The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-12-20
The Man With the
Borrowed Ear
Apropos of Recent Widely HeroIded
Surgical Incident
By WILLIAh WALLACE WHITELOCK


who was willing to part with one of them
for ten thousand dollars.
ain lieu of the money" wrote my
agent, ~ think she would compromise
ON matrimony."
Matrimony-I would willingly have
paid even that price for an ear; but
would the Montana widow accept me
when she learned that l had lost my
money? such, alas! was the case, and,
further, this misfortune traced directly
to Willie's accursed ear The lad must
have been absolutely without business
judgment, for since acquiring his aural
member had found myself giving ear to
the most preposterous schemes for in
vestment and speculation. 80 long as
those wishing to make me their dupe
addressed themselves to my left side, l
was firm in my opposition; but let them
transfer their attacks to Wlllie's side
of my head, and l was powerless to
resist For the first time | understood
the full meaning of getting on the right
side of man.
"Now, DOCTOR" l said, when had
sought DIR. TomlinsoH and explained the
situation to him, 81 am no longer in a
position to pay the lady in question in
money for her ear, but am ready to do
so in love: Do you think that will
satisfy herr"
"My dear SIR" was the caustic reply,
"Fm afraid the operation went to your
head more than suspected DO you
imagine any woman would lend an ear
to your proposition, least of all a widow?
If YOU do, l don't. Good morning,
sir
And so I found myself on the street
again with Willie's ear and thout
prospect of getting rid of it. / had lost
my money, and Herewith the purchasing
power of ears. l resigned myself to my
fate and walked dejectedly home to my
miserable lodgings.
OF late Willie's ear has begun to man
fest distinctly immoral tendencies, so
that when an improper story is being
told l find it impossible to drag it
away. l am afraid Willie has grown
up into very bad man. Literally, he
leads me around by the ear. Did but
know where to find him, | would devote
my days and nights to reforming him;
but, alas! he long since ran away from
the school in which he had been placed
by my money and disappeared from
sight. What will be the outcome of the
matter, tremble to think. An ear that
at twenty-three will listen to improper
stories. at twenty-five may hearken to
suggestions of a much worse nature. /
ltok forward to the future with fear and
trembling. Whittier will Willie's ear
eventually lead me?
A Week Later.-The solution of the
question has come sooner than | ex-
prcted. Yesterday morning picked UP
the newspaper. and the first thing my
eye fell upon was this startling headline:
Death of One-earcd VIII. \ Noted
Young Criminal Killed Robbing a Bank.
Could | doubt that this was W lie
Fahnestock, whose ear l carried about
with me? Snatching up my hat.
fastened to the morgre where his body
was living. 1t was W lie. and no mis-
take-even beneath the ravages of
hardships and dissipation | recognized
the boy whom | had robbed of one of
Natures most precious gifts. Little
Willie was dead! | looked at his ear
it was the duplicate of mine, though
waXcn nov in death
Suddenly n strange. lcaden sensation
caused me to raise my hand to NV bor-
rowrd ear, when, to my horror. it came
off in my hand. 1t was rs waxcn as
the ear on Willie's head He had vt last
his own. With the real pos
SCISSOR, our ear had died For a moment
] stood too Mortified to move. then a
sudden feeling of relief came over me.