Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-03-29
He WAS A STRANGER,
And Many People Tried to Take Him In.
One of Them Succeeds.

at the passing throng with self-satisfled
air. He was well dressed, not dudish,
but fashioDably, wore silk tile, and had
q travelling sschel strapped across his
back.
Just as he was about to move on, a
smartly dressed man, with a waxed mus
tache and rather soiled linen, stepped up
and said:
pardon me, sir, but -"
The visitor gave him a keen look, and
said:
pardon your What for"
"Why, there's your pocket book,
amt it? (pointing to the pavement }
You've just dropped it,"
He looked at the apparently plethoric
wallet, but never moved a muscle, and
finally said
''That's not my pocketbook. You can
have it. Perhaps you can find the owner
If you try very hard
The man with the waxed mustache
looked uneasy, picked it up, and was
moving away, when the practical stranger
said
"Give it to that policeman over there;
take his number, and if he doesn't turn
it over to the station house, you -"
But "Waxey' heard no more; he made
excellent time down Walnut street, but
stopped and looked around at the man he
had just left when about opposite the
Law School entrance.
In a moment or two the stranger
| CIV LOT h. ToI
ston building, muttering to himself:
II thought that chestnut was played
| out long ago. 1t had whiskers on it
when l first struck this town in '65.
| What would my partner say if he heard
that the pocketbook dropper tried to take
me in the first hour of my arrival"
The idea seemed to tickle him some
what, and the people he met were at
tracted by the broad smile that lit up his
rather handsome, shrewd face. He kept
on, and as he struck Vine street his at
tention was attracted to one of the new
cable cars as it whisked around the west
end of the Esplanade.
He stopped to look at it, and was
standing near the curb to get a nearer
view as the passengers alighted when a
slouchy, unkempt looking chap, with an
unmistakable air of the slums, came
along. He was accompanied by female
of uncertain age, arrayed in snowy
f1nery, and as the pair reached him the
woman slipped perhaps on banana
peeD and fell against him. The stranger
involuntarily reached out to catch her
falling form, but he dropped her the next
moment to snatch the dirty hand of the
man with her that had somehow got
tangled up in his gold watch guard.
mot this time" he said, looking the
fellow square in bis guilty face. He
then lifted the thief into the street on
the toe of his boot, while the female took
hurried steps and vanished around the
corner.
The stranger adjusted his watch chain,
lightly brushed his coat sleeve, smiled at
the knot of people who had momentarily
stopped when the encounter took place,
walked to Vine street, entered the Ar
cade and marched straight to the hotel
bar He had just emptied glass of old
rye with ginger ale on the outside when
q young man of good address-looked
| like bank cashier or commercial
tourist-stepped up to him and said in
a hearty way, addressing him by name:
"Hellow, old fellow! You remember
me, don't you? Dixon, of Dixon &
Blunt. We kept our funds in your
bank along in '81 and 49,"
"Well, well, is that you, Dixon9 Let
me see you went Under in the June
crash, didn't you," calmly asked the
stranger.
"That's right, me boy, but we paid
fifty cents on the dollar, just the same
Old Blunt died soon after, poor chap,
and I came down here, hung out my
'shingle' and am doing first rate. In the
course of another year l expect to pay
up every cent, and owe no man o dollar.
Take something"
The poison was poured out, and the
stranger was about to get outside of it,
when another gentleman joined the
party.
''Dixon, I've been looking all over
town for you. Will you oblige me by
cashing this, like good fellow:'
Certainly, my dear boy" answered
Mr. Dixon with cheerful alacrity.
"What's the amount
''Three and half
1.-THE devil take it, Charley, | haven't
got that amount with me. But here,
maybe my friend-oh, beg pardon-this
is Mr.. Sniffkins, Mr. -"
''You must excuse me, really re.
piled the stranger, Il must 60 I've got
to hunt up my hotel and take bath. Am
delighted to know you are doing so well
after the failure. When you see your
way clear to pay that other fifty per
cent with interest drop me line
Then the stranger strode away, left the
| Arcade by the Race street end, and
turned down towards Fourth street. He
said to himself as he cast look at the
Commercial Gazette bulletin board:
''I'm playing in great luck to-day,
meeting all kinds of nice people, and
having real good time
Another block and he had struck cor
ner where he found an inviting looking
cigar shop. He stepped in, made pur-
chase, lit his cigar, and had reappeared
on the sidewalk just in time to see an
elegantly dressed young lady-a dazzling
brunette-clad in costly raiment, with a
long sealskin cloak and duck of a bon
4 net, drop her dainty pocketbook out OF