Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-04

Written for The Evening Star by ]. W. Muller
Tie articles in this series stories OF singular
experiences that rane to ordinary people III .mG
names not given because the events are all OF
recent date. and The actors In them are living and
in many cases. well known throughout the land
Striking all these adventures are. and weird
and almost incredible as some are. they are only
such as may come at any moment 10 any one VINO
reads this: for they came thus 10 the people con
Dn them VINO rnr NOT anrhnr
The stories show that even the rare imagination
ARABIAN NIGHTS SToRlEs was not superior to
the ingenuity of the accident that shapes every
working day IN work-day lives.
The Bookkeeper's Story.
On the morning Of June IL 1900. when
James Gordon kissed his wife and children
and left his little SO fiat to go to his book
keeping, as he had gone every working day
for seven years, he walked straight Into
romance. But he did not know it for four
years afterward although ne was an i'm
portant figure In it all that time.
"A man needs Imagination and not the or
binary five senses to perceive romance:
and James Gordon was probably unim
aginative, matter-of-fact a person there
was III New York that morning.
He unlocked the door of the little suite
of Offices on the fourth floor of the big up
town office building as usual, made his neat
entries in his neat books, filed the receipted
Bills from plumbers. janitors gas COM
pGhIc5 and the rest who live on real estate
owners, deposited the days checks and
Went home to his simple dinner and to bed.
On June -. the second day of the ro-
nance. he performed exactly the same
exciting deeds. Dune Ii he went to bed
with the romance three days old, and many
men and many things in New York becom-
ing concerned in newspaper reporters.
police. courts-and all as ignorant of the
romance as James Gordon
On June 10, the end of the week having
approached, it became necessary for James
Gordon to communicate with his employer,
who rarely visited the office. A telephone
message TO his apartments was answered
by his valet. who said that Mr.. Van Brunt
mad gone fishing on June 10 and had not
returned. As he often made short lonely
trips OF the KIND. the bookkeeper thought
nothing more of it. So three days more
elapsed. Then he became puzzled and
finally worried. and started out to hunt for
his missing employer.
The valet, an old servant of the Van
BrUnt family, knew nothing except that
his master had gone away after he had
dressed himself in the knock about suit
that he always Wore when he went fishing
A telegram to a favOrite resort of Van
BIiInt's on one of the Long Island bays
brought the reply that he had arrived there
on June 10 and left again in the late after
noon of June IL.
That was all. 1t was all that the police
discovered, when they were called in at
last. The Van Brunts. in the three
turies since the first fat Dutch Van Brunt
arrived in New Amsterdam had become
dlgnifiedly commonplace in the civilized
process of natural selection quiet, fairly
good looking. brown bearded man of thirty
five CARRIED in an ordinary suit of clothes,
isn't so uncommon person in New York
that his description will startle people into
remembering that they have seen him.
The police and private detectives and all
the other agencies that fairly unlimited
means could set to work discovered just
what the bookkeeper had discovered with
his first telegram. John d. Van Brunt had
done what few hundred New Workers
do each year-'dropped OUT
But a man who belongs to nine clubs
all of the most exclusive kind. and owns
Inherited Manhattan Island real estate
that brings him $4,000 a year. and is use
full If quiet. figure at dinners and charity
balls and has generations of Dutch Man
haitian Islanders behind him, cannot drop
out as a Brown or a Jones can. The nine
clubs and the seven hundred odd general
leaders of society and the four hundred odd
kings and queens and even the lrigidly ex-
elusive thirty kings of kings, received the
disappearance of a Van Brunt as d decided
sensation
The newspapers printed columns about it
and they would have kept it up if it had
been possible to find out anything. But it
wasn't.
society stuff" just then. A millionaire had
lost 100000 at poker. Another one had
caught burglar single-handed and turned
him over TO the police. These items sub
Brunt. Before six months had passed peo-
Pile even forgot about the S20000 reward
that was offered for news of him.
When the excitement of the search had
passed James Gordon dropped back into his
old. regular routine. The two men who were
the direct heirs to John d. Van Brunts es-
tate were far more wealthy than he had
been: they agreed to leave the property I'M
touched for a few years in the hope that
their relative would turn up or the mystery
of his disappearance be cleared away In
the meantime they put James Gordon I'M
der bonds and bade him continue the man
agement of the property-which manage
ment was practically a matter of good
bookkeeping.
For matter of eleven hundred and eighty
odd times James Gordon conscientiously
opened the little office, made his neat en-
tries, carried the money to the bank and
went home again. So came March 10, 1904
On that day the business of the estate
called the bookkeeper to Ossining. On the
way he met friend. who was bound to the
state prison there to make a contract for
supplies. He invited Gordon to accompany
him after luncheon, and the bookkeeper,
whose own business soon finished, as
sented eagerly, for visit to state prison
appealed to him decided adventure.
The CHEEKY. venerable old head keeper
took them through, and made the usual dis
play of the mighty automatic bolts. the
hideous tiers of oppressively clean cells and