The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-28
FUR COATS.

temporarily gave up attendance at the
 two clubs.
 The young man did his soldering
 like any veteran, never missed a call
 never drank to excess while he was
 working his little dodge, never did any
 thing to give his superiors an opportu-
 nifty to restrain him to the limits of the post. One day, about month after he
 had been in the service. he went over to
 soapsuds Row and talked to the laun7
 dresses and told them that he believed he'd send them some flowers on the fol-
 lowing day. He got their names
 Bridgets and Norahs and Katies and
 Maggies and so on When he went to
 Chicago that evening he stopped at his | florists.
 The next day, while the commanding | officer was at luncheon at his quarters,
 the bell changed. Two uniformed dri-
 vers of flower wagons stood on the
 steps, and they solemnly inquired
 where, In the post, could be found
 Mrs. Bridget Monahan, Miss Katie
 O'Hoolihan, Mrs, Norah Brannigan,
 and so on, for whom, the flower wagon
 drivers said, they had wagon loads of choice cut flowers and plants. The | commanding officer overhearing the colloquy at the door, came out and talked with the drivers. He was too grim a man to see the humor of the thing, but he told the drivers that they would find the persons they were in search of in the quarters of the laun- dresses. He ascertained from them the name of the queerly generous person who was bestowing his floral favors upon the queens of the washboard-Mr So-andSo, they told him, giving him
 the name of the scapegrace buck pr-
 vate.
 Every day, from that time on, the
 driver of delivery wagon, containing stacks of candy or toys for the young
 one, or dry goods, or more flowers, would ring the bell of the commanding officers quarters and gravely ask where he could find Maggie This or Tessie That or Bridget the Other.
 The commanding officer ragged inter- nally over all this, but he couldn't do anything about it. The scapegrace couldn't be held accountable for the conduct of drivers of delivery wagons. And the scapegrace went right on sol- diering like man with half dozen enlistment stripes on the sleeve of his full dress uniform, and giving nobody, high or low, chance to take hack at him.
 Then, two months after his enlist ment, he gave a swagger dinner to an oddly named club. He made a rattlfng good speech himself at the dinner, and it was report ed in full in the Chicago newspapers on the following morning. He gravely told the diners row dearly 1 he loved soldering, and how he intended | to stick to the service for the remain der of his natural life; and so on.
 Four days later he received his dis 1 charge. It is probable that the laun- dresses of Fort Sheridan, as well as his ! comrades, most of whom he kept sup | piled with high-c class liquor most of the | time were sorry to see him go; but the officers weren't. Among other compen- sations his retirement from the post | permitted them to resume attendance at the two clubs. which they did.
 The scapegrace but none the less cherished only son of a. wealthy Cali fornia shipper announced in moment of vinous enthusiasm few years ago at a dinner given to number of fel- in San Francisco that he was all for a life on the raging main and that henceforth and forever he de- sired nothing better for his than wet sheet and a flowing sea; to the at tainment of which end he proclaimed with great earnestness and positiveness that he intended on the following to repair to the Mare Island navy yard and ship in the naval ser vice of Uncle Sam They doube-dog- Jared him to do it, of course. but !-e said that they didn't need to dare him; that he was going to do it any way, md then he did neat hornppe on the able and his companions figured that 1e would forget all about his aspira- ions before morning.
 However they reminded him of it the lext morning, and he showed himself o be a pretty game sort of young fly ,y might. He went right up to Vallejo, crossed to Mare Island, boarded the re- eiving ship Independence, passed the ( loctor and was duly shipped as a andsman. His pals had accompanied Jim to Vallejo. He showed up among ( hem that same evening in Vallejo in { he rig of fatfoot of the sea service, nd they spent the night In dancing $ he Maypole dance around him and I touring libations of flzz upon his heavy | weather togs. The next day he was assigned to ruser booked to depart for the China taton in a week. Three days before ( he ship was to get up her mudhook for C he long cruise the wealth and fashion 2 f San Francisco began to descend d pom the vessel for the purpose of bid- ing the scapegrace landsman, who was aally good fellow and extremely pop c lar, good-by. It was hard for the of- P cers of the ship to see pretty women \ y the score talking animatedly with p his landsman at the gangway, and it C -as galling to those same officers to see