Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-10-03
THE STORY.
a Char6er of Incidents and Accidents
by Which He Found an Old
Army Comrade.

"
Two or three years ago." said the
doctor, Il was living in New York, and
was engaged in a profitable business.
One evening | was seated at a table in
a restaurant when a well-dressed, ell
derby man came in from the street,
walked straight toward me, n said,
in a low voice: 4 am in great distress.
l am at the end of my string. have
no money, no place to sleep, and | am
hungry. What would you advise me to
do?'
"Of course, | was annoyed, and
showed my annoyance. There was no
reason why the man should have singled
me out for such a speech, except, pos
sibly, that l wore the Grand Army but
ton. However, that did not occur to me
at the time, and | said, jocularly: 1
know what | would 40 under the circum-
stances. l would go outside, look for d
good-sized stone, clutch it firmly in
my right hand, find a large plate glass
window, and hurl the stone through it.
After that | would be sure of board and
lodging for some weeks at the expense
of the city,
1.-THE stranger said, with jaunty po-
likeness: You are very kind. Thank
you, sir. | will act on your suggestion
Thereupon he walked straight to the
door, and went out, and | ordered my
supper. In less than five minutes there
was a crash in front, a tinkle of broken
glass, and a clamor of voices. / went
with others to the street, and saw that
my acquaintance of five minutes before
had taken my advice with a vengeance.
He had thrown a stone through the win
dow of a jewelry store, and was await
ing arrest. There were all sorts of the
cries on the lips of men who were await
ing the second move in what they re-
garded as a daring scheme of robbery.
Meantime several policemen were
closing in cautiously on the man who
had thrown the stone. They evidently
regarded him as a dangerous character
or as insane. Divining this, the stone
thrower said: oh, l will go with you.
No trouble On that score. In fact, l
broke the glass that might be arrested
AS a policeman grabbed him, l said.
Wait a minute. II am afraid | am to
blame for this. said to this man when
he asked for assistance that | would
throw a stone through a plate glass win
dow, and in that way secure board and
lodging from the city. That was a joke,
but he seems to have acted on my ad-
vice, and l feel inTa measure RESPONSE
ble.' 4p
THE upshot of the affair was that l
agreed to pay for the broken glass and
to take charge of the man who had brok-
en it. paidsfor the supper of the stone
thrower, secured lodgings for him, and
told him l would listen to his story the
next day. l lever expected to see him
again, but he kept his appointment the
next morning, and told his story. He
had been in the employ Of one house for
20 years, and when it failed thought he
would have no difficulty in securing
other employment. But he found no
other place and finally found himself
with no and no chance of en-
ployment.
1.-THE sensation of being turned out
of doors, of being without friends, and
of being hungry, affected him strangely,
and, noticing M Grand Army button
as | went into the restaurant, he decided
to lay his case before ME. In his des-
perate mood my suggestion struck him
as being much better than suicide. Sc
cured him employment the next day on
trial, and he did so well that lie was reg
ularly engaged the next week. In six
months he came to my Office looking so
much better that l did not recognize
him. He said the jeweler of the broken
window had told him that l paid a bill
of $40 for replacing the glass, and he
had come to repay the money.
HE said he had a good position and
was abundantly able to pay the bill;
that he was indebted to me for the po-
sition, and for the general bracing up he
received in following my advice, and
that he wanted to be a comrade in good
standing. Then it came out that he had
seen service in the same brigade as my
self, and he recalled al exploit in which
he and some of my own regiment had
been engaged-to their credit. | under
stood then the reckless, devil-may-care
spirit of the fellow who threw a stone
through a window on my advice"
Raot0rad