Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-10-09
John Bradbury's Luck.

GAY, if only the tide doesn't turn
/ against me once more!'
/ Rubbish, mani" exclaimed Lynn inn
patiently. Your liver must be out OF
/ order. Doctor, do stop his croaking with
Glue pill, or else cap his ill-luek with
/ your own! You have been hard hit
more than once, know The fellow
needs pluck more than luck"
Ersklne laid aside his pipe, and bent
forward so that the flames reddcned his
beard and made his blue spectacles gilt
ter uneannily.
1t was Bradbury's turn TO start new
at the first sound of the doctors voice
buck!" said Jack Erskine. why, it's
all matter of cause and effect! Some
times no doubt man suffers from the
past vice or folly of his ancestors. but
most OF us only reap what we have sown
so long ago perhaps that we have for
gotten all about it. The only chance of
getting bad luck to turn is to find out
the cause and remove it. TIL give you
a case in point. Twelve years ago / had
a friend named Rutherford. His eyes had
gone wrong at home, and he came out
here to try the climate. Unfortunately
1t only aggravated the disease, and. as
land, he went off to Frisco to consult
Aston, the noted Californian specialist
He was ordered to 90 to his rooms and
Keep the eyes bandaged for three weeks,
at the end of which time he was to enter
the hospital for operation
1T was dreaTy work for an active man
TO sat all day hong i'll the dark, with no
one to speak to, in constant pain, in.
t1r 4 L.
misfortune. Therefore, when one even
ing there was a knock at his door and
the landlady came in to introduce nice
gentleman from upstairs who had Of
tered to spend an hour with the blind
boarder, You may be sure that Ruther-
1ord hailed the stranger with delight
Robert Smith was his name He was
"A clerk IN "a mercantile house in the city.
he said, had most evenings at his dis
posal, and would be pleased to come in
and read, smoke or chat, as Rutherford
felt inclined
Naturally the offer was accepted.
Every evening after that Smith
dropped in to tea or supper, and the two
men soon became very friendly Ruther-
lord, though himself debarred from smok-
ing, gave his new friend a free hand
with his stock of excellent cigars, and, in
return, Smith told him the city news
read the papers aloud, wrote his letters.
land in other ways did much TO cheer the
otherwise lonely hours of the sufferer.
Zone evening Rutherford who had by
this time spent all his ready money
asked Smith to take a bankbill of a
hundred pounds and cash it for him next
day.
'"'Oh, certainly said Smith. Then
while Rutherford was cropping for his
pen in order to sign the paper, he added
with an awkward laugh, You're placing
wonderful confidence in a total stranger
aren't your
1T was a tactless Jest, EuthefouG
Thought, but he passed it over
What-you think / ought to be sus
Ipieious? 1t would take a worse mar
than you to rob blind eomrade think.
Nevertheless he felt some anxiety unit
Smith appeared next evening, bringing
some bags of silver with him, which he
counted out on the table
There's $40 for you to 90 on with,
he remarked i found | could get a dis
count of 2 per cent. by taking it otlt in
silver, so | have brought you as much
as | could conveniently carry and banked
the rest
Rutherford was surprised.
would they let you do it without my
signature
"Oh, [ had to bank it in nay OWE
name, of course replied Smith, but ii
can be drawn out whenever you want itl
That's all right, / supposep
Rutherford made no comment beyond
thanking Smith for his trouble and next
day summons to the hospital drove
money matters from his mind for time
During the weeks that followed il
struck him as strange that Smith never
called to see him or inquire how the
operation had succeeded. A month later
no longer blind or helpless though his
, l,eyes would never quite recover their old
strength, he went III search of his pseudo
friend. who had meantime changed his
lodgings and was difficult to trace Dur
ing the search Rutherford heard many
shady stories of the man. Smith was
known as an inveterate gambler who had
more than once been ON the verge of ruin
and disgrace. This once vice was enough
to pat Rutherford on his guard. At last
he ran his quarry to earth in mercan-
/. tile house where he was employed as
goods clerk.
Smith wac sOrribly nonplussed; he
had not expected to see his victim SO
soon recovered Was he already found
out. lac wondered
However, Rutherferd greeted him in a
friendly way and merely invited him to
dinner that evening at a well known
restaurant. 1t was impolitic, Smith
probably thought to refuse, i'll at ease
though he must have felt.
He arrived late, flushed and furried,
evidently full OF some subject on which
he wanted TO speak al once. BY this
time, however. his host had learned the
whole truth and was in no hurry for the
confession which seemed trembling on
the mans lips Smith had drawn the
remainder of the hundred pounds from
the bank and had gambled it away to
the last penny
"The dinner was a farce 80 far as the
card player was concerned for be- dreaded
the sequel But Rutherford piled him
with food and wine, and not until coffee
was on the table would he allow he tale