The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-01-11

1 She was going along one mild, moon- 1 less night at an hour sD early for her that she almost dawdledh when callow voiced youngster sidled up to her in the dark and asked:
 Wouldn't you like to have company in your walk?'
 The woman hurried bit and kept | silent until the situation was too much for her Then she laughed.
 What amuses yoy, my sdear?" he in quired, with the rtkish tenderness of { the masher, when wlry very young
 T was thinking 'w awfully disap- pointed you are goa, g to be when we get to light! Why, child, I'm old enough to be your mother"
 And that fine old word "skedaddle' is the only one to convey the precipitancy with which he excused himself and fled So much for mashers. On that first night the clock had ticked it's way past midnight when the woman closed her desk. A nice man, who would be work 1 ing at his until nearly dawn, gave her ] this counsel:
 Walk In the middle of the street If you are spoken to don't answer No man will bother woman unless she l gives him the cause"
 It was a good fellows tribute to his kind, and 1t neryed the half scared to death woman as she stepped out on the avenue asphalt to begin the. walk of seven squares that lay between her office and her home, Whizzing oars cleaved the darkness with their green and yellow lights; footsteps of men made loud, friendly echoes and at the corner a woman was crossing as un- concernedly as though the white radiance of the electric lights were so much monday sunshine. Then came a | block along Seventh street, where the illuminated windows implied sociability, and and after that a long, old fashioned street, where the houses went to sleep at 10 o'clock, leaving far between gas lamps in charge. It was a street where the shadows were extra big and black, but they did no evil, and the woman reached home jubilantly conscious that not even the night is quite so black as it's painted.
 Her first experience came after she had encouraged herself to believe she would have none. It had been a red letter day, and she was swinging along reveling in the good news she was talk ! ing to lfer comrade, when something out of the silence brushed her dress. It bounds she was on the pavement and was man on a wheel In two he was beside her near the curb
 T beg your pardon for frightening you, but you should not walk where you are liable to be run down.
 The street was wide and they had it to themselves, but, in obedience to in- struction, she made no answer as she hurried. The man kept up with her
 T am really and truly sorry to have alarmed you. I'm afraid you are a coward, madam, and as 1t is too late an hour for even brave lady to be on the street alone, I shall escort you home. Oh, don't mention it. I have all night before me 'g
 The woman kept Oh in silence, with her heart humping like trip hammer, and the man rolled his machine beside her until they reached her home. Then he said:
 T wish to remark in parting that am not a bold, Bdd man. admit I 1 wheeled up to yDu because I was curious to know what manner of woman it could be who was taking the street, as if the night belonged to her, but my impertinence ends. I brought you home because you are the most pitifully scared woman I ever saw. If it is necessary for you to make a practise of being out late hope may serve you l again. Let me suggest that you get 8 police whistle In case of emergency and the next time a fairly decent man speaks to you don't pretend to be dumb"
 The woman bought whistle and the next time a man spoke to her she answered.
 Another night A fog so thick that the electric lights found it hard to shine through 1t. An hour so late that nothing seemed to be out except the women and the weather. As she almost groped her way around corner a man who looked undefined enough to have been shaped out of the blackness caught her by the arm
 l Lady tell me the time.
 She did not know she was answering until she heard her voice in reply.
 II have no watch, sir, but it was a | quarter past one when I left my office
 Haven't got match, have you?"
 "Yes, sir. I have two"-and she in case the hall was dark at home.
 "Thanky! Got little money? Ain't had bite all day"
 "Yes, sir. l have a quarter-I wish it was more She opened her bag, flsbed out her purse, and shook out a dime, a nickel and some pennies, Mem mine, it dy if that's all you gnt-----" and the man stepped back ord was swallowed in the fog. The bat wing of crime and lowered over her and Tapped away again. And the woman ! got home--somehow-wit her watch hidden under her shirtwaist and $5 bill tucked in her glove,
 A snowy night, with the flakes spark ling like diamonds in the electric lights. A party of young men royster- ing toward the woman who was plod- ding, ankle deep along the old Post Office Tagging on the E street side. As they came up to her one sang out. hilariously: