Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-04-11
The Two Overcoats.

N~'s SNN& IN ANat
and sat in the office writing a letter.
Right after that along came II man of
my acquaintance, and we had a talk
lasting half an hour Then l went to
the desk, paid my bill, handed in the
check for my coat, put it ON. and, going
upstairs for my grip. l proceeded to
the depot. | saw that it was my coat
all right and took particular notice of
the papers i'll the pocket. l left them
there that l might look them over after
getting on the train. You are prepared
to hear that when l got ready to
glance over those papers | made a dis
covery. In the first place, it was not
my oVercoat. The strap bore the name
OF a tailor in Cincinnati, while mine
had been made in Baltimore. In the
next, the package of papers proved to
be letters written by Il woman to q
man. In brief, they We're love letters
and twelve in number, and on the Ell
velopes were notes, evidently made by
a lawyer. The two garments were
made of the same material, trimmed!
alike, and it would have been impossi-
VIZ " ~ ticli apart. ! lie clCck BOY
had made a mistake.
l was thirty miles out of Chicago
when l woke up to the fact that a
blunder had been made, and / left the
train as o as possible and took my
way back. The check boy denied hav-
ing made any mistake, but finally ad-
m1tted that 1t was just possible he haG
passed my coat out to some one else.
But who was that some one elsef
There were over 800 guests in the no
tel. Perhaps not one of them would
have checked his coat for a couple of
hours, as had been the case with me.
1t was more likely to be some one who
had simply entered the dining room.
for a meal.
Ihe letters We're addressed to a man.
Old or young, in a village in Iowa and
were signed "Gussie." The latest of
them was six months old. Each one of
them proved that the girl was In love
With the recipient, and so l took it that
he was a young man. Obviously the
thing to do was to write to him. l was.
so anxious about my own papers that
l did not wait to write, but telegraph
ed. An answer was returned that
James Fairfield was no longer Il resi-
dent of the place. Then / made a Jour
ney to 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 a suit for breach
of promise. Where he had gone no one
but his widowed mother knew, and no
information could be got from her.
l then advertised in the Chicago and
New York papers every day for a
week, but the result was nil. l watch
ed the papers for the next two weeks,
hoping that the other party would ad
yertlse, but he did not. | had to &C
over the ground again and get rs much
information as l could. Meanwhile the
suit had to be adjourned, and some of
the parties | had seen before could not
be found the second time. The evil
II | had at first gathered would
have Won the suit right off 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. had
only to see one person there and there
fore did not take Il room at the hotel.
1 had arrived in the morning, an( I
handed my coat to the check boy 81
was seated at the table with another
man. We We're both inclined for CON
yersation and talked as we ate.
learned thai he was a lawyer from IL
small town in Wisconsin. and the
breakfast passed off very agreeahly.
When we went out of the dining room.
both Of us 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 a cigar. and il was after we had
lighted up that l rammed my hand in
my pocket for my gloves. pulled out II
pair not belonging to me and said:
We'll, this beats the Dutch! The
boy has given me some one eise's
o%vercoat. This is the second time this
winter that the mistake has occurred"
The stranger instinctively put his
hands in the pockets of his %overroat,
and out came Il pair of gloves that 1
instantly recognized as my own.
daNt Sol Ou my codt. lie S:lju
as he looked at the gloves in my hand.
"Then YOU have got on mine!'
That proved to be the case. We turn
ed to the boy, but he stoutly denied
that he had changed the checks. IN
fact, the western nan checked his coat
fifteen minutes before I did, and l had
taken my Goa out first. and it ~
hard to see how a mixup could have
taken place.
"Have you been in Chicago this Win
ter" l asked the stranger as we stood
staring at each other.
II was there about six weeks ago.
he replied.
"Did you stop at the Blank House?'
II did"
"Did you get another mans overcoat
by mistaken"
81 did. and some one got mine. ana
I have been made a lot of trouble or
that account"
OF course the thing was soon made