The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-05
A MILLION DOLLARS.
The Amount an Ohio Office Seeker
Once Almost Had in His Possession.
From the Washington Star.


From the Washington Star.
He was a man from Ohio. In Washing
ton on political business exclusively, and
in that department OF politics coming un-
! der the head of rewards and endowments
i've got a promise" he said. cheerful
! ly, to a Star man, but have arrived at
! an age when l don't believe I have any
thing sure until have it sure. Which
| reminds me of an incident once in my ca
/ reer exemplifying the same. About TWEEN
| ty years ago when l was say Twenty-Five
I had some business in Cincinnati. and
went down on a morning train from the
! east from Columbus, where / was living
/ at the time. ] took a seat in the smoker
/ of the sleeper to enjoy my er-breakfast
cigar, and in a few minutes l was Joined
| by a handsome, finely dressed man Of
/ 60 or 65 He paid no attention to me- de-
! voting himself to pile of legal-looking
| papers which he took out of his pocket
Half an hour later, however. he seem
| ed to see me for the first time, and the
sight Of me appeared TO startle him. He
! started at me until l became nervous ana
was going out, when he begged nv pardon
| in the gentlest, sweetest way imaginable
| and asked me my name. l told him and
that gave him another start Then he
asked me lot more questions, the an
| swers to which pleased him more and
more, and finally his face fairly beame1
/
l was the very man he was looking for. as
a distant relative of mine in the east had
| died, leaving me an estate of million dol
| lars.
Il gave the nice old gentleman the ele-
! giant 'haw, haw,' which hurt his feelings
very much. and told him didn't have any
rich kin, and, If l did have, I would only
DelleVe he or she was dead and had left
me a fortune when got my hands on part
OF it. In other words 1 thought the old
party was a crank of some sort But he
upset all my notions in minute by going
into his breast pocket after package,
and taking from it ten one hundred dol
lar bills, handed the amount to me- Then
had hot and cold chills and creeping
sensations, and in my nervousness I ac-
tually bit the bills to see If they were
good All this time the old gentleman
was enjoying my good fortune more than
was and kept asking me if / believed
him now, and other questions of the same
kind.
Il put the thousand around in my pock-
cts for safe keeping, and after while l
cooled down enough to start In on mil
lion or two questions wanted to ask my
new friend and benefaetor about who this
relative was, and how l happened to be
the lucky legatee, and more of the same
kind. He answered everything as a law
yer would and gave me his address in
Philadelphia, where I was to meet him
aratory to my taking possession of the es-
tate.
For quite awhile after he had finished
our talk / gave myself over to delightful
dreams, and every few minutes would take
hundred-dollar bill out of my pocket and
look at it to serve as a pinch to let me
I known l was actually awake and had the
money right there AS the train came into
the suburbs of Cincinnati the porter came
in to dust his passengers, and 1 stood up
TO get mine, when, just as I was telling my
companion what hotel was stopping at,
he jumped for me, and, with an oath he
bore me TO the floor, knocking the porter
clear out of the smoker. There was
scrap for an instant, relieved by the con-
ductor and the porter, and when we rose
10 our feet and l was so surprised / was
speeches., the old gentleman charged me
with stealing a thousand dollars from him,
and demanded that the conductor search
me. This was beyond the conductors iuris-
diction, however, and to relieve him
went through myself and handed over the
ten $40 bills. l thought that would end
1t, and that an explanation would satisfy
the conductor, but the old gentleman, in
the calmest manner, insisted upon his
charge, and, further insisted that I be
turned over to the police as soon as the
train reached the depot. l offered nv
explanation, and insisted that the old fell
low was crazy but he was so much cooler
more equally than I did mine, that the
case went against me, and the conductor
and porter both sided with the other man.
There was but little time to argue the
matter, and l began to think that / would
spend the day in a prison cell or some
other equally uncomfortable place when
the train slowed up and stopped in the
depot / told the conductor to bring on
his officers and take me away and i'm a
few minutes a railroad detective came
into the compartment which, by the way,
had been closed, so that the other passen-
gers didn't know what was going on
there. AS he entered the door. the old
man, who had been sitting in the corner.
gave a yell that would have frozen the
water in the steam boiler, and Jumped
square upon the detective, with his fing-
ers at his throat. He was like a devil.
and when the conductor, the porter and
myself got the detective out of the en-
tanglement, he looked as If he had been
run over by a slow freight, and the old
man was swapping at everything like a
mad dog.
THAT was all the evidence I wanted
and my old friend was turned over to the
authorities instead of myself, greatly to
my comfort and peace Of mind Later l
learned that his malady had come upon
him unexpectedly though he had been IN
falling health for several months. lie was
a very rich man, and had been attending
right along to all his business, and was |
at the time of my meeting him on his way
to see the heir of an estate of which he |
was a trustee. When he died, three |
months later, he had not sufficiently re-
covered his wits TO leave me that thous- |
and dollars which had for time given |
me the most delightful feelings ever ex- |
perienced in the whole course Of my life" |
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