Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-10-24
IN QUEER COMPANY.

How n Journalist Passed an Evening
Among the Outlaws of the Metropolis
AStory of London Life.
1t was late on a very cold afternoon
during the winter of 1876-77 that l was
hurrying westward along the Maryle-
bone road, congratulating myself upon
buring turned my back upon the bitter
east wind and comparing the climate
bf London towards the end of December
with that which l had been enjoying
exactly twelve months previously when
at Calcutta, as one of the special cor
respondents with the Prince of Wales.
had got nearly as far as the Edgware
road when a man touched his hat to me
and asked me for the wherewlth to get
p nights lodging. He did not look like
an ordinary or a professional beggar.
llis clothes, although very shabby, were
evidently well made. lie looked so
pinched and weary that I stopped and
iumbled in the ticket pocket of my
Ovyrcoat for a siXpence to give him. He
stared at me very hard indeed whilst 1
was getting the money, and as l handed
tion OF wonder, asking me whether my
lStillC WtS IOU SO-duu-SO. 1lCpllCu UuAI
II was and asked him where he had ever
seen me before. To make q long story
snort, this poverty-stricken man asking.
ANS on the public streets turned out to
be q gentleman I had known many
years before, whe he was a Captain in
one of our crack lancer regiments
aud had a private fortune Of
his W of more than fifteen
hundred a year. When 1 had last seen
him he was q man of little over Thirty,
but vas now on the wrong side OF fifty.
land owing to want. care, hunger, cold
and dirt looked very much older. He
had always been a very fast man. Bet
TING, cards and doing bills at sixty per
cent. had worked out their legiti-
mate ends upon him. 1 had lost all
sight of him for fully twenty years,
but remembered having heard that he
had been obliged to sell out on account
Of his many debts. All this and much
more, too, he related when he came to
my house, as 1 had told him to do, and
helped him as far as it was in my
power with a little money and some old
clothes.
When l asked him what he intended
to do for the future, he said that if he
could only get q decent outfit and a
few pounds for travelling expenses, he
had an opening in Paris that would
soon put him on his legs again. 1t sc
happened that l knew slightly two
Or three men who had been in the same
regiment with this individual; and OF
these there was one who was very well
oil. | therefore wrote out an appea.
for the poor fellow, sent it to the diff
1erent parties, and was greatly pleased
when, instead of realizing. as | hac
hoped, some ten or fifteen pounds, the
contributions sent me came to upward:
Of thirty pounds. With this money
first got the unfortunate man a fairly
good outfit of clothes and then made
over to him the balance left, about 81,
pounds, to use as he liked. He was eX'
ceedingly CRATE ul. and asked me tt
express his thanks to those who had re
Sponded so generously to my letters
II was about a fortnight after had me
him OF the Marylebone road that b.
called to bid me farewell and to thanl
NE again for all L had done, which, afte
al, was merely having. written. som
half dozen letters and taken a it'll
Trouble in getting his clothes as goot
anu as cheap as I could. He told M
mat he was leaving for Paris that ever
For five or six months l neither say
no. heard anything about him. At tn
emu OF that time [ received a tote tron
lh's individual telling me he was IN Lon
aon' SAYING he would like to see M
anu giving me his address at a respec
.aoIe hotel near Leicester Square.
wrote an answer and as | happened
oe going into the neighborhood Gale
a. INC hotel, intending to leave it there
nut as the waiter told me that the ger
ueinan was at home and was the
"t1'ng in the coffee room | went ther
1i lounu my former acquaintanc.
Snp seemed delighted to see me. h
na' evidently pros cred since | la:
ca" him. He was well, it perhaE
sohe"hat hashily, dressed; had wh;
s'elne1 to be valuable pin in his necl
ea1' u thick gold chain from or
""stcoat pocket to another, and tW
T. lhrec rings on his fingers. +
iook. d more like a Frenchman than a
1-w