Bisbee daily review., 1908-07-23
HER DESPERATE
 GAME
By JULIAN RALPH
(Copyright.)

Barney Moriarty had done well for himself. Starting with nothing but health and ambition, he had acquired a modest fortune in real estate and had built a monument to his own sue cess in the form of an apartment house in which he set up his own home, and on the granite front of which he blaz- oned his triumph in carved letters reading 'Moriarty Maisonette."
 Barney was a popular chap, good looking, witty, ready for hand at cards, a glass or a joke with anyone who challenged him. He was quite alone in the world, an orphan and bachelor, but possessed of a romantic regard for all women. Out of his wide acquaintance he easily rented nearly every suite in the Moriarty Maisonette before the showy brick and granite pile was finished, and 1t soon came to be the verdict of the neighbors that there was not a happier houseful in the ward.
 The Maisonette was nine stories high. By a mere chance, no one except Florence, the elevator boy, was at hand when Miss Cordelia Byrne called to inspect the fifth floor back, which was advertised for rent one day. She took it at once, to the i'm mense astonishment of Florence, who explained to Mir Moriarty that he was "only jollying her along in order to have her come back later on when" he added, she flashed the ten dollars on me to bind the bargain, and went away"
 She and her furniture came togeth- CT the next morning, when Mir. Nor iarty was again absent; there was nothing left but to make the best of the case
 Florence declared Miss Byrne to be "a perfect lady" out of sight as a good locker" and very well supplied with money and furniture. She was soon to be joined by her sister, the head lace buyer for the Colossus de. partment store of Harlem She was about 20 years of age, slender, of mid. dle stature and dressed habitually in black or dark blue, with now and then just touch of red at her neck, or a hint of purple in her hat.
 Among her belongings was an up- right piano, and she and it combined altered the temper of the people in the Moriarty Maisonette with a sud denness and to a degree which was astonishing. This was because she and it either knew but one tune, or, at any rate, played but one. This was a dainty, rippling peasant dance by Pad erewski. Miss Byrne played it very well indeed, with familiar, confident touch, proclaiming long practice and perfect mastery. She played it on the first afternoon, after her furniture was set up, and as soon as she opened the piano there.
 When I say that she and her piano altered the temper of the coterie in the Maisonett t'dhfam anticipating a later developtt ttkinssTo understand this fully we must come to it gradually
 The tenants of the Moriarty Maison. cite had. before this, noticed some faultiness and cheapness in the build, l ing. Drafts pouring in around the | mantels and the window castings had 1 borne upon their cold wings the proof | that the occupants were housed by what is called contract work" and that of a very flimsy character. There ] had been subdued and guarded com | piaints, and even gossip about this re | grettable characteristic of the Maison cite. But all fault-finding ceased or ] the afternoon and evening when Miss | ByTne played the Paderewsky peas ant dance over and over some dozeI or 20 times. Now it was the ex | quisite, rollicking, merry, melodic cur rent that flowed through the walls tC 1 the fifth floor front, through the flool | to the fourth story suites and througf i the ceiling to the sixth story's tiny homes. Upstairs and downstairs thC delighted tenants blessed the day tha Moriarty's builders skimped theii work, leaving the house so like colan der that Cordelia Byrne could pla! them all into the seventh heaven of de light with Paderewski's peasant danct 80 suited to the joyous temperament of the Irish audience and to thei
 pretty taste in music. Miss Byrne wa
 taken into the warmest corners of thu hearts of the Maisonette on that night | That was, as we recollect it, on
 Friday night. The following Wednes
 day found everything unchanged e1
 cept the temper of Moriarty's tenants
 They were all well and at home, Mis-
 Byrne was very well and at home
 and she and her piano were still rs
 producing the eIfish, fairy-like compc
 sition of the great Polish pianist
 The next night it was the turn c
 the Pinochle club, composed of six c
 the male tenants of the Maisonette, t
 meet in NIT. Mahoney's apartmentl
 Five of the members were on han
 promptly and waited for Mir Moriarty
 the sixth, to arrive. Miss Cordeli
 Byrne, in the rear suite on the sam
 floor with the Mahoneys, regaled tn club members with that choice morcea of Paderewski's, to which We have II ferred, and with which all the me
 and women in the Maisonette had fC , some time been familiar.
 "Oh, mother of Mosesi" one of tn men exclaimed, there's that tew goin' again like the wind at Kinsale Easy, easy!" said Mir. Malone, Never mind the tune. Don't vast breath and words upon it till Moriart comes and then we'll all light on hii and give him fair notice that it's eft | ,