The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-22

| The transient will finish reading, 81
! quietly a few minutes, and then wall
away, throwing the paper into hi
vacated chair. Then the other will
| pick it up and have an hours comfor
with his favorite journal.
This thing happens fifty times ever.
| morning and evening. The man will
Sunday paper often finds three o
four Others waiting to pick il up, sec
ton by section, as he finishes with 1t
Even the advertising pages ar
eagerly devoured, for they help pas
away the time, and that, after ALL il
the chief end of man at the House o
| the Gray Lives
The Gray shadow Brings Tacitur'
nifty.
The t,aciturnity of men who have
| fallen to this level of life is we'll illus
trated by the case of man who left
the hotel simply because his own bril-
| lance caused people TO question him
about his better years.
1t was known among the guests that
| he could speak many languages just
| how deep his learning was, they did
not know until one day an immigrant,
| freshly arrived from Europe, tried to
make himself understood to the hotel
| attendants and failed dismally. He
spoke a language that no one there
| had ever heard. Several of the guests.
who had travelled extensively and who
spoke the ordinary European tongues.
tried to converse with him, but all
their efforts were useless. Finally, the
man of many languages was called
upon. AS soon as he had heard the
immigrant speak, they entered into
conversation and the difficulty was
solved.
What language is that?" asked a
guest
TT is a dialect" replied the inter-
prefer. 81 never heard it except in
certain remote parts of Siberia"
For hours he would sit and talk in
French with the librarian of the hotel.
Their conversation was usually of
books and the philosophers, and so
deep did the strangers learning prove
to be that the librarian asked if he had
ever been to college.
"Oh, yes" the man said. "I went
through Yale, Oxford and Heidel-
burg"
During all the months he was in the
hotel, these were the only admissions
he made with reference to his own
life, except once when he confess ed
to having spent years in wandering in
out-of-the-way corners of the earth.
When he was asked whether 1t was
for business or pleasure, he simply
smiled and proposed a game of DOM
inoeS.
Finally the curiosity of a clique of
old men became so great that they
waylaid the linguist at all times of the
day and tried to engage him in con-
versation in order to lead gradually
up to personal questions. Then he
disappeared.
After he had gone the old men be-
gan to compare notes and that is how
a rather wild story was set afoat
They called to mind the fact that
every language he spoke, English in
Guided, was spoken with a slightly for
eign accent They were certain that
he was not American, English, French,
Spanish or Italian. His accent had
been noticed in all these languages.
Then his confession that he had spent
years wandering in out-of-the way
corners of the earth, coupled with his
knowledge of a Siberian dialect. point
ed, according to this council of old
men, to but one conclusion. The man
was Russian nihilist who had es-
capped from a Siberian prison and had
been bounded over the earth for years.
Whether it is true or not, that story
Will have to stand undisputed, for the
man has never been seen since at the
hotel, and not a man in the place even
knows his name.
SO1nce In Shakespeare
Walk into the reading-room of the
hotel at almost any time of day and
you will find there an old man who
might have posed for any of the famil-
lar paintings of Hebrew patriarchs
He has fine old face full of strong
lines and the burrows of deep thought,
AS he sits reading, as far from the
crowd as he can get, you feel instinc-
lively that he should be the teacher OF
a congregation and counselor of the
undecided.
Yet, when he walks through the
halls and comes nearer, he presents a
far different appearance. In his hand
he carries an old umbrella-stick
shorn of it's ribs and cover. His
clothes are old and worn, and, worst
of all, filthy. An old black coat, al
most in shreds, hangs limp and crushed
from his shoulders, and on his head
he wears a black skull cap that is far
from attractive. Were it not for the
ineffaceable strength that shows in
the lines of his face, one might almost
fancy that he was a product of the
worst conditions of the slums; anC
the 'slovenly bundle that he invariab bly,
carries does much to add to that i'm.
preston.
No one has ever been able to en-.
gage him in conversation. He seem.
to take absolutely no interest in the
life about him and repulses all ad.
VanceS in manner that is almost saw.
age. He is known as one who hate.
his fellow-men. But what has caused
this hatred or why this man ha.
buried himself so utterly from tn,
sight of his own people. no one car
say.
All day long he reads. Not bool
that deals with the modern world and
its problems has ever been seen IL
his hands. Neither has he ever beer
known to read a newspaper. Durinf
all the months he has been there h,
has found solace in but two men
Shakespeare and Gibbons "Declin,
and Fall of the Roman Empire"
The Last Days of Famous Ac.
countant.
Old and decrepit and feeble, a once
famous expert accountant is spending
his last days in the hotel. adding, sub
stracting, multiplying, dividing - be-
cause he has nothing else TO do
In his younger years he was A mar
vel at figures. Long columns OF num-
bers, intricate problems OF computa-
ton. the most involved series oi
mathematical processes, were nothing
20 him.
He has probed through the books
OF many big concern while thou
sands OF anxious investors eagerly
awaited his verdict. His has been the
hnai word IN many a scheme that IN
VOWED the expenditure OF vast sums
Of money.
Some one for whom ne vas WORKING
suddenly made the discovery not long
ago that he was an old man and the
accountant was forced % look Tor an
other position. But. somehow, every