davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

on the way homeward. Don't get the
idea that there's any chance for you A
girl like that Here he gave up, at
loss for words to express his conyic-
tions on the subject
But in spite OF this mutual cyni-
cism, Miss Williar and Jack Mayhem
were seen together very frequently
during the next three months. They
affected palm rooms and art galleries
and such places where a certain soft
splendor and quiet made Tor sentiment
and Iow-toned conversation
1t was upon one such occasion that
a patron of art, who haG closed the
Eook of Romance before the young
people in this story were born, over
heard the following extraordinary bit
of conversation. He was sitting with
one eye screwed up critically in the
effort to form a judgment of a Claude
Monet on the wall before him, when
he heard the young man murmur anx-
iously:
You don't suppose your mother
will say that I'm not rich enough, do
your
Indeed, no." replied the girl at his
side confidently. MY mother is not
that kind. Besides, didn't our mothers
know each. other before we were born ?''
The patron of art looked slightly
puzzled. From the tail of his cool, esti-
mating eye he sent furtive glances at
the pair, vainly endeavoring to follow
the young lady's reasoning.
There was an ecstatic silence for a
second. during which the patron of art
found the two decidedly interesting
from an artistic standpoint 1t was an
eloquent moment-and paintable. 1t
was really a pity. Then the girls face
dimpled and she began to speak
'Oh, Jack," she said, and her tone
was caress. Isn't it lucky that L
got you out of the grab bag after alp
The patron of art moved away. shak-
ing his head as If the times were get
ting beyond him. Got him out of the
grab-bag,' he murmured, Just to see
how it would sound-"Got him out of
the grab bagl''
Copyright, 1904, by Keith Gordon.
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

wait to see Miss Williar personally,
when, Just before the dinner hour, he
stopped at the address given on the
card.
He had notdong to wait. A tall girl
with look in her eyes that said
plainly that life was an interesting
experience entered the room and he
found himself face to face with what
seemed to him a larger, older and
greatly glorified copy of the small,
freckled girl upon whom, in moments
of rare generosity, he had sometimes
bestowed his boyish approval.
Why, Jack Mayhew!" she exclaim-
ed with unfeigned gladness, extending
her hand. Where have you dropped
from?" while his hearty Jupiter,
Cynthia, if this isn't luck!" uttered
with enthusiastic heartiness while he
conscientiously wrung her hand as II
1T had been that of another man,
placed them at once on the plane of
good fellowship where they had part
ed ten years earlier.
In their delight and surprise at the
meeting they talked volubly and some
times both at once, asking about boy
and girl friends and referring hilar-
iously to the pranks of those dear old
days. But If their tongues were busy,
their minds were doubly so.
He's magnificent" Cynthia was
saying over and over to herself with
thrill of delight, though ostensibly
she was listening with rapt attention
to his account of himself since he left
Elmwood and grown up. While he
filled with admiring wonder at this
new Cynthia. he suddenly lost the
thread of his story and floundered
helplessly. after the manner of persons
who try. to think about one thing and
talk about another
AS l was saying he observed i'm
pressiyely, making a frantic but in
effectual attempt to recall what he had
been saying. AS ! was saying-that
is-oh, hang it all. Cynthia, was SO
busy looking at you that 1 forgot what
| was saying! Don't know where I'm
ati''
At this plain avowal, they both
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

tors know it. 1 make the Government
keep its faith. If man is promised
a job he get it, If outside capital buys
concession they get the goods. 1
run monopoly of square dealing
here. There's no competition. If Col
onel Diogenes We're to fash his lantern
in this precinct he'd have my address
inside of two minutes. There's isn't
big money in it, but it's a sure thing,
and lets a man sleep of nights
Thus Homer p. Mellinger made ora
ton to me and Henry Horsecollar in
Sore-toe- kangaroo. And later he di-
vested himself of this remark:
Boys, I'm to hold a soirees this
evening with a gang of'leading citizens,
and want your assistance. Yoa bring
the musical corn shelter and gY e the
affair the outside appearance of a
function. There's important business
on hand, but it mustn't show l can
talk to you people. I've been panied
for years on account OF not having any
body to blow off and brag 10. I get
homesick sometimes. and I'd swap the
entire perquisites of Office for just one
hour to have q stein and caylare
sandwich somewhere on Thirty fourth
street, and stand and watch the street
cars go by, and smell the peanut
roaster at old Giuseppe's fruit stand
Yes, said l, there's fine caviare at
Bil - Renfrow's cafe, corner OF Thirty
fourth and"
God knows it, interrupts Meilin-
ger, and If you'd told me you knew
Billy Renfrow I'd have invented tons
of ways of making you happy. Billy
was my side kicker in New York. That
is man who never knew what crooked
was. Here I am working Honesty for
a graft, but that man loses money on
it. Carrambos! / get sick at times of
This country. Everytn-ng's rotten.
From the Executive down to the coffee
piciSers, they're plotting to down each
other and skin their friends. If a mule
driver takes off his hat to an official
that man figures it out that he's a
popular IDOL and sets his pegs to stir
up a revolution and upset the admins
tration. It's one of my little chores as
private secretary to smell out these
revolutions and affix the kibosh before
they break out and scratch the paint
eff the Government property. That's
why I'm down here now in this mil
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

- more than a grab-bag on a
huge scale. Day by day you
put your hand in and grab
something, but until you take it out
and unfold 1t you never know whether
IL is a joy or a sorrow"
With a droll smile at the idea, she
picked up her gloves and card case,
took a last comprehensive survey of
herself in the cheval glass, and then
passed down the stairs and out into
the street filled with the gentle exhil-
aration that her view Of life induced.
One did not know, for instance,
what charming adventure might be-
fall, even in the pursuit of so banal a
duty as round of formal calls. Mus
ing thus she turned into Fifth avenue,
her face alight with eager expectancy
o. the next thing, and trying to inn
agine what it was going to be.
This might be the great day of her
Efe-one couldn't tell. Perhaps before
the afternoon was over she would meet
the Man-that godling of her dreams.
who moved in the time honored
Olympian manner, enveioped in a mist
that hid his face from view. Appar-
emily the afternoon held nothing more
than pleasant stroll, broken by half
dozen calls: but the beauty of the
thing lay in the fact that one
couldn't be sure! Perhaps on that very
afternoon
These pleasant speculations suddsn-
ly came TO an abrupt end. Her card
case-where was it? She felt blindly
in her muff, thrust her hand into one
side of her coat and then the other.
but in vain. 1t was gune-lost-just
as numberless purses. opera glasses.
boas, muffs and umbrellas had gone be-
fore 1t. until she was a byword among
her friends and the gifts of her init
mates were invariably accompanied by
q beseechiag, Don't lose this. Cynthia
Do try to be a little bit careful"
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

out where the tail OF your eye could
see it,
That night, according to arrange
ments, me and Henry took the phono
graph to room in 'dobe house in
dirty side street, where the grass was
knee high. Twas a long room, lit with
smoky oil lamps. There was plenty of
chairs and a table at the back end.
by and by the invitations to the mu-
sicale came sliding in by pairs and
threes and spade fiushes. Their color
was of a diversity. running from a
three days smoked meerschaum to
patent-leather polish. They were as
polite as wax, being devastated with
enJoyments to give Senior Mellinger the
good evenings. 1 understood their
Spanish talk-I ran a pumping engine
two years in a Mexican silver mine.
and had it pat-but never let on.
Maybe fifty of 'em had come and
was seated, when in slid the king bee,
the Governor of the district. Mellin-
ger met him at the door and escorted
him to the Srandstand. When 1 saw
that Latin man / knew that Meliinger,
private secretary, had all the dances
on his card taken. That was a big,
squashy man. the color of a rubber
overshoe, and he had an eye like a
head walters.
"Mellinger explained. fluent, in the
Castilian idioms, that the soul was
disconnected with joy at introducing
to his respected friends Americas
greatest invention, the wonder of the
age. Henry got the cue and run on
an elegant brass band record and the
festivities became initiated. The Gov
ernor man had bit of English under
his hat, and when the music was
stopped off he says:
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

Sdewed coast town. The Governor of the
district and his Screw are plotting to
uprise. I've got every one of their
names, and they're invited to listen to
the phonograph tonight, compliments
OF H. p. M. That's the way I'll get
them in bunch, and things are on the
programme to happen TO them
I'VE three were sitting at table in the
cantina of the Purified Saints. Mellin-
ger poured out wine. and was looking
some worried; I was thinking.
They're a sharp crowd he says,
kind of fretful. They're capitalized by
a foreign syndicate after rubber. and
they're loaded to the muzzle for brib-
ing. I'm sick goes on Mellinger. of
comic opera. / want to smell East
River and wear suspenders again. At
times | feel like throwing UP my job.
but I'm d--n fool enough to be sort of
proud of it. There's Mellinger. they
say here 'Por Dios! you can't touch him
with a Million I'd like to take that
record back and show it to Billy Rem
frow some day, and that tightens my
grip whenever / see a fat thing that
could corral just by winking one eye
and losing my graft. BY -. they
can't monkey with me. They know it.
What money I get / make honest and
spend it. Some day I'll make pile
and go back and eat caviare with Billy.
Tonight I'll show you how to handle
bunch of corruptionists. I'll show them
what MeIlinger, private secretary.
means when you spell II with the cot
ton. and tissue paper off.
..Mellinger appears shaky, and breaks
his glass against the neck of the bot.
tie.
II say to myself, White man. If I'm
not mistaken, there's been bait laid
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

And now her new card case, a gift
on her birthday a few weeks before,
had gone in the usual way, just when
she was expecting the very best of
life, too. Her optimism disappeared
like the sun behind cloud and with
an aggricyed sense of misplaced trust,
her steps sJackened and she came to
standstill, wondering If it would be
worth while to go back and try to
find it.
Scarcely" she decided, as the mov-
ing crowd of pedestrians slowly filed
past her and with q sigh she resumed
her way northward once more, a lit
tie comforted by the reflection that,
after all, some honest person would
probably find it and return it to her.
Meanwhile, tall, athletic young
man, who was swinging up the ave-
nue. in the same direction, a block or
so behind her, unconsciously rejoicing
in his mere physical vigor and not
philosophizing at all, found his at
tention attracted by small, dark OBJ
ject ornamented with cleaning disk
of silver, that was lying near the edge
of the sidewalk.
Picking it up he glanced in this
way and in that, but the handsomely
gowned women who were making
their way in both directions gave no
indication of distress, so he examined
the monogram on the clasp with a
grunt of masculine disdain for such
devices.
Then he bethought him that it
might be a good idea to open it and
suiting the action to the impulse, he
discovered in one compartment a
latch key and in the other bunch of
cards.
Miss Williar,
No. West sts-th Street.
L - ~
and having thus satisfactorily estab-
lished the ownership Sof his find, he
tucked it into his pocket and strode
on toward the University Club. idly
wondering If this Miss WjlIiar could
be related to the little Cynthia Will
liar he had known in his boyhood. 1t
was this wonder that impelled him to
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

'Ver-r-ree fine. Gr-r-r-r-racias,
the American gentleman. the so
esplendeed moosic as to play
The table was a long one and
Henry and me sat at the end Of 1t,
next the wall. The Governor sat at
the other end. Homer P. Mellinger
stood at the side of 1t. 1 was just
wondering how Mellinger was going to
handle his crowd. when the home
talent suddenly opened the services.
THAT Governor man was suitable
for uprisings and policies. I judge he
was a ready kind OF man, who took
his own time.
do the American senors under
stand Spanish he asks in his native
accents.
They do not says Mellinger.
Then listen goes on the Latin
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

linger he cooks and seasons it. In the
front Office I fill the Presidents ink
stand and search visiting statesmen
for dynamite: in the back room | die
tate the policy of the Government.
You'd never guess how / got the pull.
It's the only graft Of its kind in the
world. I'll put you wise. You re-
member the topliner in the old copy
books, Honesty is the best policy"
That's it. I'm the only honest man
in this republic. The Government
knows it; the people know it; the
boodlers know it the foreign inyes-s
The San Francisco call., 1905-02-12

ftY IFE," meditated Cynthia as
she tucked in the ends of her
4 veil more neatly. us nothing
@ more than a grab-bag on a
Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1905-06-16

structions were to investigate the sub
sect of immigration of Europeans into
the United States in general. He has
fbeen shadowed almost since the day
of his appointment both in this coun-
'try and in Europe. and every effort has
been made to secure evidence that
would convict him of being a spy.
His mail has been rihed, and it was
when he caught Hungarian detective
In the act of breaking open his trunk
I'm a Buda-Pesth hotel that he ad-
'ministered to him such punishment as
brought upon himself the vengeance of
Outraged Hungarian Justice in the
form of an arrest and fine to the ex-
tent of ten dollars. Fortunately the
Hungarian detective secured nothing
of value in the way of evidence, but
there have been times when his search
might have proven of more value to
his government, for Mr.. Braun has
had in his possession and has for
'warded to Washington damaging docu-
'ments that the Hungarian government
would not like to have confront them.
These reports have never been print
Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1905-06-16
Summer Position of Ease.

There is one popular summer job in
New York. A Sunday newspaper re-
tisements from men, women and
couples who wanted work as care
takers for big New York houses whose
owners were to be absent for the sum-
mer. The work is not hard, and it in
sures luxurious homes in the best resi-
dence localities during nearly half the
year. Many hard working people los1S
forward to the caretaking season =
a recreation and rest from the win
ter labors and privations.-N. Y. Sun.
Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1905-06-16

der contract by individuals. These
BOSSES" or padrones, as they are
called, hire out the immigrants and
collect their wages, paying them just
enough to keep body and soul alive.
The workers are thus virtual slaves.
Mr.. Braun was sent to Europe pri-
marily to investigate the white slave"
traffic on the complaint of anti-vice
societies In New York and Philadel-
phia, that thousands of women are
being sent here every year for i'm
moral purposes, chiefly from Hungary.
and that the Hungarian government
winks at the practice. Mr.. Braun re-
ceived verbal instructions from Mr..
Roosevelt in the matter and was di-
rected also to make inquiry into the
sending of paupers and criminals to
this country, He made a startling re-
port on this subject year ago which
never was published.
Many startling disclosures have been
made in these reports. Among these
things is the fact that II every penal
offender in jail In this country were
released tomorrow the jails could be
Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1905-06-16

900. Learning that this agreement
was about to be signed, Mr. Braun
waited until it was concluded and
then bribed it out of ministerial hands
for the pitiful sum of $104 He sent
cable to Mr.. Sargent and from that
day the plot has been thickening to
destroy his usefulness in Hungary.
Being a Hungarian, born in Buda-
Pesth, he was invaluable in that por-
tion of Europe. From the day of that
cablegram he was dogged, he has since
learned
"On the night of January last Mr.
Braun and | were the speakers be-
fore the Twentieth Century club in
Brooklyn and / was accompanied to
and from the meeting by one of my
agents. The next morning he report
ed to me that Mr.. Braun was being
trailed by man whom he had ad-
dressed in German, French and Ital-
ian without getting him to understand.
| passed the information on at once
and the conclusion reached was that
the New York end of the Russian third
section was looking after Mr.. Braun,
but it now appears that at that time
he was shadowed night and day by
Hungarian agents, SO that even though
he took unusual precautions to guard
knowledge of his sailing on this third
tour the Hungarian police must have
been apprised at once.
"On the oath he was expected to
obtain the records of the deportation
of criminals at the expense of the
Hungarian government from an official
in town near Buda-Pesth. My cor
respondents have not informed me as
to the result but suffice it to say the
advisory letter which he sent on or
about the first of the month must have
been something we'll worth the while.
The question is: Did the Hungarian
police get 1t and what ammunition will
it supply the Hungarian government
to reply to the protest of the United
States against the tamperlng with
Braun's mail? He is expected in the
north of Europe on the 18th, but will
probably await the outcome of this
peculiar tangle"
1t Is the custom of the department
of commerce and labor to print the
reports of its various commissioners
and agents in the annual report of the
commissioner in chief.
Only portion of Mr.. Braun's papers
appeared in this years report. They
were not even given to the senate.
They were simply turned over by Com
missioner Sargent, copies were laid on
the presidents desk and then they
were apparently pigeon-holed, as moth
ing has been heard from them since.
Grave Dangers to This Country.
Following are interesting extracts
from Mr. Braun's report:
1.-TWO grave dangers threaten the
people OF the United States from the
present emigration movement. The
first of these, and the one more inn
mediate in its possible effects. is the
danger of diseases such as are common
70 the masses Of the people in many
Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1905-06-16

ed. They have never been examined
save by three or four heads of i'm
portant government departments, and
by the president, but sufficient has
leaked out to enable us to give the
gist Of emigration conditions abroad,
as outlined by Mr.. Braun as follows:
Tens of thousands of foreigners are
permitted to emigrate to this coun-
try without the fumigation of their
baggage as provided by law.
The organized gangs of crooks who
connive at this evasion stamp the emf
grants belongings with counterfeit
government labels and a counterfeit
United States consular stamp, indicat-
ing that their baggage has been prop
erly fumigated.
These counterfeits are accepted at
Ellis Island without question, and lug
gage from European centers, scourged
with bubonic plague, cholera, ira
choma, smallpox and the germs of
deadly fevers, is permitted to enter
our ports daily.
For this counterfeiting service the
Italian gangs in particular charge five
lire, or one dollar.
In several of the European countries
1t is the custom to promise convicted
criminals immunity from punishment
if they will emigrate to this country
or if their relatives will send them
here.
100000 Immigrants.
The fiscal year will end June 30, and
by that time 100000 will have passed
through Ellis Island and other immi-
grafton depots within the past IL
months. The reports submitted by the
inspectors abroad show conclusively
that out of this number one in every
ten is either a criminal or is otherwise
an undesirable citizen for the United
States, and these undesirable citizens
are coming to our shores either by
the aid and encouragement of Euro
pean governments, or under the
"padrone" system by which an unde-
sirable class of men, women and chill
dren are brought to this country un-
Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1905-06-16

not get 1t the letter-writing beggars
had their houses broken open, were
dragged out and beaten until they did
divide. At last one of them secured
a citizenship paper from his brother
in Chicago and on the next occasion
of police visit he appealed to the
consul, DR.. Merrill, and the police were
set back Immediately the demand for
American citizenship papers raised the
market as high as $100 per certificate,
and now the colony is enjoying the full
privileges of American protection,
though many of them have never seen
the Atlantic.
Caught in the Act.
Perhaps the most sensational thing
in the suppressed portion of the last
report was Mr.. Braun's presentation
of true copies Of the secret agreement
between the Hungarian government
and the Cunard line, in which the
Hungarian government agreed to de-
liver to the Cunard line at the port
of Fiume all the emigrants from Hun
gary at a fixed price.
"The agreement read that no other
line should be allowed to compete and
that there should be minimum of
10000 the first year. 1t is presumed
that that agreement is at present op-
erative and il remember correctly
next year the minimum is to be 100,-