The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-08-28
ON THE CORNER.
INTEREST TAKEN IN THE MAN WHO
HAD AN APPOINTMENT.
The Hanson Drivers Kind invitation
Policemen on the Watch-An Ed
erly Masher-A Tramp-Impu-
dent Young FOIks-Too Much.
New York Sun. ]

OF d1stln guished appearance, who had an
appointment with another man, went to
the corner of Thirty ninth street and Fifth
avenue to wait for him. They had agreed
to meet on the southwest corner at 9
o'clock.
"The appointment, the lawyer said,
last night, "was rather stupid one but
made it to oblige my client We half in
tended to go to the Union League club af-
terward. but we preferred to meet out
side and talk of what was uppermost in
our minds before we went in. / waited
for that man on the corner for what
seemed to be an hour. What l wish to
speak of about particularly is the very ex-
traordinary feeling of uneasiness which
took possession of me while waiting on this
corner. When [ arrived the stages
were travelling up and down with
tolerable frequency, occasional cabs
passed, and number of pedestrians were
out on the avenue. No one was on any
of the four corners when l took my posi-
ton against the railing. stood there five
minutes, lon,ing at my watch frequently,
and / noticed that every stage driver
who passed looked at me with a good
deal of interest Finally as a hanson
came along, the driver pulled up his
horse, looked at me confidentially and
in my keb and wait for the lady, just as
well as standin' there. I'll do it for a half
a dollar an hour. l shook my head and
turned on my heel He said something
about my putting on a good many airs
for my age, and drove on. Then / OBJ
served that there were four members
standing in the window of the club and
grinning at me in the glare of the cleo
trio light l whirled around and started
up Fifth avenue impatiently.
AS passed the end of the long fence
on the northwest corner I observed that
the two policemen who were standing
carelessly there were watching me closely
When l got to the corner of Fortieth
street / could not resist the inclination to
turn around and look back at them. They
were still staring at me, and, as / am
reasonably well known among the city
officials, l could not help believing that
they recognized me and that they would
tell giddy stories about me to their friends
Still, | was afraid to leave the vicinity,
for l expected to meet my client at any
moment | walked down to Thirty ninth
street again. on the opposite side of the
street, and, looking over to the corner
where had just begun to keep my vigil,
/ saw dreadfully dissipated specimen
of an elderly rounder twirling his cane
and standing in my place. He
had a waxed mustache, fashionable
clothes, bent knees, and wicked eye. I
went over and stood defantly beside him.
He stared at me and [ glared at him,
while the policemen across the way moved
little closer and kept their eyes on US
both with uudiminished vigilance I
heard some one raise the sash of a win
dow, and, looking up, saw two servant
girls staring down at us interestedly
Then district telegraph policeman came
Whistling up the east side of the avenue,
leaned against the lamp post across the
street, and also fixed his eyes on the ED
erly masher and myself.
"At this point l was positively afraid to
look over at the windows of the club. /
pulled out my watch, expecting to find
that it was QuartertO 10 o'clock at least,
and discovered that it was exactly four
minutes after 9. AS I held the watch in
my hand small boy who was passing
yelled Don't get dgety CLARENCE rene i,t shell
overhead, the elderly masher grinned de-
hghtedly, and the hoarse rumble from
across the street convinced me that the
policeman laughed. / could actually feel
the grinning heads bullying out of the
windows of the club across the street
Then a fashy young girl came skipping
along. She looked up impudently at me,
smiled on the elderly man, went across
the street, and engaged in conversation
with the two policemen: I knew perfectly
well that they were TALKING about the ven
cradle chap with the White hair who was
waiting across the street. At this point
dapper young man with mysterious air
and cigarette got out of coupe over on
the only unoccupied corner, where the
club house is, lighted cigarette. stared
coolly at the elderly man and myself,
pulled out his watch and made it per
fectly apparent to everybody that he was
actually doing what | was suspected to be
at, and that he was not bit ashamed
of it.
"a tramp evidently supposed the
masher and ! would be good pay, for
when he got to our corner he stopped
there and stood about ten feet away gaZ-
ing at US appealingly with his hat in his
hand / pulled out my watch. 1t was
now 9:09, and there were ten or twelve
people waiting around this particular cor
ner. | took a turn down the block again
and resumed my post Then l ventured
to look over to the club for the first time.
It was too much for me- every man ]
knew was shaking his head and winking
Significantly l turned on my heel and
walked hurriedly down to Sixth avenue,
where 1 found the man waiting for me
and in a towering passion at what he
termed my delay. 1t was simply mis-
understanding as to the place of meeting
I have come to the conclusion since that
experience that any man who can wait on
a corner of populous New York street
for an hour or two at night is gifted with
an amount of stoicism and repose which
is entirely foreign to my nature.