The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-05
HOW DRIFTER GOT A MEAL.
FoR THREE DAYS HE STARVED WITH
MIS- FRIEND, THE RAJAH.

OEuNEN - bPEFae ~ So
Brny's-An Angel Drops in Unannounced.
Drifter halted on the clubhouse steps tho
other night, listened patiently to q hard luck
story from q beggar, and gave him 81 with tho
remark: ~ believe you are hungry. I've been
there myself. Take this and ali up
"why, Drifter," said his friend, whom they
were in q snug corner OF tho smoking room,
that fellow would have been just as we'll Of
with q dime as with 81. He's blowing your
money In now in some barrel house for bad
whiskey."
II don't care what he does with the dollar"
said Drifter. ''Ho said he was hungry, and I
could sec starvation In his eyes. 1 know what
1t is to DO hungry. 1 don't moan tho hunger
that comes after q good days work. nor
the appetite such al you get up by q tumble in
tho surf. or by n drive in the park, or a brisk
walk through tho fields. I mean tho gnawing,
sickening hunger that comes when food is in
sight and you have neither money nor credit
20 exchange for a meal. / experienced that kind
Of hunger many years ago.
This is.what happened to mo In q mushroom
town out West" he said. Tho bottom had
dropped out Of every deal in which I was In
tcrestod. Tho town was absolutely fat broke.
An accepted draft for 800 on tho best mar in
town would not buy a bite Of dried buffalo
meat. I had mining stock, land certificates,
promissory notes, and poker I. O. us enough
to paper this room, but I couldn't raise enough
on the whole outfit to pay my hotel bill.
you have met my friend Harry winslow.
He's made a fortune, as you know, as q con-
tractor. At the time 1 speak Of he wal my
closest chum. Harry camo out to that mush-
room town as o civil engineer. He was to
superintend the sewerage system. We roomed
together and had many good times until tho
bubble burst and left Harry and me stranded.
Harry was flabbergasted when he learned that
the time he had put in on that sewer contract
was wasted, and that his chances OF getting
paid were about as desperate as u win across
tho Atlantic. l had done somo roughing In
my time. and while I did not know % much
about civil engineering as Harry did. / man.
aged to survey the situation in our hotel and TO
keep tho landlady In check until she quaran-
tined US. She used to nail Harry and me at
the dining room door with such pleasant shots
as these:
"'Well. I suppose you're coming in to eat
some Of the food that l owe for. II you don't
pay something on account OF your bill to-day,
you can't have another meal In this house.
That would take the edge of a mans appc-
lite. wouldn't III Harry stayed In our room
most Of the time. 1t wouldn't do for both Of
us to be absent, for the landlady had threat
ened to grab our baggage, and Harry swore
that IL she ever seized his outfit he'd commit
suicide. I never saw such a layout in a from
tier town as that Boston civil engineer brought
with him. When he unpacked his trunks and
spread out silver backed brufhes, silver backed
combs, silver nail sets and shoe horns and sill
yer soap boxes and other accessories that his
sister and his sweetheart in Boston had pro-
vided him with. I called him the Rajah. OF
clothes-why. he had no end; that is. when he
arrived.
There were two pretty girls In that hotel.
They were nieces of the landlady. They sim
ply wore themselves out taking care Of Hnrry's
elaborate outfit. Before he landed In town the
dust used to be an inch thick all over that room
and I might have tangled the bell until II broke
without getting any attention from either OF
them. But with the Rajah. well. Il was differ
ent. They quarrelled as to which one should
take care OF the Rajah's clothes and brushes and
fancy fxings. You couldn't find q speck OF
dust in the room with a microscope. and they
us clean towels every day, | had put up with
one a week. They smuggled cold lunches up
spread himself on tips Tor those girls Nothing
was too good for them. He didn't know that
the end wa in sight, I managed to p;ck ~
to Harry post haste With orders to give 1t to the
lan ..4E as part payment on our BIZ;
wrong. l soon found out what was w. Har.
those two girls. OF course. the lsndiady heard
Of this III be hanged II she didn't blame me
for 1t. She told me that she would furnish no
more meals for us, and that II we left that room
for a minute, she would put q paddock on the
door: And she meant it,.
eral days, until the landlady caught Madge, the
younger Rirl bringing a tray full:of food up the
stopped SaSH i'"' Then 1"s Susie %ofa nnd Harry rqS' ri ss@f NV was a
private wire from the window in our room and
leading down stairs. Under cover OF da- kness
Susie would steal outside, fasten 20 the wire a
basket full Of cold chicken and bread and any
thing else she could sneak out OF tho lardcr.
Harry would haul it up. throw a kiss to Susie,
and dull care would vanish for tho time being.
That That ! aSSd to end; The iandledy gaGked the two
a supply of fresh linen, Filling the Clothes bag
door behind him, and saunttred Town stairs,
trusting that he would escape the notice Of tho
clothes bag and its contents never reached the
Chinaman, and in a jify there was n paddock
on our door. Then we were out In the cold.
. course, as you can readily understand,
where SO many Others were in tho same boat
we could manage to bunk somewhere, but as to
enough to get drinks, too easy. in fact. The
crisis came one Sunday afternoon. For three
s stSod ns at t the Hume j%anst RS5 o. had tht sA; ;sd f Sr;n., w4
s othsr. fp gave ieN my b sR am snc extra assR Rit aad and si t siSa
W. AAeiiy ~ W 1InlU yohN- L bhlu
" Let's go up to English Billy's, md ask
him II he has got any shell oysters from Chi
cago. They're only a dollar a Dozen
Oysters moaned Harry. why. I could cat
the shells
That boy had a look in his face very much
who begged me for food tonight. I knew that
somethinR had TO DO done. and that at once.
English Billy, who kept a restaurant and vino
vault, was about the hardest customer II town
been particularly ugly OF late. Still, wo were
starving, and concluded that some OF Eng
lish Billy's food Was just what we needed.
Harry ! said, we may, not get another
meal in a long time, but wen have one good
one on English Billy: You stick 10 me and
don't show the white feather. Come on
My chum objected, and I fairly pulled him
along TO English BLISS. I owed Billy about
$3.50, and he had nearly split the bar in two
when no announced that his slate was broken
and that no wouldn't give his own brother a
cracker to save him from starving. 50 when
We entered the restaurant Billy must have
hoped that money was in sight. I told Harry
to let mo do the ordering. and for heavens sake
to stop shaking.
THAT poor fellow was on the verge of col.
lapse. As for me. ! could have eaten the table
cloth, but there wasn't any. We started In with
cocktails, got outside OF some soup. and when