Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-01-14
TOM BOXERS BLUNDER.

Young Tom Boxer was fool enough to
be ashamed of his calling. He had in
herited from his maternal grandfather a
very prosperous and lucrative tailoring
business at the West End, which he car
ried on under the old name of ''Pleating
& Co." No excuse whatever can be
urged for Tom S weakness, as he came of
long line of honest people, and he quite
realized that his tailoring business was a
very good thing. But he was rather a
good locking, gentlemanlike young fell
low, and the truth was that his head had
been completely turned through associat-
ing during his holiday trips, on the CONT
nent and elsewhere. with persons of
superior social position, who certainly
never suspected that he was tailor.
Finding that he was generally taken for
a young professional man, OF an officer,
OF, at all events, a private individual of
fortune. Tom could not resist the tempta-
ton of keeping up the delusion, until he
at length became almost morbidly sensi-
tive on the subject of his honest and
necessary occupation. When he went
away for his summer holiday he always
chose some place where he was not likely
to come across customers, OF people who
knew him in town, and laid himself out
for making acquaintance among persons
of higher station i'll life than his own.
This year he decided to spend his
vacation at the quietly fashionable
watering place of Southdore, hav-
ing run down for the day to recon-
hotter and ascertained that there was
nobody staying there who would rec
ognize him. He took rooms at the
cart and groom and a couple of horses,
and soon succeeded, on the hotei tennis
ground and elsewhere, in getting to know
ell the best people.
Among other visitors at Southdore
were a Col and Mrs. Vaughan and
their daughter Mabel, the latter a re-
markedly pretty girl, as Tom thought.
The Vauglians were staying at the Flag
staff hotel, and were evidently very ex-
elusive and aristocratically unsociable
people. The colonel walked on the pa
rade occasionally with the old earl of
Piccadilly, who was also staying at the
Flagstaff, but seemed to hold aloof from
everybody else. 1t was with considera-
BILE diffidence that Tom presumed to
scrape acquaintance with the Vaughans,
and in doing so he not only scrupulously
refrained from mentioning his occupa-
ton, but dropped hints which were GER
tainly calculated to convey widely diff
ferent impression of his position. How
ever, he contrived to make himself agree
able to them, and thus gained the privi-
lege Of getting opportunities of ingra-
tiating himself with Miss Mabel
This young lady easily captivated
Toms susceptible heart and as she soon
began to evince very kindly feeling to-
ward him it was not long before he real
lied the awkwardness of his position.
That life without Mabel Vaughan would
be i dreary blank was q conviction which
forced itself upon Toms mind at an early
stage of their acquaintance; yet he was
instinctively aware that the prize was
beyond his reach. The young lady, to be
sure smiled upon him sweetly, and both
the colonel and his wife, by degrees,
grew quite friendly to him, even when
they could not have failed to perceive his
attachment for their daughter. In short,
had he been differently situated that
luckless tailoring business been at the
bottom of the sea, which Tom, in his
frantic perplexity, often enough wished
that it were-there seemed no reasonable
doubt that he would have stood an excel
lent chance of being welcomed by them
rs Il son-in-law fact which was
brought forcibly to his mind by the fol-
lowing significant circumstance:
One day there appeared upon the scene
| l.. l,of, l.
kneed young man, who presented him
self at the Vaughans' apartments with a
degree of assurance which caused Tom a
pang of angry jealousy. He was told
afterward that he was a merchant in the
city and that his name was Walnut; and,
Judging by the bushes of Miss Vaughan,
it was impossible not to perceive that the
little gentleman was one of her admirers.
But Toms resentment quickly vanished
when he witnessed the reception the poor
young man received. 1t was of such
crushing ard soul annihilating character
that, at the end of five minutes, poor Mr..
Walnut took his departure in an utterly
limp condition. and went and smoked a
pale cigar on the steps of a bathing ma
hine until the next train left for London.
Tom could not help feeling elated by
the preference which the Vaughans. by
implication. thus manifested for himself:
but the expressions of Indignation uttered
by Mis- Mabcl. as well as her parents, at
Mr.. Walnut's presumption, considering
that he was only something in the
city, made Tom more detected than
ever. MIR. Walnut's fate appealed TO
him as friShtful warning of the treat