Evening star., 1902-08-09
LOCKED OUT.
A Funny Predicament of Prominent
Citizen on a Hot Day.

Snap, The front door blew shut and
prominent n street citizen was locked out
1t was 3 o'clock in the afternoon and there
was no one else at home. This wouldn't t
have mattered much but for the fact that
it had been a warm afternoon. The promi-
nent citizen had removed his clothing and
slipped on pajamas; he had come down
stairs to look at the thermometer and find
out just how hot it really was-and there
he was in his own vestbule with nothing
on but pajamas, with the inside door locked
behind him and the public highway filled
with pedestrians and equipages IN frent of
him.
He quickly closed the outside door and
leaned against the wall to think it over.
Three o'clock! No one could possibly get
home before 5. Two hours of suspense!
And then he discovered it was exceedingly
warm In the vestibuIe: warmer. in fact,
than the hot room upstairs which he had
thought sitting, and to learn the approxi-
mate temperature of which he had gotten
himself into this predicament
II a man of sound mind and body
he said to himself. "and have spent my life
coping with emergencies. There is no use
worrying over a little accident like this
will solve the difficulty. Not only that, but
/ will deliver myself from this dilemma
unaided. 1t would never do to let Maria
know. l would never hear the last of ito
| must compose myself and think / must
reason out some way of getting back into
the house or safely around to the back
door"
But Mr.. Prominent Citizen found it hard
to concentrate his mind in a temperature
OF 20 He was soon mopping his brow with
the sleeve of his pajamaS and swearing and
Kicking at the door. He also scraped the
skin off his toes and bruised and scrat ched
his hands trying to force the door open
against its will and determination to stay
smut. He even wished he had not been so
particular about burglar-proof locks
Finally he shouted. A few people whom
he could see through the crack in the outer
door stopped in front of his house and eyed
It critically and wagged their heads. as
much as to say:
There's something crooked going on In
there, and then passed on. Vainly the
thoroughly enraged man yelled to his
neighbors. They, too, must have been living
down, for there was no response
For two terrible hours he raVed and
Iumed and then he did a daring thing.
Watching his chance when there were no
women and but few men on the street. he
Hung the outer door open, Sprang onto tho
porch of his neXt-door neighbor and iabbed
furiously three or four times at the electric
push button. Then. before the astonished
onlookers could recover their surprise, he
darted back into his own vestibule
JOY! At last At last, His neighhors
door opened With a glad cry the prisoner
yelled, Come over here I need your helm. -
The neighbor came and heard the awful
story He was considerate enough not to
iaugh and without comment went to the
back Of the house. where he broke omen a
window, and in due time rescued his pa
jamaed neghbor
He was sworn to secrecy, but he be-
trayed MS Trust. and now a whole neigh
borhood is laughing at the episode, and the
prominent citizen is beginning to see the
funny side Of it. ~