Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20
HE GOT A FULL MEAL

Hum-m-m. evacuated gentleman,
who was sitting on 18th street car with
Q friend the other evening. bound for his
home. which is located on one OF the pleas
ATTEST peaks of Mt Pleasant. In his hands
he held copy Of The Evening Star.
The man had just finished a cursory
glance through the paper. He had read
the headlines on the first and second pages;
had satisfied himself that there would be
plenty OF weather for the next few days, by
reading the weather report on the third
page; had searched for his wife's name in
the society column and landed on the eighth
page where the heading, Hard Luck
Stories" caught his eye. After reading the
story he gave expression to the exclamation
noted ABOVE: From the peculiar intonauon
gwen tnae brief utterance his companion
knew that the Mt. Pleasant mans thoughts
were OF retrospective nature.
-. That story, said the gentleman, pointing
1t out to his friend. reminds me of an ex-
perience had a short time ago.
You know my boy has been away to
college and when he came back from school
he brought with him a lot Of books and
they weren't all text books either. thought
stun the youngster had been reading while
out from under the parental roof, so /
glanced through the bunch at random, and
found some of them good and some other
WAoo. Suc toluHt6 IN the young library
that came to my notice was a collection OF
short stories
"One Of the stories read was about a
wealthy young fellow giving money to a
tramp who said he wanted to get something
to eat. According to the story the young
man strolled aimlessly about in the locality
for awhile, and presently he noticed the
beggar standing in the same spot where he
had left him, so he decided to watch the
CRATER.
I'm short space Of time he saw the fell
low approach several other gentlemen with
the same old cut-and-dried hard luck tale
which had wrung money from him.
The young fellow didn't like the idea of
being duped. so he thought he would have
a little fun out of the tramp and play even.
lie walked past the mendicant again and
When the follow attempted to make a Sec
ond touch for money on the plea of hunger
the young man took him along into a res
taurant and made him order a big meal
and eat 1t. The tramp, it seems, had al
ready dined and he objected to going
through the operation second time the
do it and had lot Of fun watching the i'm
poster nllfng up against his will
!nought 1t was real clever little story
and I chuckled right gleefully over it.
wen, the other evening I was meander-
ing down F street when a fellow came up
ana politely begged my pardon for accostine
me ana declared he was as hungry as a
bunch Of prairie wolves in winter and want
e ea me 3h to give him a dime to help him re-
leVe the strain of going to sleep with an
empty stomach. He said he was stranger
IN town and broke, and hadn't had a square
Heai Tor week. He was fairly well dressed
CRATER.
Shortly before that I had finished a
splendid dinner and was smoking an excen-
tlonaliy good two-fer,' so I was in a pretty
good humor. I felt real lively and that
s.toy ~, naa read In my boys book popped
WIN the fellow, just like the man in the
story, Tor l was certain the fellows tale
aoomt being hungry was a fake.
90 you re hungry? asked good natur-
Captain, hain't been SO hungry since
learned how to eat the fellow replied.
Wen. come along with me- I says. and
Wen see II we can't find something to ease
II took him to a nearby restaurant and
after we were seated at the table I handed
MIN the bill of fare and the pad the waiter
brought us and says:
Now. you just write down what you
want to eat and I'll stand the expense
order whatever you want-what YOU thinI,
VII! Mt the aching void you complain of
ana don't be afraid of wearing out the pen
I'm pretty hungry, captain the fellow
sald, but since you're so kind I don't want
to impose on you, so I'll just get a sand
witch and some coffee
NO, you won't I declared, looking at
him sharply. Now, look here. Young man.
you said you were hungry and 1 won
nave no backing up at this point You've
got to order and eat a meal and a big one,
too, because | won't stand for any funk
Ing. If you don't order 1t 1 will. and I'll
see that you tuck 1t under your waistband,
too
With that I began reading a paper and
paid no more attention to the fellow It
tickled me to note how he tried to get ont
of the game when he discovered I meant
business, so I just pulled up my paper and
waited. 1 wanted him to get stalled, and
then was going to have some sport urg-
ing him on, SO I bided my time. The fell
down his order. Presently 1 heard the
waiter coming toward US with the dinner.
cropped my paper and looked up, and
py George, nearly fell over my chair
backward The tray was piled foot 9Th
with dishes, and it looked like there was
grub enough on it to feed an orphan ASYLUM
for a week. The fellow had evidently
checked off everything on the bill of fare,
I recovered myself presently and pulled up
my face. '''n I'll
THAT fellow had certainly been telling
over, and when the barbecue was ali laid
out he squared himself and said, Here's
look1n' at you and sailed in. He cleaned
up the whole layout, and finished strong
Wuen ne got through ne signed with such
evident enjoyment that began to like my
self for what l had done. although it had
been with different motive than that of
philanthropy.
''The fellow smiled and handed me a.
toothpick as we left the table The bill
tore $1.50 into small shreds, but I paid it
like man. bought the fellow a good cigar
and we passed out onto the street Once
outside he thanked me very politely, but
didn't do any gushing, and I left him with
out any hard feelings at all, and satisfied
that had spent my money in good cause.
1 believe I felt better than if the Incident
had turned out as I had at first planned,
for l bought three newspapers from
ragged little fellow further down the street.
and was an easy mark all the rest of the
evening""