The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-08-09

An interested observer walking down
/ whaE might appropriately be called the
| Lombard Street of st. Louis, turned his
attention a moment from the passing
! ,hrong to the large window before which
he found himself standing and let his tze
| idly wander over the display behind the
fine plate glass Almost instantly it be-
came riveted upon an object that seemed
| out of place even in such Heterogeneous
| collection, for the incongruous object was
nothing more nor less than wooden leg,
and over the door of the business house to
which the window belonged swung three
| golden balls.
II the far away days of Charlemagne one
: OF his brave soldiers slew the mighty giant
/ iugello and stole his three headed club,
/ which he no doubt then welded right lus-
| tily," al any rate the members of his FAM
| lily have ever since had upon their Coat-of-
arms this emblem of the pTowess of their
first great hero, and wherever the Medicis
planted the golden balls victory of SOME
sort came their way. Even when the proud
Lombard merchants of the family wandered
out into the world and fought the battles
of peace with kings and queens bowling ans
beseeching them for a little more time or
y
peating itself. Driven out of Lombard
Street, the rich merchant became the poor
Jew, but still he swung the golden balls,
which were TO him what Excalibar was to
Arthur, and again there are rich merchants
in Lombard Street But while the inter-
ested observer unused upon the mutations
OF fortune he kept on thinking about the
wooden leg, and resolved 10 enter and in
vestigate how these timber toes came to
md a resting place among the unredeemed
Neither Moses nor Abraham nor any gar
lic-smelling individual. with nose which
had developed proboscis proclivities came
forward behind the nickel plated counter
cases, but instead, a handsome we'll
groomed young American smiled a wei
come and answered all questions put 10
him, twinkle in his eye all the time.
Yes" said he, cit does seem queer
that fellow would pull his own leg for
little money, but that is what The chap
who owned this found necessary to do.
'And as his leg was off, of course,
He soon was of his leg.
ana I suppose he stayed at home or it
may be that he got a better leg and had
only that reason for getting rid of his old
one l don't know whether there was a
faithiess Nelly Gray or not but I am In
cliEed TO think the poor fellow who owned
this UNDERMINING came 10 regard il as
too great a luxury and exchanged it for
money to buy bread-or maybe beer. -
In the showcase one of the most notice
able objects was q splendid diamond and
pearl sunbuTst which looked so much like
the real thing that 1t attracted immediate
attention.
A Sacrifice for Soldier.
That pretty bit of jewelry has an in
tereSting story" remarked the young man
'One day {. young society man and young
lady in his own set came in here and asked
what they could get on this pin, and in or
der to get as much as possible they took
US into their confidence The young man
is a soldier in the army OF the Philippines
and had come TO St Louis on a furlough.
The girl was his sweetheart but he did not
spend all his time here with her. for he
got into no end of trouble, which, OF
course. would not have happened if he had
beer more attentive TO her. Among his
other troubles was the fact that he had
lost all his money gambling, aud had not
eBough 10 take him back to his regiment. /
and the end of his furlough was approach /.
ing. The young lady came 20 his rescue 10 /.
save him from disgrace, and sacrificed this I
beautiful pin. which cost $500 and it is to /
be hoped that the fellow is duly grateful,
but you never can tell
Those look like engagement rings-reaI ]
soltaires, some of them
And that is just what they are. and
some funny things We know about some of /
them. Often the men bring the rings. but /
more often the young ladies, and when I!
they come it is usually very shyly. Some
times the same man will pawn his engage
ment ring several times before he is fin |
ally married l am sure l have no idea 7
why young lady should pawn her en- /
gagement ring. but she may need money /
to buy something for the wedding or
possibly she may come at the young mans |
request Some of these rings are valued /
as low as $40 and some of them are $500. |
Here is a case of wedding rings in all |
stages Of wear and tear. ] suppose it is |
pretty hard for a woman to part with her |
wedding ring. but you would be surprised |