The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-06-13
CHAPTER I.
RAGS AND TATTERS.

less many people would like to know
how he did it. Some of us have tried
it and failed. We have struggled with
this nightmare even when our eyes
were open, and have not cast it off. In
varions shapes it haunts the shadows
of this world. Mr.. Drane, however,
awoke; but before sending him our con-
gratulations let us see what he found
waiting for him.
The first thing he saw on opening his
eyes was ragged coat which lay upon
his arm. 1t was garment eminently
qualified to be offensive to a gentle
man; shiny, soiled and raveled at the
edges. Mr.. Drane blinked at it an in
stant and concluded that it must be a
part of his recent troublesome fancies.
"Get out, he muttered, sleepily, shak-
ing the garment to the floor; you're a
fake. dreamed you, and I'm going to
wake up in q minute"
No wonder he was deceived, for the
coat fitted the dream with diabolical ac-
curacy. 1t had not been vision of
financial embarrassment alone; he had
seen himself walking on the uppers of
disgrace over the rocky road of despair.
His first waking impression had been
great thankfulness that he was him
self again, man of wealth and consid-
Grafton; a gentleman by birth and
breeding. Then he had seen the ragged
coat and denied its reality.
He let his head fall upon the pillow
again and sank for a moment into
sleep. Then he awoke with a start.
"Queer notion about that coat" he
said, and glanced over the edge of the
bed. The coat was there. None of its
fine points had got away. The summer
sunbeams round the edges of the cur
tains glinted upon it's greasy wrist
bands and CLASSY sleeves. Mr.. Drane
sat upon the bed and stared stupidity at
the strange garment The sight con-
fused him.
He tried to recall the events which
had preceded issleep. He remembered
his journey eastward from his home in
Kansas City; the business interests
which he had in charge; the hot, dusty,
tiresome ride which had brought him to
New York on his way to Boston. He
recalled how he had found himself so
tired that he had resolved to wait in
New York long enough to have a good
nap in hotel; how he had entered the
first one he found, and had stumbled
sleepily along in the wake of the hall
boy to the room wherein he lay. Then
he had cast himself upon the bed after
removing only his outer clothing.
by une way" thought ne, with sud
den start, "where are my clothes l
should like to know?"
How easy it is to ask questions, and
how eternally hard it is to answer them.
Mr.. Drane's hasty but thorough search
of the apartment revealed no reply to
his very natural query. He did not find
his clothes because they were not there,
but he did succeed in discovering a
waistcoat and pair of pantaloons
which owned disgraceful kinship with
the coat.
''If were drinking man," he NUT
tered, in dire perplexity, 81 think that l
should find the motive for a great refor-
nation somewhere in this affair"
At this moment he found himself con-
fronted by mirror, and as his own re-
Election met his eyes he couldn't help
being assailed by the idea thata change
had come over his countenance which,
if it were not equal in extent to that
which had overtaken his clothes, was
yet in the same unfortunate direction.
OF course it was one of those crooked
hotel mirrors which so shockingly wreck
the features of their victims. Accord
ing to this veracious glass, Mr.. Drane
had swelling on his right cheek, and
was afflicted with strabismus, erysipelas
| nd liuor nj tod Wi h
three-days' beard. None of these per-
sonal charms had any real existence ex-
cept the beard, and that wasn't so bad
as it looked. In spite of it, Mr.. Drane
was very good-looking young man; but
he couldn't see it in that glass.
''Jingor he exclaimed, as he gazed
upon this optical monstrosity. They've
stolen me along with my clothes.
must have assistance"
He turned to the annunciator and con-
suited the directions for it's use. First,
ne rang once for the hall-boy, but there
was no response. Then he gave three
iabs for ice-water, but it did not come.
Six for hack and seven for the police
were equally unproductive; and when
he had tried eleven for the fire depart
ment and twelve for an ambulance he
gave it up,
''If they had given me permission to
ring thirteen times for the coroner l
should feel that I had done my full
1uty," groaned Lawrence; and then he
laughed, it was all so absurd. He felt
N the pockets of the deplorable
clothes which had been left for him, but
ae did not find their late wearer's name
md address, nor any other article of
value. The loss of his money and watch
did not trouble him much, for he had
never felt the pressing need of dollar,
and did not know what it's absence may
imply. AS for his watch the police would
recover that. Mr.. Drane had exaggerated
notions about the metropolitan police
He did not know that before they would
find that watch in the ordinary course
of their business he would be all done
with time and large part of eternity.
So he didn't worry about those things
but bestowed his regret very sensibl.
upon the absence of certain papers. HI
knew nobody in New York, and had nov
no means of establishing his identity
! Evidently he would have to make tn