The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1906-1907, 1907-04-24
The Two Overcoats.

Right after that along came 3 man Of
my acquaintance. and we had q talk
lasting half an hour. Then I went to
the desk, paid my bill. handed In the
check for my coat. put It on, and, going
upstairs for my grip. ! proceeded to
the depot. / saw that It was my coat
all right and took particular notice Of
the papers In the pocket. / left them
there that might look them over after
getting on the train. You are prepared
30 hear that when / got ready to
glance over those papers ! made dis
covery. In the first place, It was not
my oveFcoat. The strap bore the name
OF q tailor In Cincinnati, while mine
had been made In Baltimore. In the
next, the package Of papers proved to
be letters written BY a woman to q
man. In brief, they were love letters
and twelve In number, and on the en-
yelopes were notes, evidently made by
q lawyer. The two garments were
made Of the same material, trimmed
alike, and II would have been impOssi-
bic 70 tell them apart The check boy
had made q mistake.
was thirty miles cut Of Chicago
when woke up to the fact that .
blunder had been made, and | left the
train as soon as possible and took my
way back. The check boy denied hav-
mitted that II was just possible he had
passed my coat out to some one else.
But who was that some one eIse1
There were over 300 guests in the hO-
tel. Perhaps not one OF them would
have checked his coat for q couple Of
hours, as had been the case with me.
IL was more likely to be some one who
had simply entered the dining room
for a meal.
The letters were addressed to q man,
old or young. Ia q village In Iowa and
were signed "Gussle." The latest Of
them was six months old. Each one OF
them proved that the girl was In love
with the recipient, and 20 took it that
he was q young man. Obviously the
thing to do was to write to him. was
30 anxious about my own papers that
I did not wait to write, but telegraph
cd. An answer was returned that
James Fairfield was no longer q resi-
dent Of the place. Then / made a jour
ney 10 the village to discover that
James, after being engaged to the girl
for a year or more, had skipped out
rather than marry her and that she had
threatened him with q suit for breach
Of promise. Where he had gone no one
but his widowed mother knew, and no
information could be got from her.
then advertised In the Chicago and
New York papers every day for q
week. but the result was nil. watch,
"a the papers for the next two weeks,
hoping that the other party would ad-
vertise, but he did not. / had to 20
over the ground again aud get as much
information as could. Meanwhile the
suit had to be adjourned. and some Of
the parties had seen before could not
DO found the second time. The evl-
dence had at first gathered would
have won the suit right on the reel.
but now the matter was very doubtful.
had finished up in Chicago. and six
weeks had elapsed when / brought up
In Detroit on the same business. I had
only to see one person there and there
fore did not take room at the hotel.
had arrived In the morning. and /
handed my coat to the check boy and
was seated at the table with another
man. We were both inclined for con.
veFsation and talked as we ate.
learned that he was a lawyer from a
small town In Wisconsin. and the
breakfast passed or very agreeably.
When we went out Of the dining room,
both OF ua walked to the window Of
the cloak room and presented our
checks. received my overcoat first.
As he received his he invited me to
take cigar, and Il was after we had
lighted up that rammed my hand In
my pocket for my gloves, pulled out a
pair not belonging to me and said:
"Well this beats the Dutchl The
boy has given me some one else's
0vercoat This is the second time this
winter that the mistake has occurred"
The stranger instinctively put his
hands In the pockets OF his oyercoat.
and out came a pair OF gloves that
instantly recognized as my own.
''You have got on my coat" no said
as he looked at the gloves In my hand.
'Then you have got on miner
That proved to be the case. We turn.
ID 70 the boy. but he stoutly denied
nat he had changed the checks. In
fact the western man checked his coat
afteen minutes before I did. and I had
taken my coat out Grst. and Il was
hard to see how mixup could have
taken place.
Have you been In Chicago this win
terr' asked the stranger ~ We stood
staring a each other.
Il was there about atx weeks agO,"
be replied.
~Did You stop at the Blank HOussr'
Il did"
-Did ron get another man's Overcoat
by mistaken
Il did. and some one got mine. and
have been made a lot Of trouble on