The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1891-04-11

backbone. His broad, black sash
seemed an emblem of mourning for his
own demise. He shrank in terror from
the crowd. Would they kill him? We'll
come the Tombs, the Island, Sing Sing,
electrocution, if he might only escape
from those horrible, threatening faces.
But though he was thus passive, Po-
liceman X, who had him in charge,
did not choose that he should appear
so. No! He had a record to make be-
fore the pull of his ''coozin, tn alder
man." could be effective, and here
was his opportunity. So once and
again he gave him a forward thrust,
and then-ejaculating: ''Ye wud, wud
yez?'-a mighty drag back again, to
the admiration of the passers-by, who
afterward astonished dinner-tables by
accounts of terrific struggle which
they had witnessed between burly
ruffan and one of our city's defenders.
The grim and gaunt female stalked
behind this tableau of justice for
several blocks; then she slackened her
| pace, and finally she stopped short But
her desertion was unnoticed. She
watched the pair as they struggled for
ward into the distance. A sardonic
smile revealed the artificiality of her
teeth as she did so.
"A good mornings work. she ex
claimed. 81 must go and report prog
ress.'
| She hailed a convenient cab. She
gave instructions, in which possibly the
word s'Sorosis' might have been dis
tinguished. She was rapidly driven
away.
| Arthur and his exultant captor, I'M
suspicious that this idea er machine
had thus eloped, reached the court
house. A roundsman stood upon the
stoop.
'.What hev We there Mike?" he famil-
iarly asked the officer.
"a snake teef. Wan of the wust Of
mont
HE looks it" was the consoling COM
ment.
They went before the committing
magistrate. He was red-faced, squat
ty man, seated behind yellow-grained
desk, and enveloped as to the neck with
a smudgy handkerchief. Upon the desk,
beside his feet, were an ink-stand and a
sticky book.
''What is it, officer?" he queried, un-
winding the handkerchief.
"a case of larceny from the pusson,
sor."
kiss the book
81 wull, sor;'' and he added q little
more sickness to it.
''Are you the complainant"
''Oi am, sor."
"Then you were present at the COM
mission of this offense?"
''Divil a bit, yer ahnor, no more thin
yerself. How cud be? Twas on the
Elevated train, yer ahnor, above me
bate. Shure, I'm no thrack-walker."
Silence, sir! Where is the person
from whom the property was taken?"
''Oh, shure, long, lane female in
black, for all the wurruld like the Witch
of Endy, was following us but mo-
ment sence. Twas she it was from
whom he TUX it,
II must discharge this man. There
is no evidence on which to hold him."
''Phat, yer ahnor! Whin he sazed her
by the two wrists and wrastIed it from
her like the thavin' blaggard that he is,
shurer'
did you see him do it?-
''Av coorse, yer ahnor l was not
there, but I'll swear to it Just the
same"
young man." said the magistrate,
turning to the stricken Arthur, ''what
have you got to say for yourself?"
IF you please, sir, if you please he
faltered, with trembling lips, II want
to go home. Do let me. l know moth
ing about any thing. I was sitting
quietly in my seat on the train when
crazy woman yelled at me, and then
they all rushed for me, and some one
pulled purse from my pocket, and
then this officer threw me about the
street as If were sponge on string.
Look at my new clothes, sir! And I'm
sore all over
''Tis 10y, SCR. He was thryin' to
escape. max the charge agin' him,
sor.'
Let me see that purse
to the magistrate. He opened it.
why, there's nothing in it, he ex-
claimed, in disappointed tones.
But hold! In the innermost compart-
ment he found a roll of paper. He un-
folded it and read aloud as follows:
ITO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: This young
man Is not thief. he's hog. He did not take
the purse. he took q seat and kept IT. He was
thus guilty OF rudeness and lack of considera-
tion toward frail womankind. have punished
him for 1t as / shall punish others. Hereafter
trust that this experience will teach him that
to true man every woman is o lady and en-
titled to his chivalrc service. Place arr danes!
''(Signed> THE AvENGER OF HER SEX"
You are discharged, SIR" said the
to Arthur. ''But let this be
a warning to you" And his feet re-
sumed their extra-judicial position upon
the desk.
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