The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-06
WHAT LUCK DID FOR ToRKING.
 TON.


 It had been a hard winter for York
 ingto. Soon after the new year began
 he had lost his job as 8 s1,2OO clerk. and
 before he could get a place as street
 car conductor, which, being a sturdy
 young fellow, he immediately applied
 for, he had very nearly exhausted his
 few hundreds of savings in paying
 house rent, furnishing the table and
 keeping himself, Maria and the two
 children economically equipped with
 clothing, and shoes. She was an ac-
 eomplished domestic manager in mak-
 ing every penny do its fullest duty
 and he was innocent of any of the halo
 it's that make big holes in the family
 exchequer. But three months of en-
 forced idleness had cut down his re-
 serve fund to skeleton figures; the
 current income was barely sufficient to
 meet current expenses and it was after
 a long and heart-to-heart conference
 on Easter eve that he and Maria had
 sorrowfully come to the conclusion that
 they and the children must do without
 the Easter celebration that had been
 feature of the family life ever since
 the first baby had been born nine years
 ago. The conference had occurred on i the Saturday morning before Torlzing- 1 ton went from home to take up his daily run, and as he gathered i'll the , fares and rang them up all day he re-
 tained in his mental vision a picture ! of Maria's distressed, face when they | had made their decision. And. the
 worst of it was that the kids would be so terribly disappointed, for never i since they had come to the age of per- 1 ception had they failed of their new i Easter suits, their eggs and rabbits, ! their share in the Sunday school and church celebration, and the trip into : the country on Easter Monday. May 1 be its only for this year that I'll be so i far on the financial outside,' was l Torkington's solitary consolation. 4 -.. But, after all, something happened. His regular stunt of duty for the day evening. Precisely at o'clock he came | through the front door of the home with an impetuous whirl, picked up | Maria from her. chair, kissed her 27 times pressed a $50 crisp and rustling
 promise, of Uncle Sam to pay into her hand and set her down again before the 1 clock could tick off three-score seconds. | Where's the kiddies, girl, on this day of jubilee?" he asked. Gather them in, 1 put their best duds on them. dress our 1 self in your gladdest rags, and it's down l town for us all and to the stores to squander this wealth except whatwe'll l hold over for a Monday junket. Get | into quick action, now" 4 ., -,.- But, Joe, I want to know all about l it first" she said. xt. "Tell you the story boiled down, as | they say in the newspaper offices, he replied. "It'll all be in print and then you can get the, details and particulars, | We'll, as I was starting down on the
 4 o'clock run this afternoon an old man | who looked to be a heap of a swell with his diamonds and giddy clothes got in- 1 to my car. As he took a seat in a rear corner, it was easy. enough to see that he was pretty far gone on the road to Fuddleville. He snoozed for about five | minutes and kept mumbling something l to himself. Presently he woke up and then he took from. the breast pocket of his overcoat a bag wallet that was stuffed with what seemed to be official papers. He counted a couple of dozen of them put them back into the wallet and lapsed off into another dose. His mumbling was begun and by this time I thought that had better keep a
 close watch on him. ... 7. 2eeye..% "Just then there were not more than dozen people on the car. Two fellows who looked like shoestring gamblers were sitting up toward the front. One Of them got up and moved down to a
 seat next to the old swell and seemed to be trying to catch what the old man was whispering to himself. ''Therell be something doin' here soon,' I said to myself, and maybe I'll be taking a hand in it.. -r sThe car began to fill up with women as we got further into town. and the increasing number of passengers damned the little fellow up against the sleeper. The old mans overcoat' fell open and quicker than can tell it the other fellows hand went down deep in- to the pocket and grabbed the wallet. I jumped on him in flash and caught the band that had held the bunch of goods. Then his partner jumped on me- and for two or three minutes there was about as pretty go-as-you-please, rough -and-tumble scrap as any man ever saw.
 "The old swell was the only other man on the car, but when he came to his senses he showed that he was a game one and a knowing one. First he picked up the wallet from the floor, looked into it quick to see that the stuff was all there, and then he drew a gun and poked it into the ear of the chap that was on top of me.
 |" Might as we'll give up, he said, 'tor l if you don't I'll blow the head off you. [ had my man down good and hard, and the next down good and hards and the next thing we knew couple of cops had boarded the car and put the bracelets on the toughs.
 "There ain't much more to tell. The swell person thanked me and handed out the green paper you've got in your ] hand now. I and the old man had to go to the police station, where they | locked up the prisoners for hearing.' But, Joe," said Maria, what was it that they wanted to steal?"