s a little club that I know of where you can get a great run for -your money, and we will go there. - -It’s a case of come early and avoid the rush, for when the gong rings -for the first bout there is only standing room left and that is at a -premium because the prices are low. The manager doesn’t have to bother -his head about making matches because the “talent” comes to him, and -it often happens that the men who furnish the preliminaries are picked -from out of the audience. These three-round affairs have done a lot to -bring out a bunch of new ones; any young fellow who knows any part of -the game can go on and get a try-out. He earns a few dollars and if he -proves to be good, he is boosted along the line. - -There is a mixed crowd on hand to-night, and you can expect a good -card. In one of the ringside seats is the district attorney, a man who -loves a fair fight in or out of the ring. Further up are a few brokers -who have thought it worth while to come down here for one night, -anyhow. It is safe to say that every class in life is represented, the -man who is worth a million rubs elbows with the ten-dollar-a-week clerk -and they fraternize as freely as though they were chums. - -“This Abe Attell is a clever boy, but they say he hasn’t the punch,” -ventures the clerk. - -“Yes, I saw him recently and he made that big fellow look like a cart -horse,” returns the man of money. - -The fellow who paid one-tenth of his weekly stipend to join the club -for that one night, which, by the way, is the system employed to evade -the law on the subject, pulls out a cigarette, and asks: - -“Can I trouble you for a light?” - -“No trouble at all,” comes the cheerful answer, and a glowing perfecto, -which cost not less than thirty-five cents, is handed over. - -That miscellaneous crowd is welded into one solid mass by the masonry -of sport, even though individual opinions are retained, and the opinion -of a seasoned ring-goer is set hard and deep as the rock of Gibraltar. - -The smoke is wafted back and forth like the tidal currents of the sea -and the exertions of a hundred devotees of nicotine are adding to it -every moment. An interminable buzz of voices fills the big room, and -there is fight in the very air. - -“I tell you the old man could lick O’Brien any day he wanted to; he’s -got the punch and he can stand the gaff, ain’t that enough?” This in a -strident voice from the cheaper seats, and it was answered at once by -an argument that was apparently deemed irrefutable: - -“Why didn’t he do it?” - -Near the door is a fight bug whom no one ever heard of, and who is -interesting simply because he is a freak. He is voluble, emphatic and -vainglorious. - -“I kin beat Britt an’ he knows it, an’ dat’s the reason he won’t give -me a chanst. He’d be a pipe fer me, ‘cos I’d infight him, an’ he -couldn’t stand my body punchin’. Dere’s where I’m great--on dose body -blows. I challenged him three times an’ he never paid no attention to -me. He’s afraid uv me, dat’s what he is. I kin beat ’em all if dey’ll -only cum to me.” - -“You couldn’t beat a carpet,” shouts a wit, and the bug is temporarily -squelched. - -The noise of the voices is suddenly emphasized--the first pair are -coming and the show is on. Into the ring they climb from opposite -corners, principals and seconds, and then, more leisurely, as befits -the dignity of his exalted position, comes the announcer. They all have -the same speech, which has been doing duty for generations, and this -one is no different from the rest: - -“A little order, please, gentlemen, and stop smoking while the bouts -are on.” But no one ever pays any attention to that last. “These two -boys,” he calls them by name, “both members of this club,” another neat -little scheme to evade the law, “will box three rounds for scientific -points only. Keep a little order, please, because if you make a noise -the bouts will be stopped. The men will box straight Marquis of -Queensberry rules. All ready, boys.” - -He waves his hands toward the corners, and then backs through the ropes -conscious of a duty well performed. The gloves, a bit too big for the -majority of the onlookers, have in the meantime been adjusted, the -referee calls “Time,” they step to the center, shake hands and get down -to work. Sparring doesn’t go in bouts of such short duration, so it’s a -case of mix it from the start. Here is a sturdy little Italian against -a good, fast and clever Irish lad. The good-natured grin of the former -is never relaxed for a moment as he wades in, taking a punch to give -one. This fellow is fighting his way out of debt, and he’s well on the -road to financial freedom now. Last year he figured in more than one -star fight and he looked like a money-maker. He took care of his end of -the purse every time, but on one of his Southern trips he fell in with -a girl that he grew to think pretty well of, and it wasn’t long before -she became the custodian of his coin. When the bank roll was big enough -to suit her, she blew with another boy and left this one broke. That’s -the reason he’s putting the gloves on and going three hard rounds for -a ten spot now. The Irish boy is punching him at will and counting up -the points every time they come together, but there is steam behind -those blows of the Italian, and it isn’t hard to predict the result if -they were to go ten rounds instead of three. At the finish they are -furiously mixing it in a corner, and the gong rings its notification -more than once before they break away, shake hands, the Italian still -smiling, and climb out to make way for the next pair. - -The boys are put on as fast as they can bring them in the ring, and the -bouts are all good ones. Finally there is only one more to come, and it -is that for which the crowd has been waiting. - -Before the announcer can do his next stunt half a hundred hands--gloved -and ungloved--are coming together in applause. The cue came when a trim -built, muscular little fellow, whose condition is not too good, slips -through the ropes. He smiles cordially at the crowd and nods his head -jerkily in response to the reception. - -“I take pleasure in introducing Patsy Haley,” begins the announcer, but -he is stopped by the applause which breaks out again, and he fails to -get in that saving clause about the “club member” business. As if Patsy -needed any introduction to that crowd of sports, young or old, who have -seen him fight when he was at his best. How can they ever forget the -wonderful cleverness he used to show? Don’t you remember when he fought -Terry McGovern before the Lenox Athletic Club in 1899? It was all Patsy -up to the eighteenth round, and even the wonderful Terry couldn’t find -him until then, when he landed the crashing punch that gave him the big -end of the purse. Is it any wonder that they applaud him? He’s too wise -for the best of them for three rounds even to-day, for he can stall and -get away with as little effort as a kid makes when he goes up against -a nursing bottle. He hits when and where he likes and how he likes, -but he has no punch, as the youngster who is up against him soon finds -out, and so he wades in to do a little execution with a wild, swinging -right, but the glove never gets within three inches of Patsy’s smiling -face. It is jab, jab, jab with the old-timer, and the crowd roars its -approval, while the Kid’s seconds keep calling to him in stage whispers -which can be heard all over the house, to-- - -“Mix it there, Kid, one punch will do him.” - -Their advice is good, but the bewildered, dazed kid, not hurt a bit, -but simply made dizzy by those lightning-like feints, followed by taps -that push his head back and throw him off his balance, can’t make good. -He rushes, swinging as he comes in, but he finds himself breasting the -ropes, and he turns only to get a straight left square on the point of -the nose. - -It’s very discouraging work for a novice. You see, he’s evidently -been figuring on going into the ring and putting this old-timer away -and then getting his name and picture in the sporting papers. It’s a -hundred to one that he’s been in training, and he’s had it all framed -up with his trainer just how he was going to do the trick. It seemed -very easy in that stable, or loft, or wherever it was that he had his -punching bag and skipping rope, and he was told there was no harm in -a dozen of Patsy’s punches rolled into one. He knows that now, but -that merciless, pitiless jab is enough to worry anyone, and besides, -his arms are beginning to ache with the effort of swinging and hitting -nothing. - -“Close in, Kid; close in.” - -They are calling to him again and he makes another rush. He is going to -try to knock the smile off that face this time. He puts all his effort -in the blow and lets go. He misses, and the force of it brings him to -his knees as the bell rings for the end of the first round. - -He takes his seat and he knows that those yells are not for him. - -His seconds and counsellors are there as quickly as he is, and while -he is being fanned, and rubbed and sprayed, he is also being advised -how to do it next time. Over in the other corner Patsy is talking -laughingly with some ringside friends. - -“You’re as fast as ever, son,” says one. “How are you feeling?” - -That is always the proper thing to ask a man who is in the ring--that -is, when you’ve nothing else to say. I’ll bet no man ever went in the -ring who wasn’t asked that question at least a dozen times. It seems to -be sort of a stock query, just as every rube considers it his bounden -duty to ask an actor who plays his town: - -“Where do you go from here?” As if it made any difference to him where -the actor went, but he feels he has to say something, so he says that. - -The gong rings, and they’re at it again. The Kid has a new set of -tactics now, and he proceeds to put them into execution, so as soon as -he leaves his chair he starts on a run for his opponent. He’s going -after him this time, sure enough. Out goes the left and around goes the -right. The right gets Patsy just behind the ear and shakes him up a bit. - -“Go after him; you’ve got him,” call out the seconds. He thinks so, -too, and he draws back when the versatile Patsy slips into a clinch. - -“Break there; break now,” calls the referee. The Kid is pushed away -and his antagonist dances back out of reach, not showing the slightest -evidence of distress. Truly this is no cinch. Again and again an -attempt is made to land that finishing punch, but each time it fails -to connect, and when it does land it doesn’t seem to land in the right -place. In a mixup his chance comes again, and he rips up a right to -the stomach so hard that the old-timer grunts. That gives him a little -courage and after the break he rushes again, but the jaw that he aimed -for is not there. His nose is beginning to get a bit sore when the bell -rings with rather a welcome sound. - -Lacking the punch this “vet” seems to be all right for three rounds. -He’s a bit winded, to be sure, but who wouldn’t be under the -circumstances? It’s good, anyhow, to see him with the mitts on once -more. It makes a fellow think of old times. I am just about to become -reminiscent when the gong rings again. - -“Shake hands and windup,” says the referee. - -The padded fists meet for an instant, the Kid steps back one pace and -then lunges forward. He comes in with a jab, and he catches Haley -squarely on the mouth with his left. Aha, he has landed. He pulls -his right back to follow it up, but in that fraction of a second his -chance has gone, for he’s up against a ring general. Two more futile -rushes and then he tried again. This time he misses with the left, but -starting his right without pulling back, he catches his man on the jaw -just in front of the ear. He feels the blow land and then he starts in -with rights and lefts, but shifty Patsy steps inside of them and they -go around his neck. In a frenzy the Kid pushes him away, but for his -trouble he gets another jab on that sore nose that brings the moisture -to his eyes. - -“Make him fight, Kid,” bawls the trainer; “go after him.” - -He might as well go after a dancing sunbeam as to go after the elusive, -shifty, smiling Patsy, who is stalling and jabbing the third round -away, and when the final gong rings he is still going after him with -nothing doing. There is bitterness in his heart, but it doesn’t last, -for when they shake hands, the little fellow who made many a good one -in his day look like a draught horse, remarks: - -“You’re all right, Kid, and you’ll beat a lot of them some day.” - -[Illustration: The glitter of a circus became too much for them to -resist] - - - - -A CASE OF KNOCKOUT DROPS - - -In a back room of a place just off Broadway sat a good-looking -brunette--you will notice all these girls of mine are good looking--and -three young fellows of the kind known to the police as “cadets.” There -was nothing unusual about this room except that it was better furnished -than you would have expected, and it had expensive oil paintings on -the walls. Besides, it was carpeted. All this would mean higher-priced -drinks if not a better service. - -It was a drinking place where women might come with their escorts and -feel reasonably safe from intrusion, and midnight was its busiest -hour. Just now was the calm which precedes the storm, and there were -not enough guests to induce the waiters to cease their gossiping and -loafing in the big room outside. - -The woman who sat there at the little round table was a common type; -you can see her like wherever you go, especially at night. When the -sun has gone down and the lights are bright, she flutters out of some -cave-like dwelling like a new kind of butterfly, with the instincts of -the moth, in that she flutters only at night, and in her veins runs the -blood of a hunter, for she is ever on the trail. - -This one is pretty in a negative sort of way. Her features are regular, -her teeth are white and strong, and her eyes are bright and have -expression, but if you will look close you will notice a hard glance -there. It is neither merciful nor kind. - -She has emotions, but they are hardly worth considering, for they are -of the baser sort. - -She has nerve, daring, courage and calmness, and because her life has -been a constant warfare she fears nothing. She may dread the touch of a -policeman’s hand and the command to “Come on,” but she doesn’t fear it. -There is a difference, you know, between the words of fear and dread. - -It is unfortunate that she was born to be what she is. - -Her first adventure in life was when she became infatuated with the -glitter of the arena, and with a girl companion of her own age took up -with a couple of clowns attached to a circus. But she soon found the -difference between the dressing tents and reserved seats and headed for -the nearest big city. - -“There ain’t a case note among the four of us,” remarks one of the men. -“I think we’re a bunch of shines. The first thing you know we’ll have -to go out and look for jobs.” - -The girl was drumming idly on the table with her fingers. - -“You’re the strongest one of the lot, what’s the matter with you making -a start?” said another to the one who had just spoken. - -“I’d look nice getting up with the milk wagons, wouldn’t I?” - -The girl stopped her drumming and glanced up. - -“You can leave me out of all this argument,” she remarked, “for I don’t -figure. No more Broadway for mine after ten o’clock to-night, and it’s -a case of good-by for you, too, Jack.” - -“I suppose that’s another one of your funny jokes,” said Jack, “but I -don’t like those kind of stories, so you can cut it out.” - -“No funny story about it at all,” she went on, in that even, monotonous -way which is particularly aggravating. “I’m tired of this way of -living, and I’m tired of being a coaling station, and I know when I got -enough.” - -“Where are you going?” - -She had resumed her drumming and paid no attention. - -“Who are you going with?” - -“That’s none of your damned business.” - -He leaned forward and taking her by the wrist gave her a vicious pull -toward him. - -“I suppose it’s that guy from the country?” - -“Well, what if it is?” she said defiantly, and then, as if she had -suddenly made up her mind, she went on, talking rapidly, as a woman -will do when she is under a nervous strain: - -“He’s going to do what you never thought of doing--he’s going to marry -me and make me decent--if it ain’t too late. He’s going to meet me -here at ten o’clock and we’re going to jump to the Coast. He’s got the -coin, for he’s sold out his farm. He’s going to take me out there, and -he says we are going to begin all over again; that I’ll have a good -chance, for nobody will know where I came from. What do I get here? -Nothing. If I’m sick I can go to the hospital or die in my room like a -rat in a garret. I haven’t a friend in the world who would do anything -for me on the level and for pure friendship’s sake. If I was to grow -old to-morrow, I couldn’t get enough to buy a cup of coffee, and of -all the good fellows I know there is only one who would walk across the -street to do anything for me just because he liked me. You’re broke -now, and you are wondering how you are going to get money, but you know -down in your heart that you’re expecting me to get it for you. You’ve -got a long wait, for I’ll not get it. I’m through, and that settles it.” - -“So you’ve been meeting this fellow on the quiet, have you?” asked the -one who was called Jack. - -“No, I haven’t seen him for five years.” - -“Don’t think you can kid me; how have you been framing things up then -if you haven’t been meeting him?” - -She gazed at him steadily for a moment as if she were shaping her -course, and then she said: - -“Well, I’ll just put you right for once. I suppose you’ve heard of the -mail. Well, I’ve been getting letters from him, and here,” pulling one -from a little handbag she carried, “is the last one.” - -With a quick, deft movement he snatched it from her hand and opened it. -At the first line he laughed loudly. - -“He’s nutty, all right--he must have it bad. Listen to him:” - -He began to read. - -MY DEAR LITTLE GIRL:--I have just received your letter, and the world -looks different to me already. I don’t want you to tell me any more -about yourself, for I don’t want to know any more. We have nothing to -do with the past now, it is only the future which concerns us and that -will be what we make it. I have sold the old farm, so we have $12,000 -to start with, and I shall be in New York at the place you suggest and -on time to the minute, so you can look for me. Don’t bother about -baggage or any of your personal belongings, for all we will want is a -minister. After that we can talk things over. I hate to leave the old -place, but it makes no difference now that I’m going to have you. - - Yours always, JOE. - -He handed the letter back to her. - -“Little girl, you’re all right after all, ain’t she, fellows? Landed a -guy with $12,000 in cold coin, and he’ll have the goods on him, too, I -suppose. We won’t do a thing but take that bank roll away and send him -back to the farm again.” - -Then he turned to the girl. - -“How’s the best way to do it? Give him the peter? Maybe it will be best -to take him up to the room and wait till he gets asleep. It’s your job, -Maude, so we’ll do as you say. It’s only nine o’clock, and we’ve got an -hour yet to frame it up.” - -She was looking at him with horror in her face. - -“You’re wrong,” she cried, “he’s not to be trimmed. He’s going to marry -me and we are going away. There’s no job about this, and I want you to -leave him alone.” - -“We’ll leave him alone all right, and when you see the new front on me -to-morrow you’ll think I own Broadway. Twelve thousand dollars, why, -the four of us can go to Europe on that.” - -Then she stood up. - -“If you touch him or try to turn him off I’ll call in a cop and have -you all pinched,” and she swept her hand at them with an inclusive -movement. - -“Don’t go off your nut like that, everything will be all right,” said -Jack. “You’ll get your bit, no matter what happens, but you’re talking -like a crazy woman. You never used to be like this. You’ve been in -tougher jobs before. You just think you’re stuck on this Joe because he -writes you a nice letter, but there’s nothing to it. You stick to me -and I’ll stick to you, and this bundle will put us on Easy Street. Why -don’t you be nice?” - -She had partly turned her back on them and was looking at one of the -pictures on the wall. - -It is when a woman is silent that she is most dangerous, because -then she is thinking. Give a woman time to think and you are simply -supplying her with ammunition. But the stupid man who had dominated -by brute force knew nothing of this. To him her silence meant -acquiescence, and he scented an easy victory. - -With a quick, alert nod of his head he motioned the other two from the -room, and they left silently and like automatons, their feet on the -carpet giving forth no sound, but her senses were keen and she knew -when they had gone. As the door closed behind them she turned around -with a smile on her face. - -“I think,” she said, “that you will be a fool as long as you live. Here -I find a man with a big roll, and arrange to have him bring it to us -on a gold plate and you turn around, make me give my hand away, and -declare those two dead ones in on the play. You’ll never have sense if -you live to be a hundred years old.” - -He looked at her admiringly. - -“You’re better than I thought,” he said at last. “We’ll jump to Europe -on this. Wait ’till I get a paper and see if there is a ship sailing -to-morrow morning. We’ll make a quick getaway from the whole crowd.” - -He almost ran through the door in his eagerness. - -He was back in a few moments with a newspaper in his hand. Eagerly he -scanned the columns devoted to shipping news. - -“Good,” he ejaculated, “there’s one goes to France. Sails at nine -o’clock. We’ll head for Paris--there’s the place to buy your clothes; -swell, too, and cheap; and we won’t take anything with us, we’ll buy it -all there.” - -“Get down to cases,” she said sharply. “How are you going to do this?” - -“I’ve got the peter drops,” he said, putting his hand to his pocket. -“That’ll be the easiest way. We’ll just dope him a bit, grab the money, -get out quick, and lay low somewhere until to-morrow.” - -“You know best,” she said, but her voice had a strained tone in it that -escaped him. “But whatever you do, whenever I give you any kind of a -tip take it quick, see.” - -Even as she spoke the door was pushed open and a well-built, -brown-faced young fellow strode in, looked around, paused irresolutely, -and then went toward her with a smile on his face and his hand -outstretched. - -“You see, I’m on time, Maude,” he said. - -“Yes, Joe, and I’ve been waiting for you a long while. This is a friend -of mine who has been very good to me, and I want you to know him. His -name is Jack. That’s been enough for me and I guess it will be enough -for you.” - -“Let’s have one drink, and then I’ll have to be getting along,” said -Jack, briskly. - -The other didn’t drink, but the coaxing of the girl made him almost -forget his name, and three glasses of whiskey were ordered from the -man who came at the summons of the bell. - -They were about to drink when she suddenly exclaimed: - -“Oh, Joe, here’s a picture that always makes me think of the old days; -see, that one with the lake,” and as Joe looked the other man deftly -poured the dose into the waiting glass. She saw it done and nodded her -approval, and then, while they were still talking about the picture, -she asked Jack to get her a pencil so she could write a note. In -little affairs of this kind strict obedience to an order is absolutely -necessary, so he did not question her, but went at once. - -When he returned they were sitting at the table again. - -“Now for our last drink together,” she remarked gayly, “and here’s that -we may all be happy,” and she looked at Jack. - -And so they drank, and then Jack set himself to watching furtively out -of the corner of his eye this man with the money. He fell to wondering -just where it was, and turned cold at the thought that it might have -been left at some place for safe keeping. Once his eyes closed and he -opened them with an effort. The girl said something, and it took him -some little time before his brain could figure out what he ought to -say in reply, and longer still for his lips to form the words. She was -talking rapidly, but her voice seemed a great distance away. - -“Come on, Joe,” he heard that all right. “Come on, it’s time we were -going. We must hurry.” - -It didn’t seem at all strange to him that they should want to hurry; in -fact, it seemed quite natural. - -“If he’s a friend of yours we ought not to leave him here like that.” -That was the man’s voice, he could swear to that. - -“Come on,” she said again, and for hours afterward it was as if the -world was filled with women shouting “come on, come on,” to tall, -athletic young fellows with blue eyes and brown faces, and the -incessant murmur of it all made his head ache. - -Then he was being violently handled by someone who appeared to be -intent upon annoying him and causing his head to hurt still worse. - -He was slapped and walked, and a strange, queer liquid was being forced -between his teeth. - -Then he opened his eyes. - -“You’re all right now, I guess,” said a man’s unfamiliar voice. - -“What’s the matter?” he asked thickly. - -“Nothing much, only you’ve been drugged and your heart came near -quitting. Lie down now and rest up a bit and you’ll be all right after -a while.” - -“Where the devil am I?” he asked, after the manner of the abducted girl -in the society drama. - -“You’re in the hospital--you ought to be glad you’re alive.” - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: Wild revelry of the masked ball and the perfect ladies -with the hot sports] - - - - -DISCOVERING A PRIMA DONNA - - -The great see-saw of life is as interesting as a poker game if you -only have a mind to watch it, but, like the poker game, it must be -thoroughly understood and closely studied to appreciate the fine -points. In the beginning we all take cards, we all draw to fill; the -winning hands slip easily through life, while the four flushes try to -bluff it out, and there’s many a four flush in New York to-day who is -getting away with it. - -Many a girl who wears a sailor hat never saw a yacht, and many a man -who wears a diamond pin couldn’t pay fifty cents on the dollar if it -came to a show down. - -But that isn’t the story by any means. - -I call this little recital of facts the beginning and the end; you’ll -see why later as the plot thickens. - -New York with the lid on is New York just the same, no matter what the -police say. It’s all there, only it is covered up a bit. - -The shades are pulled closer, but the lights and everything else are -behind them. - -The wild revelry of the masked ball is toned down not one jot, and the -perfect ladies in tights who help to make life endurable for the sports -on these occasions do not add, so far as can be seen, even so much as -one piece of jewelry to their scant costumes. - -You may never have seen the kind of room I’m going to introduce to you, -but if you haven’t it’s your fault, for they are common enough, not -only in New York, but in many other cities. - -There’s space enough for dancing here, and the floor is polished like -glass. Around the sides are round tables for the drinkers, and they are -the most important feature, for if you don’t drink, or at least order -drinks, you had better skiddoo, for you’ll not have a very pleasant -time. - -At one end of the room is an orchestra, consisting of a piano and a -violin. I don’t need to call your attention to the fact that the fellow -who is playing the violin knows his business. You can tell that by the -way he handles his instrument. He never learned that touch out of a -book, nor did he acquire that technique at the rate of ten lessons for -a dollar, cash in advance. A few years before he was playing nocturnes -and sonatas before fashionable audiences for big money, but he hit -the slide and now he’s at the bottom--a dollar a night and drinks for -ragtime. - -The hands on the clock which mark the flight of time show exactly -midnight, and business is at high tide. It’s a case of get the money -between now and three o’clock and then slow down, and every aggressive -waiter in the place is hustling as if his life depended on it. - -A girl is standing at the piano as the orchestra strikes the -introduction of a song. Not a bad-looking girl if you observe her -closely. Rather a strong face, good, honest blue eyes, set well -apart, and a chin in which there is some hint of determination and -self-reliance. She has a trim little figure, not voluptuous, but good -to look at--the kind of a figure that seems to belong in an evening -gown, and which men turn around to look at. - -The only thing that stamps her as an habitue of the place is her -dress. Its gaudiness was made for the night. It is a street beacon -which proclaims at every step, “follow me.” The picture hat, with the -sweeping red feather, heightens the effect. It is all very stagey, and -would look as garish as spangles in the honest light of day. - -But this is not a daylight scene, so we’ll let that pass. - -“Ha, there, you noisy guys, cut out that chinnin’; Little Melba’s goin’ -ter sing. Cheese it.” - -It is the strident voice of a waiter that admonishes a noisy party at -one of the tables, and it has an immediate effect. - -It’s just as well, you know, to pay a little attention to the advice of -a waiter in a place like this. - -And so she sings her song. - -It is a refrain with a swing to it, and it tells the story of a man and -a woman in a rather affecting way, and for her loyalty to him, the man -calls the woman his pal. - -But the words don’t count here; it’s the voice, and you’ll see why they -call her Little Melba. Every note is true and clear, and there is never -a falter at the high ones. - -It doesn’t need a waiter to command order now; the first line of that -song, as sung by her, did more than all the waiters in the world could -do. - -It commanded the respectful attention of that mixed mob. - -At the finish of the first chorus, a sailor in the exuberance of his -admiration, and feeling that he must give voice to his sentiments in -some tangible manner, roared out: - -“You’re all right, old pal; you’re all right.” - -She smiled at the compliment, nodded at him in a friendly way, and then -she continued. - -Every night she sang there--ten songs--and she was paid exactly the -same as the waiters--one dollar, but she received in addition certain -privileges, the details of which need not be entered into here, because -they have nothing to do with the story. - -One of the waiters--the one who had called out for order--was her man. -She called him another name, and he was known to the world by still -another. As a matter of fact, although he didn’t know it, he belonged -to her--although he thought she belonged to him--for the clothes that -he wore were bought with her money, the food that he ate she paid for, -and it was she who rented the place which he called home. She was the -bread winner, she bore the burden of life, and she took the blows. The -police kept their eyes on her, but paid no attention to the man--the -real criminal. - -As the last notes of her song forced their way through the clouds of -tobacco smoke, three men in evening dress came in. They were of the -usual kind of visitors from which the waiters always expect a wine -order. They wore evening clothes like men who had been used to them all -their lives, and it didn’t need the sharp eyes of a waiter in a tough -resort like this to detect that air of prosperity which invariably -forms an invisible halo about money. - -The square-jawed, square-shouldered young fellow who took the order -was not disappointed. It was wine, and as he uncorked the bottle, full -of a sense of his own importance, one of them asked, casually: - -“Who is the lady who was singing as we came in?” - -“Little Melba; she’s there with de goods, all right, ain’t she?” - -“Tell her to come over here and have a drink.” - -“Sure. Ha, Melba, you’re wanted over here,” he bawled, and smilingly -she came. - -“Will you have a drink?” asked the man who had sent for her. - -“Wine?” she queried, “I’d rather have a glass of beer, if it’s all the -same to you, for I’m thirsty enough to drink a keg. Then me for the -wine afterward.” - -After her drink had been ordered and she had tossed it off with the air -of one who is well used to it, she remarked: - -“Now I’ll hit a little of that fizz, if you don’t mind.” - -“How long have you been singing here?” - -“Oh, about six months. It’s a bum job, though. The smoke gets in my -throat.” - -“What songs do you sing?” - -She ran over a list that took in all the popular melodies of the day. - -“Here’s a dollar, get up and sing another one--anyone will do, and do -your best.” - -Dollars for singing one song were rare for her, so she obeyed with -alacrity, and she sang as best she knew. - -When she had finished she came back to where they were sitting just as -one of the men was saying: - -“Why don’t you give her a chance, Jim? You can never tell how these -kind will turn out. Remember Elinore was dug up out of just such a -joint as this.” - -“Do you want to go on the stage?” asked Jim, abruptly. - -“Do I?” and she unconsciously straightened up. “Why, I’d go on for -nothing, just to show them I could make good. Say, I’d work for my -board. Can you put me on?” - -“I think I can,” and smiled as he said it. - -He pulled a card case out of his vest pocket, took a card from it, -which he handed to her. - -“Come see me to-morrow afternoon at three o’clock.” - -She looked at the name on the card and gasped in astonishment, for it -was that of one of the best-known of metropolitan theatrical managers, -whose chief claim to fame lay in the many successful productions of -comic opera. - -“Are you on the level with this?” she asked, incredulously. - -“Come around to-morrow and see,” he answered. - -“Put it there,” she said, excitedly, as she held out her hand, and -then she called out to the waiter to whom she believed she owed her -allegiance: - -“Billy, Billy, come over here.” - -With a roll and a swagger, and not too hurriedly, lest he lose one -tithe of that dignity which he believed went with the position of -beer slinger in one of the toughest joints in New York, Billy came, -scowling, as if he already scented in the air coming interference with -his plans of life. - -“See, Billy,” she said, laughing like a little girl with the joy of it -all. “See, this is the great theatre manager, and he’s going to give -me a show to see what I can do. I’m going on the stage, Billy, in a -regular theatre, and sing before the people. Ain’t it great?” - -She was like a child in her enthusiasm. - -“Come on, let me blow the crowd: what are you going to have, boys?” -this last with a comprehensive sweep of the hands. “I’m buying now.” - -Billy stood looking down on her with a scowl. - -“What’s all dis?” he asked. “What’s comin’ off here, and me not in on -de play?” - -Then he turned to the manager. - -“What are yer doing--givin’ me gal a jolly, ha? Well, cut it out, it -don’t go here, see? Don’t let ’em string yer, Melba. I guess de’re a -bunch of pretty flip guys wid all dere glad rags; what?” - -“This ain’t no string, Billy, this is all right, ain’t it, Mister?” and -she appealed to the man who had been talking to her. - -“It’s all right as far as I am concerned,” was the answer. “You do as I -say, and if you have any ambition, I guess you’ll get along all right.” - -“Do as you say?” queried the waiter, scornfully. “You ain’t no Pierpont -Morgan. What’s de matter wid her doin’ as I say once in er while. Do -yer t’ink I’m a dummy wot ain’t got no voice? I guess nit. Just cut all -dis funny business out and leave my gal alone.” - -“Take it easy, Billy, and don’t get excited. This is a chance for me, -don’t you see? What’s the good of staying here and losing my voice for -a dollar a night when I might be getting big money in the theatre?” - -“Big money nothin’,” he protested. “Ain’t yer on dat it’s only a stall? -Dis guy is stuck on yer, dat’s it. He wants to win yer away from me.” - -The three wise men who had been drinking wine rose to their feet just -as any other three wise men would have done under the circumstances. It -doesn’t pay to get mixed up with a waiter in a tough joint, because -the waiter always gets the best of it--that’s why he is a waiter. He -has a lot to do besides serving drinks, and if he wasn’t handy with his -fists, and feet, too, for that matter, he couldn’t hold his place for -more than a night. - -As they started for the door the girl stood up. - -“I’ll be there to-morrow, all right,” she called out. - -“Over my dead body you will,” came Billy’s voice. - -They were out of the door by this time, too late to hear the sound of a -blow and too late to see the girl drop to the floor. - -They don’t interfere in those kind of family rows in the Tenderloin, or -in the Bowery, either. - -It isn’t healthy. - -It’s etiquette to mind your own business and keep out of the way. And -so nobody paid any attention to the weeping girl and the swearing -blackguard. But that night in a dingy room a girl cried herself to -sleep, and between her tears made up her mind what she would do on the -morrow. - -She did what she had planned to do, and twenty-four hours later the -tough waiter was looking for another girl to take her place. - -Between you and me, that happened a long while ago, as we count time -in New York. Since then she has been abroad, to the Pacific Coast and -in all of the large American cities. Her name is in big type on the -posters, and she is referred to as a prima donna. - -I wonder if her memory ever takes her back to the little back room -where she used to sing songs for a dollar a night? - - - - -A THROW OF THE DICE - - -There is probably no street in the world that has the same number and -style of restaurants as Broadway, New York, especially the kind that -are within the bounds of the Tenderloin. Chuck Conners would call them -feed joints; the irreverent might refer to them as hash houses, and the -slangy man or woman who wanted to designate them might be pardoned for -dubbing them lobster palaces. But there would be a lot of sense and -reason in the last if you were only on, or took the time to think it -over. - -There is nothing to them in the daytime, and the heavily carpeted -floors and snowy-clad tables burdened with silver and glass are -practically out of commission. There are a few waiters on duty, but -no one ever heard of them being overworked, even with the rush of the -merry-merry after a matinee. - -These money-makers begin to rouse up a bit about the time the average -man of business affairs is finishing his quiet dinner at home, but the -time to go there if you want to see things, and by things I mean the -sights and celebrities, is after the theatres have let out the evening -performance. Then, if you amount to anything, you will have a table -where you can see and be seen, and you will feast upon a bite that will -cost you nothing less than a ten-dollar bill, not including wine. - -[Illustration: It’s only a dream after the lobster course] - -The shining lights of this world are in a class by themselves, and -include the bookmaker with a loud voice--a trifle heavier than his bank -roll; the gambler, soft of hand and manner; the sport who has done -something or other at some time or other to entitle him to a passing -recognition; the detective sergeant, who is a necessary evil, and who -mixes in for business purposes of his own, and not for the purpose of -doing the work for which he is paid by the city; then, last of all, the -actor--star or semi-star. - -They order as if the cooks in all the world were working for them -alone, and the waiters were employed for their exclusive benefit. -They are epicures and gourmets by force of circumstances, and the -circumstances are a roll of bank bills about the size of a man’s wrist. -Most of them have risen to a mushroom-like affluence. - -The money came quickly, and they are spending it just as quickly. - -They know the difference in wines simply because of the price, and -they order that which sounds the best, so for that reason a stream of -the juice of the grape floods a bunch of uneducated palates and floats -high-priced food that would kill a man with an ordinary digestive -apparatus. - -Not one in a hundred of these men were to the manor born; their lives -were cast in stony places and what they are they made themselves -by sheer force of will, or else they accepted the golden wreath of -opportunity and knew which road to take when they came to the forks. - -At a table near the wall is a man who twenty years ago was a bootblack -of the city’s streets. - -From river to river there was no spot on which he could put his finger -and say: - -“This is my home.” - -He grew up like a blade of grass sprouting between stones, and he -fought tooth and nail for his life. He knew what kicks and cuffs were, -and if his memory isn’t bad he knows yet. - -He blacked the boots of a man with florid face, a heavy gold chain -across his vest, and a mammoth stone blazing like a headlight in his -scarf, and because this boy was bright of eye and keen of wit his -customer, whose business was politics, took a fancy to him. Had this -little nomad been born with a gold spoon in his mouth he could not have -fared better, nor could his prospects have been more alluring, for a -politician, you know, is a man who, when he goes to bed at night, hangs -his trousers on the bedpost, and when he wakes up in the morning the -pockets are full of money. At least, that is my idea, and if I am wrong -just let some of the leading politicians of to-day contradict me, and -tell me truly how they got theirs. - -While this man is eating his lobster a la Newburg, and sipping the wine -that cost him $5 a bottle, I’ll go on with the story. - -For about two weeks he blacked his patron’s shoes, and then one fateful -morning the man with the bull neck said sharply: - -“Chuck that box away, son, and come along with me.” - -He didn’t wait for the boy to take the cue and act on it, but he gave -the box a kick with his square-toed boot that sent it to the middle of -the street, and then he led the boy to a clothing shop where he had -him fitted out with everything a fellow that size ought to have. - -He saw possibilities in this youngster, and he figured that it would -be a wise move to have some one as close to him as his shirt, and upon -whom, in time of trouble, he could depend with absolute certainty. - -A good bed, good food three times a day and money in the pocket serves -often to make a marvelous transformation, and it was so in this case, -and the erstwhile bootblack forgot in a moment that he had ever shined -shoes or performed any menial services for any human being. He was -swept along on the tide of prosperity with his patron and he scoffed -at poor things and poor people, as might have been expected. He was -aggressive to everyone except his source of income, whom he followed -and fawned upon like a hound. - -The work he did was criminal, but he did it cheerfully, even though a -hundred could have sent him up the river with a word. His morals were -as flat as a desert, and he grew into a selfish, egotistical, arrogant, -blatant man whose friends were friends by force of circumstances, and -not by reasons of any virtues that he possessed, or of any real liking -they had for him. - -In the course of time the big man with the neck of a gladiator died, -and was buried in a manner fitting his life. A ton of flowers followed -him to the six-foot hole which had been provided for him; a few bottles -of wine were drunk by his cronies to drown their grief and to toast his -successful debut into that new and unknown world to which he had gone, -and that was all. - -The bootblack, who had taken himself seriously, and was fond of calling -himself a gentleman on all possible occasions, for no other reason -apparently than that he wore the best clothes that money could buy, -took possession of his patron’s effects, rifled his safe, his desk, and -appropriated to himself everything that was of the slightest value, and -then developed into a short card man. - -So he sits there to-night, eating lobster and talking to a woman who, -between you and me, is worth looking at more than once. - -By an old and familiar, as well as extremely simple, process she had -taken his name. It was a trifling matter, settled in a moment over -a small bottle, and her only speculation was as to whether he could -suitably provide for her. - -It was a very good investment for him, for she has proven to be a very -useful little lady in more ways than one. She knows a lot of real nice -boys, and when they get very sporty she tells them about a good game -where good fellows may be found. She is the kind of a woman who would -make a sport out of a church deacon, consequently she fits very snugly -into the life and trade of our friend the shoe-shiner. - -When you get to know her passing well she will tell you how she was -educated in a convent, which she left to visit a wealthy aunt in -Pittsburg. While there she became engaged to marry a rich broker, and -so on, and so on, you know, the same old story. The stage figures in -it, too, because there is always a fascinating glamor about the other -side of the footlights. - -She has been in comic opera and she has a lot of expensive photographs -of herself in theatrical poses, but no matter how well posted you may -be you fail to recall her name, even though she was an understudy for -Lillian Russell, “when Lillian was good.” - -If you let your glance rove across the room to a table close by one of -the central pillars, you will see another type of woman, and this one -is worth studying. - -She will never see her fortieth birthday again, although she looks -about thirty-two. That may be art, or it may be an inherited physical -characteristic, but the fact remains that she is still young enough and -good looking enough to attract a man. - -She is a veritable star and her singing and acting are flawless. - -The fine old gentleman she is chatting with is the head of a very -ancient and very distinguished family of New York, and she is under his -protecting wing. - -That is a remarkable feature of her career; she always selects with -painstaking care, nice old men, with families. - -And for that there may be a good and sufficient reason. - -While you are watching her and noting her rather dainty ways, which are -perhaps a bit too dainty for one of her age, listen to the little story -I am going to tell you about her. - -Not so many years ago, but just about the time when she was in the -zenith of her career, she met just the same kind of a man she is -talking with now. She had had a great deal of experience with old men -and she took advantage of all she knew to make him like her. - -She succeeded--hence this story. - -The old fellow was all right, and he knew what was necessary under the -circumstances, and he made good with characteristic rapidity. The first -thing he did was to buy her a handsome brownstone house on a quiet side -street, fill it full of handsome furniture, and then he blew himself -in for a neat little brougham and pair for theatre use. - -So far, so good, and the play went merrily on. - -And now comes a spectacle, or a melodrama, or even a farce, if you like. - -He wasn’t her constant companion, because he was clever enough -to realize that if she saw too much of him it might be fatal to -his chances, so he timed his visits with careful exactitude, and -incidentally showered her with gifts--which, after all, is one of the -direct roads to a woman’s heart. - -But he made the fatal mistake one day of introducing to her one of his -old friends, and from that moment there began a fierce rivalry between -them for the smiles of the auburn-haired actress; it was a duel with -a lock of hair as a reward; a combat with a smile for the victor, and -they both went to work with a will and to the exclusion of every other -object in life. - -When one bought her a magnificent solitaire, she showed it to the other -and he promptly laid a tiara at her feet, and it was unquestionably the -greatest battle of senile old idiots that ever raged. - -Separately they took to waylaying her on the street from her house -to the theatre, and back again, and one even went so far as to buy a -magnificent yacht, equip it for a long cruise, and attempt to kidnap -her. But that plan failed, and it was just as well that it did, because -the man who does eccentric stunts of that character is apt to find -himself in hot water sooner or later, and in any event reap a whirlwind -of scorn from the lady in the case. - -Finally, the climax came, as it was bound to come, when they met at her -house one Sunday afternoon. - -All this may be new to you, but you must remember it was as common in -club circles as the Spanish war, and the results of the affair were -watched for by thousands of men whose names figure conspicuously in the -public prints. - -They met and they quarreled, and when my lady appeared on the scene -these two beaux were on the verge of punching each other in good old -Queensbury fashion. - -“Gentlemen, gentlemen, I beg that you will not quarrel in _my_ house.” - -You will notice that she put the accent on the word “my.” - -At once there were criminations and recriminations, but with that -charm of manner which made her famous, not only on the stage, but in -the drawing room, to say nothing of the cafe, she poured oil on the -troubled waters. - -“I do not really know what your differences are about, but if you will -allow me, I would like to suggest that you settle them in some amicable -way. Here are dice and a cup, why not play for it?” - -They looked at each other for a moment, and then one said: - -“Yes, we will do it, madame, just the thing. Here, I will make the -first throw,” and out upon the shining surface of the golden table -rolled the three ivory cubes. - -They fought it out while she looked on languidly, and at last when it -had been decided, the winner arose exultingly and shouted: - -“I have won.” - -“Won what?” she queried, curiously. - -“Won what? Why, won you.” - -“Won me?” and she placed her taper finger on her breast. “Why, how very -charming that is. I ought to congratulate you, I suppose, and I shall -certainly let you know when I come back--if you are still alive.” - -“You’re not going away?” he faltered. “When?” - -“I sail to-morrow morning at eight o’clock; I go aboard this afternoon. -I am going to Europe for a good long rest; mother says I need it, and -so we are going together. Good afternoon. Let me congratulate you on -being so lucky, and to win me, too. Why, it’s like a romance. How -splendidly that would stage.” - -Down the street the two old fellows walked, one slightly in advance of -the other. At the corner the one who was ahead, hesitated a moment, -then turned and waited for the other to come up. - -“Tom,” he said. “I don’t know what you think, but I am of the opinion -that we are a pair of damned old fools who ought to know better. Let’s -go and have a drink.” - -The old gentleman who is pouring out that wine for her now would -perhaps like to hear that story in all its wealth of detail, but even -if he knew it might make no difference. - -Of all the thousands of people who go to restaurants there are only a -few who do not go for the sole purpose of eating. We have been here an -hour and have looked over but two tables, and the story is not half -told. - -[Illustration] - - - - -A VOICE IN THE SLUMS - - -This is one of the “places” of New York. - -It is not worth looking at in the daylight, because there is nothing to -see. - -It is gray, dull, dreary and desolate--too dismal to be considered for -even a moment. - -About it all there is not one thing that is attractive. - -It is downtown and on the East Side, and that is enough to tell the -story. - -If you have never been downtown on the East Side of this big city, go -and take a look some time, it is worth it, and you may see some things -there--as I have--that will interest you. - -At night you wouldn’t recognize this place because of the softening and -concealing effect of the electric lights. - -Besides the lights there is music, and in addition to that there are -women--what kind of women you can guess, but the fact remains that they -are still women, and even their presence helps to brighten up this spot -of the slums. - -Toughs of the street straggle in singly and by twos, glancing warily -about for prey, or in search of girls to whom they are attached. The -type is familiar enough in every city. Square-jawed, low-browed, with -shifting eyes and an aggressive manner; dressing well when the money -comes easy, and not so well when hard times arrive; living by their -wits, which at the best is precarious, relying for the necessities of -life upon a girl; spending a certain portion of time in jail, unless, -as it often happens, they are too cowardly to rob a man, but not too -cowardly to take from a woman. - -[Illustration: She figured once at a masked ball that was raided by the -police] - -Sightseers drift in, too, from everywhere, look curiously about, as if -expecting some remarkable and extraordinary occurrence at any moment, -and failing in that, they take chairs at the nearest table, and give -meek orders to the aggressive waiter for liquors which they seem afraid -to drink. - -At stated intervals someone sings a song, and between times the music -plays a waltz for those who care to dance on the bit of polished floor -reserved for that purpose. - -The very dregs of high life. - -It is the lees of the wine. - -Just a few years ago--so short a time that it seems almost like -yesterday--a young woman was singing in light operas and doing -occasional turns in vaudeville. If I were to tell you her name now it -would have as familiar a sound to you as the name of any other popular -performer. - -One of her distinguishing characteristics was her voice, which had a -remarkable and extraordinary range. - -And how she could use it. - -She was absolute master of it, and there was no doubt about her -success, nor her future, either, barring accidents, of course. - -Besides that she was good to look at. She was of a distinctive style of -beauty, and she had a fetching way with her which spelled magnetism. - -Magnetism, between you and me, means success on the stage--or anywhere -else, for that matter. Take the best actor or actress in the world, one -who is perfect in lines, diction and stage business; who is absolute -master of the art of stage craft, and rob them of magnetism, and I will -show you a failure. - -So, you see, this young woman was well equipped for the business she -was in, and there is the picture. - -Nicely gowned, looking and acting like a thoroughbred, she had a big -following of admirers, and there didn’t seem to be anything on earth -within reason that she wanted she couldn’t have. - -The limit of her vices was a few mild drinking bouts with the boys -and the occasional smoking of a cigarette, even though there was a -possibility that in the years to come the tobacco would destroy the -finer tones of her voice. - -The moral end of the business was her own affair, and consequently will -not be touched on. - -Now look. - -See that pallid woman? - -The one who has just come in. She is talking to a waiter now. Her thin -face is seamed with lines, and the light of youth, of life and of -enthusiasm has gone out of her eyes. - -You wouldn’t think she was once a beautiful girl with a wonderful -voice, would you? - -“I had the yin-yin so bad,” she is saying, “that I had to go in and hit -two pills before I came out. Now I’m good till the lights go out.” - -One night, after the show, she went with a party on a slumming tour -through Chinatown. They were out to have a good time and nothing more. - -In one of the resorts in which they stopped was a good-looking young -bartender who caught her fancy. He was all right in a way, but she -outclassed him about twenty to one, but there is no telling what a -woman is going to do, or upon whom she is going to bestow her favors, -any more than one can tell what the state of the weather will be a -month or two months from now. - -She thought she was in love with him--but she wasn’t. She had only -taken a fancy to him, which was a different sort of a proposition, but -she didn’t know it at that time. - -She went on singing just the same, but the time she was out of the -theatre she spent with him, and the more money she earned the better he -dressed. - -She dipped a little deeper into the different vices, until at last she -went up against the king of them all--opium. - -With all of her drinking and cigarette smoking she was still able to -hold her own and keep her voice in some kind of shape, and many a rare -old song has she trilled in some cheap dive, and made the old-timers -straighten up in their seats and tell her she was all right. Previous -to that she had figured in only one escapade and that was when she was -caught in a raid at a masked ball which was so off-color and made up -of many desperate characters--men and women--that it took a platoon of -police with drawn clubs to bring the affair to a sudden end. - -They will never forget the night when she went down to the “Drum” in -James street, and after setting up the drinks for the crowd, stood in -the centre of the grimy floor and without a note of accompanying music -sang Annie Laurie. - -At the end of the first verse, a drunk crept on his hands and knees -from a dark corner where he had been lying, and staggering to his -feet, looked at her dully with bloodshot eyes, and then cursed her so -violently that she instinctively shrank back for a moment. - -But she had been drinking, too, and was equal to the emergency. - -“Shut up,” she retorted. “I’m going to sing the whole damned song or -break a rib trying,” and with that she started on the second verse. - -Sitting on a chair, holding his head in his hands, the man began to -sob and cry as only a man whose heart is aching can, and then, as if -he could stand it no longer, he rushed madly from the place while she -laughed. - -“I can make them all quit if they will stay long enough.” - -Almost a year later that same man, but dressed and washed and -respectable, came downtown one night, and went through all the places -upon whose floors he had fallen and slept many a night, looking for the -girl who had sung that song. - -He found her at three o’clock in the morning on the Bowery. - -She was sitting at a table in McGurk’s with two men with whom she had -been drinking cheap whiskey for hours. - -“I beg your pardon,” said the man, “but are you the young woman who -sang a song in a place on James street about a year ago--Annie Laurie -it was?” - -“I may have, old pal, I’ve sung a lot of songs in my day.” - -“Well, you will probably be glad to know that that song was the turning -point in my life, and I am now a reformed man. I feel that I owe it to -you, and I want to give you some little memento that you can keep.” - -As he spoke he pulled a package out of his pocket and handed it to her. -With unsteady fingers she unwrapped it and when she had opened the case -she saw a gold watch upon which was engraved: - - _To the singer who saved my life._ - -“You’re a good old sport, all right, let’s have a drink on it.” - -“No, thank you,” he said, hurriedly. “I must be going now, but I want -to tell you that you have a great gift which you are throwing away.” - -“So long, old pal, live while you can, for you’ll be a long time dead,” -she said, and he was gone. - -She looked at the watch curiously for a moment, and then called one of -the waiters. - -“Ha, Jimmy, here’s a swell watch. Ask the old man how much he will give -me for it--it looks to be worth about fifty.” - -The waiter returned in a few minutes and said: - -“He says he’ll give you ten.” - -“All right, he’s on, get the coin.” - -She stayed until she had spent the money, and then she went reeling -home. - -True? Of course it’s true, every word of it. - -But she’s not drinking so hard now, opium is her god, and she spends -most of her time with her pipe and her lamp. Her downward course has -been a very rapid one, and her name has almost been forgotten. - -The man at the next table is whispering to his friends: - -“She was the greatest singer I ever heard, and many a time I’ve gone -to the same show three times in one week just to hear her, and when a -woman’s voice gets me like that you can bet it’s got to be good.” - -“Get her to sing now; I’d like to hear her.” - -“Sing now? Why, she couldn’t sound a note if her life depended on it. -She’s got all she can do to talk plain. She looks like a piece of -leather, doesn’t she? Yet she made the prettiest picture on the stage I -ever saw.” - -Her voice interrupted here. - -It was harsh and strident in tone--there was little of the woman in it. - -“Well, if you won’t buy me a drink I’ll buy one for myself; give me a -whiskey, Jack, and don’t be all night about it, either.” - -“Why don’t you get that Chinky of yours to buy you a drink?” remarks -some one from the other side of the room. - -“Why don’t you mind your own business? He’d buy me all the drinks -I wanted if I would ask him, and that’s more than you would do. If -anybody asks you just tell them that the Chinks are all right, see, and -don’t be so new.” - -“Cut that out, you fresh guy over there, cut it out.” - -Here’s a champion for her; there are a few left who are still under her -spell, or who, remembering what she once was and knowing her in her -palmy days, stick for old time’s sake. - -“Have a drink on me, old pal, and go as far as you like.” - -She comes back with a laugh; and if you look closely--if you have those -kind of eyes that can see things below the surface, so to speak--you -will see that she doesn’t really belong here, and never did. That she -is here because of some unfortunate series of circumstances over which, -perhaps, she had no control. You will see something in her manner that -distinguishes her from the rest of the women, even those who are better -looking and better dressed. It is that intangible, indefinite something -which means blood, or previous environment. It cannot be put on and -taken off like a garment, and when once there it is there to stay. - -That makes the wreck all the more pitiable, and with the same eyes -through which you have just looked you will see the finish. - -It isn’t pleasant to look at, and now, while the music is playing for -the waltz, and the couples are getting on the floor to go through that -interminable routine of steps called dancing, while the painted women -are laughing, and the men are calling them pet--or other--names, we -will go out of this room to where we can breathe a fresher air and see -the stars. - -I’m not sentimental, but there are some things I don’t like to see, -besides, I knew the girl when she was at her best, and I have heard her -sing when she brought the house down with applause. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: Once she had been on the stage, but she got a rough deal -and quit] - - - - -A GIRL OF THE NIGHT - - -The band on the platform at the end of the big hall was booming out -the popular melodies of the day for dear life and the piercing notes -produced by the leather-lunged piccolo player were heard as far as the -street. - -“That guy up there has me deaf with that flute he’s blowing,” remarked -Big Lizzie, “and while I don’t wish him any harm yet I hope he chokes.” - -“That knocks this place,” remarked her pal. “Why, I had a John in here -the other day and he was wanting to buy me a new dress, and I thought -he was wanting to know where I lived, and I was writing my name and -number down on a piece of paper and he got disgusted and went away. It -drives ’em out, if you want to know what I think.” - -But it was once a famous old place when Fourteenth street was really -good, and the casual visitor to New York who didn’t drop in for an hour -or so missed something. - -It was one of the sights, and the great mechanical organ invented and -built by a straight-laced Methodist is there still, although he has -long ago ceased calling the attention of his friends to the fact. Its -tunes to-day are sandwiched in with those of the band, and in the -interval the trombone player gets a chance to recover his breath. - -Morning, noon and night men and women wander in, sit at the little -round tables, drink queer decoctions made of liquor strong enough to -eat into Harveyized steel, and then go forth to tear up the town. The -police pass it by as though it were nothing more serious than an ice -cream parlor or a peanut emporium, while the tide of upholstered and -hand-painted mademoiselles sweep in on the flood and drift out on the -ebb with business written in every line of their faces. - -Their paths radiate like the sticks of a fan from this rendezvous -of the social evil, and in their movements they show nearly all the -characteristics of the honey-gathering bee. - -The engaging and winsome smile of a girl not yet out of her teens had -caught the eye of the man in this story, and against his will he had -allowed her to lead him into this place where mirth was nothing more -nor less than a mask behind which a skeleton face grinned, and where -neither laughter nor anything else was sincere. Her black eyes had not -yet taken on that hardness which the years to come would surely add -to them, and her ways were to a certain extent ingenuous. Besides, -she was distinctly pretty with her Yiddish style of beauty, which -was unfortunately of the kind which matures at sixteen and is old at -twenty-five. Either teaching or a subtle instinct had caused her to -discard the gorgeous plumes and brilliant colors which had marked her -debut on the street less than a year before, and in consequence she -might have passed for anything but what she was. - -She had been on the stage once on a tour, but got a rough deal and -quit. - -He outclassed her by a hundred to one, and his source was as high as -hers was low. There was no tinge of peasantry in his veins, but good -successful American stock traceable back for five or six generations -without a blot upon escutcheon--which, by the way, is rather rare in -these days, consequently it’s worth boasting about. Lured into the -maelstrom of music, he found himself at one of the tables with the girl -beside him, still smiling. - -Liquor has different effects on different men; it turns the mild man -into a savage and makes a careful one reckless in the extreme. In this -particular case caution went to the four winds and sympathy--which -is apt to be dangerous at times--took its place. But let youth and -inexperience excuse him. - -“You haven’t told me your name,” he said. “What is it?” - -“Brown,” she answered, “Jennie Brown.” - -“I mean your right name.” - -“Well, Jennie is my right name--I took the other one after I came out -of the hospital. Some day, maybe, I’ll get married and then I’ll change -it again, but not before.” - -“What did you go to the hospital for--were you ill and did you have no -one to take care of you?” - -“Ill? You mean sick? No, I wasn’t sick; I was stabbed, and I got it -good, too. I was cut from here to here,” and her right forefinger -described across the front of her dress a line that went from her -shoulder to the center of her breast bone. “At first I thought I was -going to croak because I lost a lot of blood, but I’m pretty strong -and I came out all right. You see, it was this way: A guy I knew got -stuck on me and I couldn’t shake him, and he followed me around like a -shadow. I didn’t like him because he wasn’t in my class, and besides he -had another girl and I never took a girl’s fellow away in my life. If -they split up then that’s different, but as long as they’re together I -keep out of it. Every time I’d talk to anybody or go anywhere he’d be -there. One night he followed me and a fellow I had that wanted to buy -wine into Sharkey’s and when he tried to start a fight with my friend -one of the waiters threw him out. Of course that made him sore, and -he said that he’d get even. He did, all right, for one night as I was -going upstairs he was in the top hall waiting for me, and the first -thing I knew he had the knife into me. - -“‘If you won’t have me, take this,’ he said, and then I felt an awful -pain and when I put my hand up the blood was coming through my dress. - -“‘You killed me, Jimmy,’ I said, ‘and I never done anything to you.’ -But there wasn’t any answer to that, for he was running down the stairs -as fast as he could. - -“I was afraid to go up to my room all alone with the blood running out -all over me so I went down to the street to look for my pal, Annie. You -don’t know her but she’s all right. It was two o’clock in the morning -and there was no one around so I thought I’d walk over to Third avenue -and see if I could find any of the girls there and get help. There was -an electric light up on the corner and I hadn’t taken more than a few -steps before it began to move up and down and I got afraid and began to -run. When I got up to the avenue all the lights were going up and down -as if they were crazy and a man on the other side of the street looked -as if he was upside down. - -“Then I began to get frightened and I thought to myself that I’d sit -down on a doorstep for a minute till I got over that queer feeling and -that maybe Annie would come along. So I picked the first one I saw and -flopped down. When I looked up it made me dizzy and so I looked down at -the stone, and as I leaned over I watched the little red drops falling, -one after the other, and always hitting the same spot, and then they -began to spread out and the pool almost reached the sole of my shoe. I -was wondering how long it would take before my foot got wet from it, -and where it all came from, anyhow. It all seemed very funny to me; -then I felt tired and shut my eyes. - -“The next thing I knew I was in bed and there was a nurse there. A cop -was there, too, and when I looked at him he says, ‘Ha, nurse, she’s out -of it.’ - -“‘What place is this?’ I asked. - -“‘You’re in Bellevue Hospital,’ he said, and he was right. I had been -there two days before I knew it. What do you think of that?” - -“You were unconscious,” remarked the young man. - -“Sure I was unconscious,” she responded, “and they asked me all kinds -of questions, who did it and all that, and----” - -“And did you tell them who it was that stabbed you?” - -“Did I tell them? Nix; not on your life. I never rapped on anybody and -I wasn’t going to rap on him, for it wouldn’t do me any good and it -wouldn’t take that stab away, would it? I thought I’d get square myself -some day when I got out of the hospital and was strong again. That’s -the only way. Him going up the river for a couple of years wouldn’t -have done me any good, and maybe he’d have croaked me when he came out. -What’s the good of taking chances? So I hocked all my rings and other -stuff, and got togged up when I came out. I’ll get them all out in a -month, maybe before. I got one now; see,” and she held up a finger on -which was a very big turquoise, surrounded by very small diamonds. -“I’ll get them one at a time, and then if I ever get up against it -again I’ve got them to fall back on. It’s just as good as money, only -the interest is awful. Now if I only had a good friend who would----” - -“Want the waiter?” broke in a hoarse voice like the croak of a mammoth -raven. - -“Give me a claret lemonade, Harry.” - -“And what’ll the gent have?” - -“A Martini cocktail.” - -“Right you are.” - -“As I was saying, if I only had a friend who would be on the level I’d -be square with him, too. I ain’t got no pals, only Annie, and she’s -been pretty good to me. Say, you ain’t married, are you?” - -“No, not yet”; he laughed nervously as he said it. “I don’t believe in -fellows getting married until they’re twenty-five, anyhow.” - -“Neither do I.” - -He noticed that her teeth were very white and even, and that her -eyebrows and hair were jet black. The color on her cheeks had been put -there with a skilled hand, and so deftly done that it passed for the -real thing--in nature, not in art. Her hands were shapely, her nails -manicured carefully and she had a trim figure. It was all stock in -trade, but he wasn’t figuring it that way. Half a dozen of the kind -of drinks they had given him had torn down the barrier, so far as he -was concerned, that had been raised by society between it and the -Scarlet Woman, and the pathos of her story had set him thinking and had -roused all of his sympathies. She had played her part with all of the -subtleness of the finished actress and had told her story with such -simplicity and naivette that many an older man would have been deceived -by the recital. She was working up to the climax as carefully and -cautiously as the hunter works up into the wind after the unsuspecting -deer, or the soft-footed cat ambushes the bird singing in the hedge. -The emotional breed of her race helped to make her realistic, and -her vivacity was contagious. Put her on the stage and she would be a -success with proper training. - -“If,” she laid her hand caressingly on the sleeve of his coat, “if I -could find someone who would get my rings out and give me a chance I -would be willing to do anything for him. I don’t like this life, always -hustling, chased by the police and treated like a thief. But once in -it’s hard to get out, for no one wants to give you a chance.” - -He was looking over her head and watching the man with the cornet -rubbing up the brass with his handkerchief. - -“You are not listening to me.” - -“Yes, I am; I heard every word you said. How much would it cost to get -your jewels out?” - -“Only $125. It might not be much for you, but it’s a lot for me.” - -Here was the climax, so far as her story was concerned. She could have -repeated those three figures long before, but she wasn’t ready. She was -waiting for the psychological moment and it had arrived. The picture -was made and the hand was ready. - -And now your attention is respectfully called to Fate, the intruder; -the upsetter of carefully laid plans; the wrecker; sometimes the -promoter, because it does as many things for good as it does for bad. -In this case, however, it was good and bad, according to the viewpoint. - -“If you wouldn’t mind I’ll get them out for you. Let’s go now,” he said. - -She leaned back in her chair and smiled at him--a smile of happiness -and success; the smile of a child when it gets its first Christmas -doll; and then she drew a deep breath. Still smiling, her eyes half -closed, she looked at him through the narrow slits and contemplated the -possibilities of the future. There was no hurry and she could afford to -wait, for she had won out. - -A woman, coarse of feature and with fright depicted on her face, came -hurrying in. She saw the girl at one end of the room and ran to her. - -“Jennie, for God’s sake, come quick; your Billy’s just been pinched on -the corner.” - -“Billy pinched; what for?” The jubilation in her black eyes turned to -terror. - -“For swiping a bloke’s leather. They got it on him; hurry up.” - -The boy stared wide-eyed at them for a moment, then pushing his chair -back he arose unsteadily to his feet. - -“Seventy-five cents for the drinks.” - -It was the waiter’s voice. - -He fumbled in his pocket, brought forth a handful of change, deposited -it in the outstretched palm, and began to weave his way among the -tables toward the door in the wake of the hurrying women. - -“He’s a swell kid, all right,” remarked the waiter, as he counted the -$3.25 in change, “and I hope he comes back.” - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: When the clock struck two she was on the table doing a -dance] - - - - -AFTER THE WEDDING BELLS - - -There was a big crowd on the ferryboat from Jersey when she bumped -her nose into the pier at New York that morning, but when the gates -were thrown open there wasn’t the usual scurry and rush to land that -marked the morning arrival. At the front, hugging the rail on the -woman’s side was a nice little blonde dressed all in white, even down -to her shoes and stockings, and with a complexion of the kind known -as peachy, if you have any idea what that is. Fastened to her with a -strong arm hold was a fellow of about twenty-three--years, not skiddoo, -you understand--and he was togged out like a hot sport after a winning -fight, or one who had picked the 20 to 1 shot at Sheepshead for the -first time in his life. Top hat, frock coat, white vest, patent leather -shoes, pearl tie and gray gloves completed the picture, and it was the -surest case of orange blossoms and wedding cake that ever happened. - -That was what held the crowd and made a few of them whistle what -sounded very much like that old familiar tune of “Here Comes the Bride.” - -Arm in arm, entirely oblivious of anything in the world except -themselves and their own happiness, the couple marched off the boat, -heads up in the air and trailed by the grinning bunch, and if ever a -case of love’s young dream went around on legs this was surely it. - -They knew as much about New York as a Shrewsbury River clam knows about -cigarettes, and it didn’t require the services of a head-grabber or a -hand-holder to know that they were hunting a honeymoon hostelry. - -They had come from the fertile fields of Freehold to the land where -there are real bathtubs with hot and cold water, and where a chunk of -plain calf is soused with gravy, called fricandeau of veal, and charged -for at the rate of a dollar a portion. - -What was money made for except to spend, especially on occasions of -this kind? You’re young but once, and then a little makes you feel like -a millionaire and you get value received and five times over for every -dollar you peel off the roll. But when Time, who is the most wonderful -artist in the world, does a few stunts, makes brown hair turn gray -and deftly paints in the wrinkles, then the joy of spending goes and -pleasure becomes as soggy as a wet sponge. Years are the frosts which -kill the flowers of hope and ambition, and there are thousands of men -who would give millions of dollars if they could but stand off, if only -for a brief while, the gray-haired patriarch with the scythe. - -Just think of the sight of a young bride and groom holding in leash, as -it were, a couple of hundred business men who were as anxious to get -on the job of making money as a dog is to get a bone, and all of these -hard-headed fellows smiling as if each one of them were in the same -position as the young fellow who was fast to her arm. - -Up the street to Broadway, where they turned north, and then they were -lost to all but two men, and these two were trailing. - -Begins to sound like one of Old Sleuth’s detective stories, doesn’t it? -Where the villains are always on the job and always being foiled. Where -it is either a case of murder the child and get the papers or kidnap -the girl and marry her so as to get the old man’s fortune. Doesn’t that -take you back a few years when you used to have those yellow-covered -books in your inside pocket and believe every word you read, or are you -so unfortunate as to have never lived the life of a real boy, with all -its castle building and romancing? You know there are men in this world -who still dream of those days, and it doesn’t do them any harm, either. - -The two men who were brought into this story a moment ago are still in -the game, but they are neither burglars nor kidnappers. They are simply -a pair of good fellows with enough money on the side to get anything -within reason, and a belief that there are happy days and good people -in this world if you only take the trouble to look for them. - -“I’ll bet,” said one, “that that kid hasn’t more than a hundred in his -clothes, and that he feels as if the world was his to do with as he -likes.” - -“The world is his if he has as much as a hundred,” returned the other. -“That will give him the time of his life for three weeks, and he -wouldn’t go back broke, either, unless his home is in London, which it -isn’t.” - -“She’s a nice-looking girl all right, and from the way they’re heading -I should say it would be Niagara for theirs.” - -“Niagara nothing,” retorted his friend, “that is a spot that belongs to -the past. Our mothers and fathers made it fashionable, but the present -generation takes to big cities as naturally as a duck takes to water, -for they want the busy life and the theatres. The billing and cooing -of the newly wed is all done under cover now and they mix with the -crowd. You’ll find them taking in the big cafes along The Line getting -a good look at things they never expect to see again, and these are the -things they will be talking about twenty or thirty years from now. Make -a picture of that couple ahead there in 1926, for instance. He’ll be -telling his friends about this day, and the night they went to see Joe -Weber, and he’ll tell how the buildings first impressed him, and then -she’ll butt in with: - -“‘Say, Henry, what was the name of the restaurant in New York we went -to after we saw that funny show--you know, the place where we had that -lobster a la Newburg?’ - -“As long as she lives she’ll talk about lobster a la Newburg because it -sounds different, you see, and that’s the woman of it. - -“Then Henry will stroke his whiskers and take his corncob pipe out of -his mouth and say, as if he had known the place all his life, ‘Why, -that was Shanley’s.’” - -“Cut it out, for you’re talking like one of Denman Thompson’s home-made -rural drammers,” put in his friend, as he pulled out his cigar case. -“You’re always looking for the unusual and the sentimental, so I’ll -make you a proposition. Let’s get next to this pair of turtle doves and -give them the send-off of their lives. We’ll start off with a lunch, -then a matinee, after that dinner, from there to a show and then a -windup in a blaze of glory with wine and all the trimmings of a wedding -feast. You’ve nothing to do, neither have I, and maybe if we do the -thing up right she’ll name it--if it is a boy--after one of us or both -of us, just think of that. There’s fame for you.” - -That is how it happened that an hour later a newly-married young -couple, under the escort of two young men who were pretty well known -around town, were lunching at the Waldorf just as if they had known -each other for years. - -“You see,” one of the hosts was explaining, “we had an invitation to a -wedding out of town to-day and we missed the train. We felt as if we -wanted to entertain some one in honor of the event and we thought we -would ask you. We want you to be our guests from now until 1 o’clock -to-morrow morning----” - -The young husband glanced uneasily at his wife and she smiled back -reassuringly. - -The woman, with that unerring female instinct which is born with all -females of the human tribe, understood the situation at a glance and -was ready for the lark. Besides, both hosts were good looking and well -dressed and her vanity was touched. She was young enough to be natural -and old enough to be appreciative. Besides, there were a few healthy -drops of sporting blood in her veins, and that tells a good part of the -story. - -There are cases where details are uninteresting, and while the time -from luncheon to near the hour of midnight seemed to the honeymooners -one wild carouse yet it was really nothing to those who are familiar -with the ways of the world. They had sampled everything within reason -from soda to hock, and the happy Freehold boy with the silk lid was -willing to walk on his hands if anyone had dared him. He had told -everyone he met all he knew and all he ever expected to know. As -for the little lady who had been toasted many times as the “blushing -bride,” she had suddenly developed sporting proclivities of a rare -character, and she squeezed the hands of both of her hosts with equal -impartiality. - -Confidentially it was rather a dangerous situation, for if the -bridegroom had been helped to a few more drinks he wouldn’t have cared -whether the place where he was laid away was a bridal couch or the soft -side of a board. That was the state of affairs when, calling each other -by their first names, so friendly had they become, that they all went -up to the apartment of one of the hosts for the wind-up banquet. - -“How are you feeling, little sport, getting a head yet?” - -“I’m just right, and I’d like to have you for a brother,” she retorted. - -“Only a brother?” - -“Perhaps I should have said father.” - -Which showed that she had a pretty wit, too, as well as a head. - -At the table the hosts had multiplied by two and so there were six. The -first flash of cocktails set the groom’s head to buzzing a bit and his -speech began to be a trifle thick. At the sauterne he had a job to keep -his head up straight, and he had no sooner finished his first glass of -wine than he excused himself to get a handkerchief. He dropped on a -friendly couch in the next room and promptly forgot that he was alive. -His wife was no such miserable failure, for she clinked glasses with -the rest of them and was entertained so well that it seemed as if she -forgot she had ever been married. - -As the clock on the mantel struck two she was dancing a hornpipe -on that end of the table which had been cleared by the soft-footed -Japanese butler, and what was more she was dancing it well, too. The -four hosts were applauding and drinking her health as the best little -thoroughbred they had ever met, and in each brain there was a wish that -she was anything but a bride, for each of these men, from the oldest to -the youngest, was in love. - -It was a most curious and remarkable state of affairs, and there was -a chance here for a break that might spell ruin to someone. Then the -patter of the little feet on the tablecloth ceased and she stepped -daintily down to chair and floor. The man nearest helped her, and -as she alighted he leaned over and kissed her squarely on the lips. -The color in her cheeks was accentuated just a trifle as he glanced -suddenly around. - -“Where’s my husband?” she asked. - -“With his toes turned up on the couch in the next room and dead to the -world. If he was half the sport and good fellow you are he’d be an ace. -You ought to have been born in New York, Chappie, for you belong there.” - -“I think I will go and see him, if you will excuse me,” she said very -demurely, and then she went out. - -The four hosts drank and talked and smoked and all the talk was of the -bride, and it was all complimentary, too. When an hour had passed the -butler was sent to see if she would return. - -She came back all right, smiling, but there was a change. - -“I think we ought to go now, but I can’t get him up. He’s not used to -this sort of thing, you see, and I don’t know what I’m going to do.” - -“Why, stay right here, of course. We’re all going now and Jim, the -gorilla who owns the place, is going, too. The shack is yours until you -get ready to leave, for you’re all right. How about that, Jim?” - -“Just as you say--she owns it and us, too. Give your orders to Saki -there, and we’ll call and take dinner with you every evening. We hope -the boy will be all right in the morning. Good-night.” - -That’s all. - -It seems as if there ought to be more, but there really isn’t. - -With one large high absinthe I could make a hair-raising finish, but I -have made up my mind to tell only the truth for a change and give my -imagination a much needed rest, and this is a truthful story and it -happened just as it is put down here. - -[Illustration] - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - - -Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a -predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they -were not changed. - -Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation -marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left -unbalanced. - -Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs -and outside quotations. 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