The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-04-27
CHAPTER XVIII.
OLD ACouAINTANCFs.

Ira had been observant enough to learn
that n man was most safely concealed
when in the largest crowd, therefore he
made his way to New York, where he
could also find the best chance to secure
work in the drug business. He did not
apply at the retail stores, but soon found
employment in a manufacturing chem
lists, where his quiet manner and steady
attention 10 business gave him perma-
nent place. He rightly conjectured that
so long as be kept out o. sight there would
be no serious attempt made to find him;
all he had to do was to keep out of the
way and the authorities would not take
the trouble TO hunt him up. IN time the
affair would be so far forgotten that he
could seek new place aud under his
right name make new friends. He boarded
with a fellow-workmen, q foreigner, whose
friends were Germans, and who lived in
an obscure fiat not far from the labora-
tory.
Those were sorrowful months that he
passed during the winter In his secluded
work and reading, but it was better than
being confined in an asylum. AS week after
week wore away without incident, he be-
came holder. When the spring opened and
the country became beautiful with the
signs OF returning life, he took, every
Sunday, an early train, and went up
among the Catskills. or down Long
Island to some unfrequented spot and
spent the day in long rambles through the
country roads and woods. coming back
late at night. In all his walks in the city
he had two things in mind: To avoid
IL 49, a Al IL
lookout for Charles Burton and Maria.
He had written the two leading theatrical
papers asking for information or the ad
dress of the old actor, but found ont moth
ing but that there had once been such a
man in the profession, but he had disap
peared.
As the summer went By and there was no
announcement among the Herald personals
OF the marriage of Arthur and Babe, he
became possessed more and more with the
idea OF finding the actor, aud, il possible.
clearing up the doubt about Babes par
entage. He even thought OF applying to
the police for help in finding him. or OF
putting it into the hands of the Pinkerton
agency, but that would make him too well
known, and he dared not do so yet.
He discovered a popular resort for
broken-down actors and those OF low
grade, who regularly suffer from financial
embarrassment, in a beer saloon near
Union square, and by the judicious use of
a few nickels at the bar was received into
the confidence of the guild With open
arms He found several men who had
known OF who had heard OF Burton, or
pretended that they had in times gone
by. but none who had of late years. He
also found himself overwhelmed with m en-
who took him aside and confdentialy
assured him that they. and they alone,
could find Burton's address, and would
graciOusly devote their valuable time TO
| doing il; but some way sthese men, with
| out exception, stood in the most pressing
need of temporary loan running all the
way from 50 to So before they could be-
| gin the search. At last he met one man
who had been in Australia for several
years. and who remembered that some
twelve or thirteen years before a Charles
Burton, who bad recently arrived from
the states, had to get out OF Melbourne
| suddenly on account OF a shooting scrape.
Ira was confident that this was the one he
was looking for, but that was as far as he
could trace him.
One Saturday evening in October he was
strolling down the crowded Bowery. Ever
on the alert, he saw approaching hin three
Mapleyille young men. They had not We.
discovered him, but the street was bril-
liantly lighted with the endless store and
sidewalk lights and tho myriad OF peanut
and fruit vendors lamps that lined the
cutters. The young men had come to the
metropolis with their eyes open to see
everything seeable and they would
scarcely miss him II they met He lodged
quickly into the nearest doorway. II was the
entrance TO adime museum, and he brought
1 ticket and walked In. IL was a brand
new enterprise Just opened and smell,
strongly OF paint and varnish and of that
.indescribable dime museum odor that re.
minds one OF morgue and a menagerie
at tho same time. II was new but II had
the regular old stock of attractions. There
were wax caricatures OF celebrated per.
sons. and startling fve-thousand-dollar
works OF art in oil done by the scene.
1 painter OF some eecond-class theater and