Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21
A CLEVER CRATER

about month ago" said a commercial
traveller who arrived in Washington the
other day. when I got into a small town
in Iowa, on my way east, found the town
| in a state of considerable commotion over
| the peculiar case of man who had reach
ed the place the day before. The man, it
seemed. had one of these sudden-loss-
| identity cases about which we've been read
| ing SO much in the newspapers during the
past four or five years. This 1 found out
before had seen him. He had stepped of
a train bound from Omaha to Chicago on
| the day before and had engaged the station
master In conversation as soon as the train
| pulled out. He had clean forgotten who
| he was. where he had come from, where
| he was going, or anything whatever about
himself. the young man told the station
master.
THE stationmaster, OF course, was will
ing to knock OF work any time to talk
with such queer proposition as that. The
stationmaster took the young man to the
hotel of the town and interested several Of
the solid citizens In the case. In CONVERSE
ton with all Of these the young man
manner was exactly the same as 1t had
been when he had tackled the station
master and told that official of his sudden
loss Of identity. In quiet, pathetic sort
OF way, and frequently passing his hand
In puzzled manner across his forehead.
what his name was than Of any of the
events that had led to his dropping on the
train into the little town In which he found
himself. He didn't remember ever having
seen the town before, and what his pur-
pose had been In stopping on there was
| too much for him.
The leading physician OF the town was
called into the conference after awhile, and
he was as much puzzled over the young
mans story as the solid citizens He ques-
toned the young man closely as to wnether
he had recently received any injury TO MS
head, and the young man replied that ne
didn't recall anything Of the sort. The
medical man examined the young man
| thoroughly, and found that he was In tip
| top condition physically, and that he was
perfectly rational and level-headed mental
! ly, except that all recollection of every
J thing connected with his previous life had
| absolutely departed from him. The town
press correspondent, OF course. got h tho
young man, and he sent the story out all
over the country.
| IAN Of this was on the day before I got
! in. When l arrived at the hotel the lana,
| lord pointed the young man out to me- anu
| I went up to the table where he was en-
| joying hearty meal and had a talk with
| him. He was chap of about twenty-elgnt
| or so, good looking and very well dressed
| He had landed in the town without cent
of money and without any papers whereby
| he could be identified. but his case seemed
| so extraordinary that the solid citizens had
| for his hotel BILL and so on. until it could
| be decided what to do with him. The solid
citizens, a matter of fact, were rather
proud of the business knowing as they did
| that the story had been wired to the papers
| all over the country. They considered that
| it sort of advertised their town.
THE townsmen who had volunteered to
| look out for the young fellow assembled at
| the hotel on the night that got in for the
| purpose of arriving at some decision as to
what should be done with him. There was
no hospital in the place designed to cope
| with cases of lost identity. l happened to
mention at the conference that perhaps the
| young man would be better off in Chicago,
where he could go to one of the big hos
pitfalls for treatment. The young chap came
| in at that point with the remark that he
| mad a vague sort Of recollection that the
! name of the place from which he hailed be-
gan with &C.
I'm going up to Chicago tomorrow said
| 1 to the conference of citizens, and. if you
| gentlemen desire it, could take this young
| fellow along with me and that he gets
| into the right hands for treatment
They all looked upon the suggestion as
| a good one, and thanked me for It, Then
| they took up a collection for the young
| mans benefit. and raised nearly hundred
| dollars, which they wanted me to keep for
| him until we arrived in Chicago. 1 told
| them that l would rather not do that how
| ever, as the young man appeared to be per-
| fectly rational. and in shape to take care of
the fund himself So they handed the
money over to him on the following morn
Ing, and gripped his hand in cordial good
| bye handshakes, and the pair of us climbed
aboard the express train bound for Chicago
we got into the smoker and the young
man pulled out handful of good cigars
and offered me a smoke Then he pro
duced from his valise quart bottle of
Iowa drugstore whisky and offered me a
drink This. Of course, surprised me
whole lot, but I didn't want to take a
chance of making the man of lost identity
nervous by submitting inquiries to him as
to where. how and why he had got the
whisky; SO 1 took nip along with him.
and let 1t go at that. Well, to make 1t
short he hit that bottle up pretty hard
within an hour after our departure, and in
side of couple of hours he was pretty
well jagged. He invited me to play game
wad that the solid citizens had donated to
him. and gazing at it humorously 1t
struck me as something pretty queer that
a man who had clean forgotten all about
his own identity should still remember the
somewhat involved game of draw poker,
but 1 didn't say anything about it. Then
the young fellow took another large swig
at his bottle and gazed at me in a rummy
sort of way out Of the slants Of his eyes
." Great graft, pal, amt IT.? he said to
me.
What's great graft?' asked him.
" Thish Josh O memory scheme said he
and then he went on drunkenly and let the
| cat out of the bag, telling me that he had
been working the dodge right along all
CScI the cOuHtfy Two or three years
past whenever he was broke and that he
got away with cute little bundle on the
strength of 1t every time I told him that
he was a loafer and a BLACKBOARD and sew
eral other things, but he was too much
| loaded to care by that time, and left the
| smoker In disgust and went to one Of the
front cars. He was still jagged up when 1
left the train at Chicago. and I would sure
ly have turned him over to the police IL I'd
been certain that there was any charge
upon which he could be held in Chicago
Three nights later I saw that young
man executing queer stunt in the much
lighted district of downtown Chicago. A
street-piano italian was playing his instru-
| ment in front Of prominent saloon and
the young fellow, still very well dressed,
and pretending to be intoxicated-which he
| wasn't. then-was taking the crank away
from the Dago every minute or so and
playing the thing himself, then passing the
hat around. His performance so tickled
| the crowd. who looked upon the young fell
low as thoroughbred in devilment that
they contributed literally. 1 followed him
about to three or four widely removed
points that evening, and he repeated his
dodge. everywhere getting big money.
which he. Of course. split with the sIcilian
orc in oil he