Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-04
HE CAME IN LATE.
Ample Proof of 1t Appeared When the
B0arders Assembled.

Ample Proof of 1t Appeared When the
Boarders Assembled.
Our boarding house last week received
a severe social shaking up. and the friendly
relations existing between the landlady,
The Star representative, who takes his oat-
meal mush at the foot of the table; the
book agent, who sat at one side, and the
two War Department clerks who sat at
the other side, have become very much
strained, because of harmless practical
joke at the expense of one of the clerks.
The wife of one of the department clerks
Jones is a good name-is visiting relatives
in New York state, and Jones, like a good
husband, was mourning her absence after
the most approved fashion-trying to make
time fly by putting in most of the evenings
at meetings of his Club and getting to bed
along in the early hours of morning. Some
times the Club met at Chevy Chase, some
times at Bethesda Park and occasionally at
one of the river resortS-there were but two
members, and 1t was no trouble to meet
most anywhere, and the clerk was getting
heap of enjoyment out of 1t until the
landlady gave him a severe look over her
spectacles one morning and said:
MIR. Jones, IL you must work at your
office late at night I wish you would try
and make less noise when you come in"
He had evidently been trying to shut her
eyes with the "late-ofice-hours'' story, and
the rest OF tne SlIllieu. he looked
rather GUM moment and replied:
Some other person has been disturbing
you, madam, for 1 take particular pains to
come in very quietly. Not soul in the
house can hear me when come in"
The book agent, who sat on the opposite
side of the table. said everybody who was
not sound asleep could hear him. and The
Star man jokingly asserted that he had
been disturbed several times.
BET you the steamed oysters for the
crowd that YOU don't hear me when / come
in tonight" said Jones, as he glared over
at the book agent.
That's a bet-lf you come in,' responded
the agent. and there the matter rested.
The front hall and stairway carpets had
been taken up and sent away to be cleaned,
and footsteps gave hollow, echoing sound
as the boarders passed in and out of the
front door. In the evening, shortly after
dinner that day, the book agent had an
interview with the colored servant in the
kitchen, giving her quarter for certain
little things to be left on the dining room
table that night, then went down town to
while away the hours until bed time.
About o'clock the next morning there
was a terrible crash in the front hall, fol-
lowed by din and clatter that woke up
everybody in the neighborhood, and the
landIady thrust her head out of an up
stairs window and screamed, "Pclicer'
After the uproar had quoted down, and
gas had been lighted all over the house,
the boarders-en acknowledgements
in the front hall and found there a tin
wash boiler, about fifty tin pans and cups,
and about a peck of white beans scattered
on the stairs and hall floor. One end of a
strong cord long enough to reach from the
door to the top stair was tied to handle
Of the boiler. and the other end carried
through a screw eye fastened to the door
casing and tied to the doorknob
Jones changed his boarding place early
in the morning, and ne must have for
gotten all about the steamed oysters.