The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-11-23
UNpoING OF BILLY DAVIS.

never De the bank 5 president. ne : too
| bright. Some bright things get tarnish-
ed while the very act Of repolishing is
going on TO ft them for new uses. Bill
iys idea of life is that every man has a
| certain side which if attacked properly
viii soon give the assallant possession
Of the entire garrison. This Chicago
bank clerk has always maintained, or at
/ least until very recently. that his plan
Of campaign when he wishes 10 capture
anything never can fail.
Billy Davis is good looking, and he
wears good clothes. in the performance
OF which latter feat ne spends the ma
Jor part of his SIS d week salary. Billy
goes into very good South Side society
rather more than enthusiastically. The
/ other night he went to what he told the
! boys next day was swell function.
There he met Mary Waters. a pleasing
young woman three years the bank clerks
junior. who had come 70 Chicago recently
! 10 keep house for her widowed uncle.
Jared Smith. who had just made a large
fortune. Billy Davis went at matters
much after the manner that a bust
ness house finds out about a man who
wants TO open a credit account. Billy
soon discovered that Mary Waters was
Jared Smiths sole heiress. He also
found out that one of Mary's hobbies
was botany. Billy planned his campaign
and directed it against the botanical side
Of the fair heiress. Billy secured all OF
Asa Gray's works and several of those
OF Torrey. In less than twenty-four
hours he knew all about pistils, stamens,
coronas and the other things and in an
other twenty-four hours he had gone SO
far as to invade the realm of AIesembry-
anthemums
II did not take Billy Davis long 10 Sc
cure an invitation TO call at the Smith
residence. He was not singled out, for
many other young fellows were asked
also. Jared Smith wanted his niece 10
enjoy life. The Smiths lived magnih-
Gently. Billy knew that the old man
must have a pot of money. He worked
botany for all il was worth and actually
believed that the bank clerk as well as
the flowers of the field, was making q de-
cided impression. Billy Davis had one
big lump on his head, and one does not
have 10 think hard in order to give it a
name. He came TO the conclusion in
about two weeks time that Mary had
-succumbed, but there was Uncle Jared
still left to deal with Billy planned an
other scheme of campaign. He found out
that the uncle went every few days to
see the high school play football. and
he also discovered that the old fellow
laughed long and heartily wheneY er he
heard stories of innocent boyish pranks.
1t does Uncle Jared good to laugh once
in while" said Mary Waters one even
ing TO Billy and another caller, for his
life has been saddened one ever since
Aunt Margaret died. 1t does me good
to see him livend up little"
Billy Davis. when he heard this. in
stantly knew where TO plant another
three-inch rife TO make a breach in the
enemy's wall. Three nights afterward
Billy called again and the old gentleman
came and sat in the parlor. Billy opened
fire. He began talking about his school
boy days and of the pranks that he and
his comrades used TO play. OLD man Jared
frightened up a bit when Billy began to
talk Of boyish escapades.
They're coming easy" thought the
bank clerk to himself Then out loud he
said: You see, I went to school at a
big Methodist seminary in central New
York, and L guess Charlie Powers and
l made life miserable for many peo-
pie"
Then Billy proceeded to tell of some
student scrapes that We're not altogether
innocent He might have seen a faint
trace of something like disapproval come
into Jared Smiths face had he observed
keenly. Even had he noticed it Billy
had too much faith in his plan of cam
paign to be turned aside from assault by
any abatis in form of a frown. He
charged into another story. You see
Mr.. Smith, Charlie Powers and I had
great times. We had rooms in the house
of a woman and went from there to our
Rotations and study. The woman was
a meek, sOrrowfu1 kind OF a person with
pretty near always a tear in her eye. 1
believe she had lost several children. We
never saw anything of the husband ex-
cepting on rare occasions. I don't know
to this day what he looked like. We
heard that he was a crack-brained in
that h was tinkering at would bring him
fortune. His wife believed it. too,
and everybody knew that she kept room
erS and did all her own work so that
money could be used to help along her
husbands plans. We didn't do "A thing
to the old woman. oh no. OF course. we
We're boys, yOU know, and that she some
times found the chimney SCOT in the soup.
and that her weeks wash that was hung
out to dry had TO be done over again.
and that the blacksmiths bulldog got in
through the open gate and killed her ia
vorite cat wasn't all due to us. Oh no,
of course not. She didn't know it, any
way.
But it was fer the old man. the addle-
pated inventor, that we had it in. He
used to wake US up when he came home
in the middle of the night from his dingy
little workshop. One night the landlady
About l o'clock in the morning the old
fellow came home and knocked something
over and walked us up. Ii was an uwful
cold night. About FIVE minutes after he
came in we heard him get up. go down
stairs and out the front door. We knew
ne was in his stocking feet. because he
made no noise There was "A pump with
q handle extending over the porch. He
had gone for a pitcher Of water Charlie
: Of hpF ff.gtL-
ed through window and there was Just
light enough to see that the old fellow
had nothing on but trousers and shirt.
Wei, he didn't get back into the house
for good hour and q half ii was a
cold night for some one, 1 tell you.
Charlie and L left the next day. but I
heard somewhere that the old fellow
caught cold and was laid up for a month
and that his wife got sick nursing for
him. But you see he'd walked US up night
after night. and we were paying him
up, and when he found out We wouldn't
let him into the house he did swear dread
fully"
It was just about a week after this that
William Davis. bank clerk. wrote let
Ter TO Miss Mary waters. heiress. asking
for her heart and hand. The bank clerk
was more OF q strategist than a fighter
He preferred in this instance 10 train his
suns from q long distance. TX was not
tw enty-f0ur hours before he received a
reply. The address was in Mary Waters
handwriting; the letter was iu an entirely
different band X read like this
Mr. William Davis-My Dear Sir. You
forgot in The course of your thrilling re-
cital OF your boyho0d pTanlSs the
other evening 10 mention the name oT
your lanGiadr In the New York school
town Her name, il I may recall it 10
you. was Margaret smith was her
addle-pated inventor husband. Doubtless