The evening times., 1897-06-12
4 Peculiar Experience.

Before the war had seen Sornething as
| rather preCOClouS youngsteT. OF the criiii-
! mai administration OF considerable CITY
! In the course OF tEis l had come to know a
young TnaH WHO wa san Undoubtedcriminal
| lie had narrowly escaped conviction Gncevr
| twice, and when knew him he waSin the
| employ of tie city rs a kind of inside
! guard Observation-Disclosures her such
gentry. Fc was very efficient, too Tie CITY
| never caught any Of his gentry, but il had
| no houSebrra king. He was careful TO steer
| hiS professional friends into safer pastures.
where there were no inside qua aTlS He
would not. OF course, admit any pa ,ticular
act OF crime, butin general wa Y ne hlade
no denial that stealing had been his lusi-
neS>-bctore the ,ity went in with ,iim 20
scatter tire disease elsewhere. He even
explained 20 me, in a moment of unusual
confidence, how to slip any vaIuablrs out
from under a sleeper spIlow ormattrcSS Ivy
neutrality-suspicious. Tuned with
the victim Sown breathiug l never ried it,
but ] believe 1t would work
About the middle of the war it was my
fortune To rp iutrusted with a qua rter OF
a million dollars to he transferred to an
other district several hundred miles away.
Part Of the way lay through a lonely ooun-
try, ascending d small river on a slow
stern wheel steami cat, in which there
probably was not a partition or buIkhead
as much as half an inch thick
The money was in an iron EoN N the
lower deck, with a guard constantly rosted
over it. Refure going To bed at night
/ walked out and locked over the deck
Whene yer the furnace door was thrown
open the guard was in a strong blaze
Of red light Something in his pose or
movement impressed nae as familiar, and
I quietly moved nearer and sat down in
the gloom Presently the furnace door
was opened again, the light Shone on the
mans lace and recognized my old ne
qu3intancc, thCinside guard against house
eaIcrS. himself one Of the coolest and
most adrot Of the fraternity For a mo.
meut 1 was surprised, then uneasy, and
then I laughed silently as, the supreme
absuTdity Of the situation
Hello. jack said /. as / walked close
to him This is "A new line of business
for you, isn't it?'
lie s.duted the gold cord on the seam
Of my trousers before he recognized the
man, and then gIinned broadly, and re-
piled:
Yes, major, t's all new to me, am some
times it's pretty rough Sleddin', hut I'm
dom the best can -
After question or two about people at
home, he asked:
This yours, major" touching the iron
box with his foot
We'll, not mine exactly, but I'm in charge
IF it"
Must be considerable" said he
"Yes-quaIter of million, Il answered
There was silence for a minutes, and
then laughed and said:
Some of our friends back in j., Jack
would be very much astonished if they could
see what you and / aIe doing just now,
wouldn't they?''
He replied calmly: We'll, yes suppose
they wOnld . He unused a moment. and then
said, as if with a kind of fimpersonalnterest:
Il hadn' { thought a bout it just that ybe-
money, an a heap of it, But, somehow r
'nuther. it's different from-well, other
things, you know. l think you might un-
lock that boX an leave the door open, an
go to sleep-an' yet find every blamed dol |
lar there in the morning.
Ia the main believe he was very nearly
right. Why this is the fact of military life,
ful, but every soldier must have noted in |
stances of the Transforming power of dis |
cipline, with it's ineNorable certitude and |
personal touch on every man.-ChIcago |
Times Herald.