The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-12

swer the cheer of the mob with dollar bills. He not only reclothed the Skiff and Gaylord enterprise, gave it from Kemm's famous Market street store the finest possible orchestral outfit, but he bought a locomotive, baggage car and two sleeping cars, to make it the first of travelling companies with such an equipment. When the, organization started on, this career of sumptuous travel it was estimated that Steele had spent two hundred thousand dollars in less than two months.
 There was an older man in Pittsburg who resolved to exploit this youthful and reckless son of Helios. His name was Seth Slocum, and he commanded just those powers to open stage doors, to penetrate the innermost recesses of the concert hall and unlock the cham bers of Isis which would appeal in a Icompelling way to a proffigate spirit. Behild, therefore, this matchless young | ispendthrift, underhis tuteIage, and the champagne lrout which ensued. when to l call for one bottle smacked of penury X and only a basket was de rigueur Un- der such expert administration there formed about him great company of parasites to fawn upon him, to exalt his already Caesar-like aplomh and to accept humbly the diamonds and gold pieces even when gold was at 215!-- and strips of the long green. What more logical than that all this horde of leeches, decked out in the best tailor- made at his expense, should be quar- tered at the Monongahela- that decent people fled from 1t, and that a cove ibous management was forced at length to say: Your absence is more l to be desired than your compafly?n
 I Then the preparations for the con- lquest of Philadelphia, which loomed upon the horizon of Steele's imagina- tion as the promised land. wen take lit by storm special care-if you say 50 lFll buy locomotive new clothes all around. Of course. there was unanimous concurrence What you need, said the mentor, is a body guarda man you and I can trust-a man who knows every twist in hotel I ltable form and can dress you as befits your station. That man is. Major Tea gle, and have written him to be pre- lpared for our arrival.' Thus it was | that the invasion was accomplished
 the arrival by one of the first trains at lthe new terminal in West Philadelphia, which had been the arcade of the great Sanitary Fair, the procession of car raiges through the city, having at it's head the victoria bearing Steele in his
  ted 'nighthawk" on the box seat, and at his side the impressive figure ot the "Majah, 2 for many years to come one l lof the most picturesque impressions of our city life.
 I Two incidents rise conspicuously out of the throng which marked the spend- l thrift's career in Philadelphia. One day he stopped in at the Continental, when the late J E. Kingsley had just been admitted to the firm controlling I it. T wish to see the proprietor { He is engaged, 4 said the clerk, staring lat the marvellous sartorial apparition Il won't be answered in that way
 Here, boy''-tossing a twenty dollai l gold piece to the bell-boy- take my card to the proprietor" When Kings Hey appeared, he said, laying mass oi bills on the counter. There are eight
 thousand dollars. It's yours. All want is the right to run this hotel one
 day, and pay all the extra expenses !. Kingsley could not resist the tempta. Ktion. Picking up the money he said
 For twenty-four hours 1t is yours tc command "Slocum," cried Steele
 you are clerk. Get behind that desk .I Gaylord d"--this was Johnnie, :" the min,
 strel-"you are bell-boy at one hun. dred dollars a day. Where's thai
 clerk? Here, sir, you are discharged
 Aa soon as it could be prepared {. huge lsign was raised across the reading room windows (afterward Helnabold't Idrug-store) with this inscription
 "Open House To-Day! Everything
 Free! All Are Welcome!n
 Even dull fancy can paint the mol
 besieging this hostelry for twenty -foul
 hours, where flowed a virtual river 0
 wine. Adding the cost of this frolic u I his personal gifts, this horel expert
 ment cost him twenty-five thousand
 dollars. Directly upon his return tt
 the Girard Kingsley brought back tn, 5l continental into it's hitherto decorou;
 channel and reinstated the clerk, Thi!
 act so ineensed Steele that he agreed
 to indemnify Kanaga for the expens,
 of running the Girard at half rate, ant
 for thirty days this fierce competition
 severely tried the resources of the nev
 management of the Continental It i'
 no part of our purpose to follow the or
 gies of this crazed youth or outline hi
 midnight career. Decency must, i
 charity will not, drawn down the cur | tain on tre, scenes of his nocturnal pro al fiigacy. @ '..'~+ I At Saratoga, where he gambled whil,
 the minstrels played, and where Johl
 Morrissey took from him ten thousand
 dollars at one sitting, an old man caf,
 up to him, and, laying his hand upo1 1 his shoulder, said: DO not forget tn, words of Franklin--'Always taking ou of the meal tub and never putting il
 soon comes to the bottom" Wherea j Steele rose up: Gentlemen, under my
 new lease 1 am getting five thousand
 dollars a week"-which was a some
 what eytravagant enlargement of tht
 real figures and if you think I've go