Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1898-01-28

Old Clothes and Was Dropped.
A decently dressed man, with sham.
bling gait and shifty eye, walked down
Broad street one afternoon last week and
attracted the attention cF. broker who
was standing in his Off s'window. The
broker watched the man closely until
the fellow had disappeared around tho
corner into Wall street. He had called
visitor attention to the mar.
"Have you ever seen that fellow be-
forep' no asked.
His face is familiar, and am sure
that have seen him somewhere, but
can't place him. Who IL hep'
John Blank, said the broker n m
tioning family name that was we'll
known. ~ am member Of three good
clubs" continued the broker, naming
three that one would naturally place at
the head Of the list Of New York clubs,
land in the course Of u long experience
with the management Of them l have
seen some curious club skeletons. They
are unpleasant. Blank was a skeleton In
the - club until we finally got rid
of him, and to this day none of the men
who knew the facts about his expulsion
has ever had any explanation of them.
$50 far as family connections are
concerned, Blank Is eligible to any club
In this city, and We always understood
that no had u good income II was about
five years ago, when was member of
the house committee, that my attention
was first called to Blank. A member of
the club came to me one day and said
"'Seo here. I've got d disagreeable
duty to perform. You know that re.
freshments are served at every regular
meeting Of the club and have noticed
for several months back that John Blank
has slowed away u lot Of things In his
pockets on every such occasion
"'Why, that Is absurd, replied,
and suspect that he has been drinking
too much. You know that these month
ly lunches are free to the members
"'That was the view that l took of
it the first time that noticed It,, no
replied, but 1 watched this man at the
last meeting very closely. He was not
intoxicated. He ate his lunch, and then
saw him wrap up piece of chicken.
some lobster salad and a brick Of ice
cream In separate packages. put them
under his overcoat and leave the club.
It's an amazing proceeding, and think
that IL il high time that something was
done about It..
'This mans complaint Interested me,
and investigated it. Some Of the club
walters told me that Blank had occa-
atI kalr arkl al 90 L..
from the club, and that no always car
ried away package after free supper.
There seemed to be no reasonable OK
PLANTATION for his little steals. He was
and is O lawyer in good practice, and,
as you know, he lives very comfortably.
I consulted with some Of the other
house committeeman, and we decided
to look ont for Blank ut the next sup
per. He turned up promptly, and. sure
enough, we saw him stealthily make up
package from the lunch table and
walk out with 1t. There was nothing
left for us to do but to ask for an ex-
PLANTATION.
Charges were preferred against him
and formal notification was sent to
him. Blank paid no attention to it. We |
thought that no might not have receiv.
cd It and we sent him another notiflca-
ton and made sure that 1t reached him.
Blank ignored It, and then we dropped |
him for conduct unbecoming o gentle |
man. Blank never came near tho club
house after his first notification, and 80
far as know he has never given an in |
dication Of resenting our action In drop |
ping him. Now what do you suppose
was tho explanation Of his theftsS l
never have been able to find one that |
was satisfactory. 1t has been assorted |
that despite his large income no IL nat
urally very miserly fellow, but that Is
merely gossip. meet him occasionally.
and he is always affable. 1t was disa-
greeable affair, and to this day an in
applicable one.
A man who had listened attentively
to tho brokers' story said:
II can equal that with an experience
In my own club. The man In question
has recently died and it Is only oharita-
Bile to say that he was probably insane
for several years before he died. He was
Arthur Blank" q histor-
man began to wear very shabby clothes.
He had always been very careful In his
dress, and this change was surprising.
He came to the club and sat around,
looking like tramp. His linen was
ragged, and even the walters looked
askance ut his clothes knew that no
had money, but II was not q pleasant
task to suggest to him that no should
get some new clothes He was an old
bachelor, and no had rooms in an ex-
pensive bachelor apartment house. His
condition was disgrace to the club
and as u last resort half dozen Of his
old friends got up purse Of 800 and
went to his tailor and ordered a new
suit Of clothes for him. They told the
tailor that IL was in payment OF q
wager. When tho suit was made, they
packed it in box with new hat,
shoes, collars, shirts and two soarfs and
sent it ,o Blank. A letter was inclosed
which read:
DEAR BLAsK-By express l send you tho
outfit that lost by my last election wnger.
1.-THE signature was such that no one
could read It, There was some specula-
ton AZ TO how Blank would take this
hint Two days later he turned up at
the club In his new clothes, and when
he was congratulated on them he said
they were the result Of an election
wager. The new clothes were too much
for him, however. He got drunk on the
strength Of them and staid drunk at the
club for the next two weeks, when he
was dropped from membership. New
York Sun. .-
The Queens Messengers.
The four queens messengers always
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