The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-14
COL.HANDLEY'S WAIF
VETERAN ALABAMIAN WRITES cy
 INTERESTING INCIDENT.
Desires to Locate BOOtbIacIk Whom He Rescued from Wrath of Hotel Clerk in New York Fifty
 Years Ago.

The following interesting st"~~ vas
 written by Colonel w. A. Handley while at the springs this summer, ana
 was published in The New York Times. It contains a good moral as well as
 an unusual romance:
 "seyeral years ago a letter of in
 quiry appeared in one of the New York city papers (perhaps your valuable pI- perl, in which the writer expressed very earnest desire ''to know the name and residence of the Southern gentle man" who had some years before
 (about 1855 or '56) in the lobby of the Grand Central Hotel, New York, kind ly took his part and protected him from a brutal assault attempted on him by the hotel clerk.
 The letter of inquiry proceeded to state that it's author. at the time he incident occurred, was poor orphan boy. living the fife of a homeless, friendless street bootblack; that he had then reached middle life; had be- come prosperous as dealer in stocks and bonds, and that uIs fortune ac- Tuired as an extensive operator on Wall Street placed him in the million aire class. He closed with an earnest desire to ascertain the name and resi- dence of the Southern gentleman who on the occasion referred to had coIna to his rescue and protected him from the clerks brutality.
 At the time the letter of inquqiry appeared a copy of the paper contain ing it fell into my hands, and in- tended to answer it. buy lost the paper, and the hurry and push Of an active, l,usv life owed the matter aside and it was not responded to.
 The writer of this communication feels assured he Is the person for whom inquiry was maSe. and if you will kindly permit this to be published in your valuable paper, I wl-l relate tHp incident which gave rise to the inquiry.
 I had. at that time, just begun bLsi- ness as a merchant in small Ala hama town, and was in New York to purchase my first stock of goods. In my childhood. boyhood and young
 manhood I had experienced all of the privations of poverty. But by hard work and close economy lad savs>- enough to buy a small stock. This was my first visit to a great city. l stop ped at the Grand Central Hotel. and of course. it must be obvious. S"- trayed much of the verdancy and rus tic freshness of the ''ruYal rooster."
 While at the Grand Central. true to my raising. was up rnd down ia the lobby each morning at o'clock, and ''~.',1 and dop'n the floor of the lobby impatient for daylight to come. .. '', rs Int the drowsy clerk and n.Ns.ie ware il sight. One morning I opened the front door Id a snow storm was raging outside. The snow was de, D in the street, me air was "pil of driven snow. and the chilly " ind flew in my face. I noticed just on the outside of the door a poor. rag ged boy croucned close to the wall. and trying, like a dumb brute to pi otect hiInstA from the cruel blast I asked what he was dolng there He said he was a bootblack, was an orphan and had no home. told iiim t0 come 4- and shine my boots He hesitated. again asked him to come. He still hesita.eJ. I tbcp spoke with some emphasis and aold him to come in. He slowly moved toward me and followed me in. dis playing fear. but began to shine my boots. About the time he had fln- ished one of the clerks discovers q him and rushed from behind his desk rap- Idlv onto the boy sqquatted at my feet. and was just m the act of giving the poor, ragged fellow a savage kick. when l sprang to him seized him by the throat and told him 1T he toucned the boy I would beat h'r1 ir'o sausH~-" meat against the marble floor He did not touch the boy but siunk b.. e. into the office. The boy finished my shine. paid him his dime, he dlsap-