The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-12-29
Done IN Harlem.

street from the avenue, and Dounded
along up the asphalted slope. II was
long past midnight, so that she did not
see the light of scattered red hot Gin
ders which each movement of the en-
CINE threw off and which hung after
the dark body like the sinuous trail of
a falling star amid the roar of thunder.
She had not heard the first alarm as
the engine passed the house, though
there were few men and less women
for 20 blocks around in the city of New
York that night who had gone to bed
hours ago, with untroubled minds. For
during the past two weeks there had
been two, four. five incendiary fires
in every evening; all of them apart
ment houses within a circle of six
blocks from No. II West -th street
all starting by the shaft where the
central draft principle sucked up the
flame into a horrid roaring torrent.
upward to the murky skies-all done
without detection; started-and too
often consummated-withou leaving
trace Of the wretch who did it, The
police had no clue. the people had
hundred theories, many of them like
the pot of the daughters of Danaos,
incapable Of holding water, and the
firemen and their horses were well
nigh broken down with the hard work
and incesSant vigils.
Waterston and his wife had not
failed to discuss the series of fires. like
all their neighbors. and in his office
down town, where there were several
other Harlemites, the topic was one
of absorbing mutual interest. Indeed
Hardness, his fellow traveller on the
express In the mornings, whom his
friends called New-wed. daily declared
his intention of throwing up his lease
and moving down to Washington
square. though some men, whose
wives knew the young Mrs.
Hardness. limited unkindly that her
ambition to send out her cards with
the magic words Fifth avenue" on
them had more to do with his trouble
than anything else. However, be that
as II might, there was no question of
the disquietude that filled the Har-
lem homes: and many selfish men
found business down town so engross-
ing that they reached home at night
only In time to help their wives to
bed. wearied out with painful cravings
of necks and shifting of fair noses
down the dumb waiter shaft. Ladies
who had not spoken since the ones
refrigerator had leaked through the
floor on the others emblaZoned coat.
of-arms now exchanged sisterly re-
marks on the simultaneous and mir
aculous subsistence of wood and coal in
the bins supervised by that question
able character, the janitress." as Mrs.
Sweet remarked, whose father had
been engaged in agricultural pur-
suits" in Jersey at so much per day.
lat a period ante-dating" that when
Broker Sweet, running down TO sum-
mer resort from Friday to Monday
had married Kittie. captivated by her
indifference to mosquitoes and her rosy
cheeks inherited from her Irish grand
mother. After a years married life
he had gone out one day and since that
time the rent of the fiat and the wages
- ~ orir ~ ha continued m no
punctually paid, and Kittie to live
alone with her baby. 1t was nobody's
business, and IL occasionally some
body suggested that II was strange"
the remark was put down 10 spite by
othres who were Just dying to know"
when we were on Staten Island"
said Mrs. Waterston one morning to
Mrs. Sweet, when they met accident
ally in the hall. there were a success
sion of fires very similar TO this, up TO
the time we left; but since then, for
month now, except one evening when
Mr.. waterston had to stay over there
on business, we have not heard OF one
fire. Funny. isn't it?"
Eyes" remarked Mrs. Sweet in a
voice like the rustic of her silken skirt,
and with a soft smile. as she glided
out of the front door; yes, indeed,
my dear; very peculiar; very"
But waterston and his wife did not
bother themselves much about their
neighbors. Except when the smell of
broiled ham or smuggling onions became
pronounced up the dumb waiter. they
did not discuss what was for dinner on
the floor below, and only mentioned
'whited sepulchres" when their girl
reported a particularly violent case of
ragged underwear In the wash on the
roof belonging to the third floor, whose
ancestors had come over with the
conqueror" in some capacity. All in all.
they were good home-like couple,
paying their trades people regularly,
living well, and asking no favors, and
that is great deal
Meeting Waterston on the street. in
deed dining with him and spending an
evening with him at their house. the
general verdict would be-a good hus-
band a decent, average fellow. He was
quiet and studious-looking and had
been more than once taken for a gen.
uine professor of bellies lettres, and
really was more inclined to a night
with his books than a theater party
with oysters afterward: always pune
tual in an engagement, reliably mount
ing the IL" stairs within five minutes
of the same time every morning, ex-
cept Sundays, when the couple always
attended one church service; a man
neither brilliant nor slow. and never
vicious. Indeed IL any fault were ever
found with him II was on the charge
of being rather "goody-good," which
after all Is a very serviceable adjective.
though for my part l say Beware of
those individuals who are perpetually
punctual In going TO bed and in get
ting up. and who are known as with
out a single vice."
The two had gone early to bed. that
Is to say. about 10 o'clock. for Wat
erston had complained OF being tired.
and for several days back his acquain-
tances had noticed a certain paleness
and a tensity about his lips and eyes
which were quite unusual with him.
Mrs. waterston had suggested grippe.
but as none of the back pains were
felt she was treasured by his rejoinder
that IL was nothing, and that he would
be all right in a day or two. She did
the locking up and putting out OF