Evening star., 1902-01-25

too, for her dupes belong to class who
rarely come to the front to claim money re-
gained by the police under such circum-
shortly so to an upstate prison, where a
hard-featured matron viii clip of her nice,
long, glossy, black hair and put her into
nurlap suit Which, OF course, is quite sad.
The genuine artistic instinct receives so lit
tie encouragement over here.
ABOUT month ago q Harlem boy or
fourteen, real, bright little lad. with
nently fred from his messengers Job for
sundry and divers reasons, among them be-
Ing an tncurable disposition to kick the
daylights out of all the other messenger
actly as he told them to do. Now, when
this nice, chubby-faeed boy found himself
out in the cold world, without even the
price OF bog of cigarettes (Which he most
deeply 1onged for) his bitterness of spirit
was very great indeed. Life looked very
black to him without money wherewith to
purchase for himself such necessary little
comforts as cigarettes, back numbers of
the Nick Carter Nickel Library and the
like. He felt that, if anyone ever did. he
needed the money badly. He took a look
sisted Of his uniform and quite sizeable
bundle of telegraph blanks and telegraph
envelopes.
The Messenger Boys "Graft."
Eureka exclaimed he, just like Old
Sleuth, and he started right in to get the
money. This boy could write pretty good
fist for lad Of his age-a style of chirog-
raphy which he modelled upon that Of the
telegraphers. He betook himself to the
vestibules of a large number of extremely
swell Harlem apartment houses and OBJ
tained from the plates attached to the let
ter boxes the names of many dwellers
therein. Thus the chubby-faced boy who
needed the money SO very badly was all
prfmed for snowbirds, as it were.
Ha his evenings framing fake
messages and writing them on his tele-
graph blanks. Most of the fake messages
read this way:
Come down to office about one. VIII
take you to matinee and we'n dine down
town. CHARLIE
Others OF these fake messages stated that
Jim or VIII or Ed or Tom would take her
for an automobile ride and then dinner at
the Claremont or somewhere or another.
They were all framed up to make from
fifteen to twenty-five words each. and the
average of them was about 90 cents worth
of telegraphing. These messages the nice
little boy who required sure-enough money
duly placed in the regular envelopes which
he had flched when messenger. marked
them collect" and set out, whistling, to
gather in the coin.
1t was something easy. He'd deliver
the messages to the wives of men whom
he'd seen leave the swell apartments for
their offices, and he'd deliver them about
two hours after such departures. The
wives of the men whose names the boy
used were in most cases so delighted over
their husbands invitations that when the
boy said half dollar, pleas'm,' they never
stopped to think how rare it was for their
husbands to send them kilograms charges
collect" but produced the money demanded
instantly, while already studying out what
they were going to wear. A few of the
calm ones who slightly demurred and re-
marked to the boy that their husbands al
ways paid in advance for telegrams were
told by the bright little lad that ''ne must
ha' forgot ma am or maybe he had nothin'
but big bill that they couldn't change"
This always went in such cases.
Game Went Well at First.
The boys game went, as rule, on
creased skids. Occasionally he had craggy
experiences, as when he would deliver mes
sages to wives not exactly on matinee and
automobile riding terms with their hus-
bands; but in such dilemnas he was so tao
turn when questioned, and he looked so
nice and cute and chubby, that he always
succeeded in disarming suspicion, thus
sending such wives on missions to husbands
not expecting them. Inside of a week that
boy rolled in wealth. He made as high
$50 day without in any wise galloping his
legs off, He had a gallery seat at every
show in town afternoon and evening,
smoked only "Toikish' cigarettes, dined in
state, patronized all the moneyless kids for
miles around, took his "goil' any old place
She expressed a wish to be taken, and be-
gan to be regarded as "the merchandise"
even by the erstwhile contemptuous cab
drivers whom he treated.
The beginning of the bright lads down.
fall was when he handed a message, read
ing, Am at Waldorf; meet me at and
Wen take sleigh ride out to McGovern's
Pass Tavern, john" to an elderly lady
whose capitalist husband happened at the
moment to be in no less remote a place
than the Philippine Islands. 1t was a sad
blunder, and when the elderly lady very
courteously invited the lad inside he rather
ad ottylf hn I, ,;y,rr
wrong. He declined the invitation, there
fore, and then the elderly lady made a grab
for him. He was down the three flights of
stairs and out in good order and time
enough, but the incident rather sapped his
nerve and his sun was setting, anyhow.
Last week he committed the error that
landed him. He delivered message to the
wife Of a gentleman who happened to be
still at home, and only shaving in readi-
ness for his start down town. The message,
OF course, was from the gentleman en-
gagged in lathering his face, which, OF
course, again was clearly impossible. The
himself, and he got the chubby-cheeked boy
at the base of the stairs, and the game
was finished. The bright lad is now in an
institution where they use the clippers on
boys heads and where cigarettes are
scarcer than the market people claim eggs
are.
"Mag, the Fit-Thrower,,
Mag, the fit-turner," who bobbed up-or,
rather, down-again last week, goes in for
smaller results, and her game is pretty
risky, involving, as it does, frequent ar
rest but Mag nearly always needs the
money, and she is willing to take chances
Mag's speciality, as her nickname Implies,
is In throwing scientific fits when she thinks
there are no cops for couple of blocks
She has the fit business down SO pat that
she has been known to fool young ambu-
lance surgeons time and again when they
hxy xznlto
when the ambulance is summoned and she
sees there's no chance Of getting the
money, Mag prefers to be taken to the hos
pital for a nice quiet rest than to go to a
dreary cell. Her idea in "trunnin' +" her
FITS, as the police put 1T, however, is to in
woke the sympathy Of generous-hearted
passersby to the producing" point. She
has sudden beautifully acted fit in a
crowded thoroughfare, energies from it, and
starts away in her tatters. Sympathetic
persons there are in every crowd that sur
round Mag under such circumstances who
dive into their change pockets and press
money on her, and thus she gathereth quite