St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-26
RETRIBUT1oN CAME SWIFTLY
Punishment OF Four Ungallant
New York Men Who Stared.

Punishment OF Four Ungallant
New York Men Who Stared.
New York Sun.
1t isn't often that the penalty for star
ing at pretty girl is so severe as that
which befell four prosperous citizens one
day in Nassau street. A party Of three
unusually pretty young women, on the
way, no doubt, to the Stock Exchange
gallery, were walking along the east
sidewalk, from Cedar toward Wall
street, just before 2 o'clock. Such at
tractive visitors to this sordid quarter
of the town are not very numerous, and
the girls found themselves the object of
a good deal of attention from the hur-
rving throng of bankers, brokers, and
clerks. The stone tagging on the block
has been worn very smooth, and the
messenger boys had taken advantage
of the thin covering of ice to make
dozen or two. very slippery little slides,
each SIX to ten feet long. A foot care
lessly planted upon one OF these pol
iShed StreakS was pretty sure to start
off suddenly in the direction in which
there was the least resistance. The walk
was not so crowded but that every body
could see just where the dangerous
spots lay and could avoid them by max
ing ordinary use of their eyes.
The block was safe enough until the
three girls came along. But during the
seventy-fve seconds which they occu-
pied it, briskly walking from corner to
corner, no less than four men went
sprawllng to The ground. Three of the
victims were walking toward the young
women, and in turn went head over
heels right in their path. The fourth
had passed them, and rashly turned his
head to look back. He was the most
demoralized of all the victims. He was
an old mah,apparently retired banker,
and very dignitied. The expression of
his face when he suddenly went to earth
would make the fortune of the artist
who could produce it. His tall hat
went into the gutter, the peculiar twist
ing of his jaw suggested misplaced set
of false teeth, and most amazing shift
ing of his scalp-lock betrayed the fact
that his irou-gray hair was cleverly
constructed wig.
His descent was so terrific that the
shock caused the young women to look
around and attracted small crowd. The
shock was SO severe that the victim
gave no thought to the cause of his
downfall. Not so the other three vic
tins. They were not hurt physically,
but three more shame-faced men never
cut ludicrous figure at particularly
embarrassing moment They seemed
to realize in an instant that everybody
could see just how it happened, and the
half-repressed wrinkles in the eyes of
the young women, whose progress was
momentarily blocked, added to their
confusion.
The girls did not seem to understand
the significance of the series of accidents
until the third man went down. When
they began to realize that they were
responsible for the abject though invol-
untary homage that was being paid
them they almost lost control of their
own equilibrium. When the fourth in
dividuaI, a pompous. fat gentleman,
dressed in faultiess style, went prone
upon his face. the girls could control
themselves no longer. They buried
their noses in their muffs and fled across
the street.