The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1908-02-25
Bush Guinea
TOrigina1.1

SXcellGuI StOTy LAdL WOuiu mdAc,
whereas there may not be in it a single
element the story teller can make us
Of Per contra, there are incidents that
would pass the general reader I'M
ticed, but would be seized upon at
once by the writer of fiction.
A long while ago, when Bristol, Eng
hand, was growing rich with the profits
of the West India trade, a stranger set
tied In the town, taking lodgings near
a famou old inn called the Bush. One
day soon after his arrival in Bristol,
about the noon hour, he entered the
coEee room of the Bush, seated him
self at a table near a cheerful fre-for
It was late in the autumn-and called
for a glass of brandy and water.
Would you like to see the London
paper, STRIP asked the landlord. hand
Ing him the sheet.
THANK you." said the stranger.
Now. the act of the host was notice
able from the fact that the stranger
bore about him no evidence of prosper
fty or that he would make a customer
for the inn worth cultivating. His
clothes were seedy. his body was lean,
and he was bent over in a confirmed
stoop. He read the paper through, paid
sixpence for his brandy and went out.
The next day he came again at the
same hour, called for a sixpenny worth
of brandy, lead the paper and depart
ed. He never gave a waiter a fee, new
er took a meal in the house-indeed, his
expenditure was but sixpence a day,
which included the monopoly for the
noon hour of the paper. He was mani
testify a gentleman In very poor ctrcum-
stances. and it was not long before he
came to be known as the poor gentle
man"
Never for a moment did John Weeks,
b landlord. intimate or permit any
one Of his employees to intimate that
the stranger was something of Q
sponge. On the contrary, Weeks would
reserve the paper for him every day
and gave out that when the poor gen
tlerlan' had 1T no one else was to ex-
pect it.
Christmas came without the 'poor
gentleman even having called for any
thing to eat in the house, and Weeks
made up his mind that his guest should
have one good square meal free of
expense. The day before Christmas,
as the gentleman was departing, the
landlord stepped up to him and said:
Tomorrow being Christmas, sir, we
keep open table, and l should esteem
1t a great honor. sir, If o would par
take of our hospitality"
The poor gentleman" muttered his
thanks and went Out, neither accept
ing nor declining the invitation. The
landlord feared that, though he had
put the case as delicately as possible,
he had wounded his feelings, placing
himself in the attitude of rejecting on
his guests parsimony. His feelings
were relieved, however, by the gentle
man appearing the next day punctually
at ] O'Clock in the same eedy garments
he had hitherto worm. Seating him.
self at the table, he partook Of a dinner
with the apparent relish of one to
whom a square meal was a novelty.
not failing to do justice to h rare ale
for which the inn was noted far and
wide. After he had eaten his fill the
landlord handed him his paper, which
he read till he had exhausted every
word, then rose to leave. Weeks, who
had enjoyed the satisfaction his bene-
fciary had shown in the n meal he
had taken in the Bush, stepped up to
him and helped him to put on his
coat. To cap the climax of his gener-
osity the kindly landlord slipped a
Christmas gift OF a guinea into the
poor gentleman's" hand. The re
cipient looked at the gold piece, then
at the landlord. sighed; something III
a smile lowered for a moment about his
lips; then, buttonipg up his coat, he de-
parted.
That was the last time the poor gen
tleman" was seen at the Bush. Wheth-
er his absence was that after such
kindness he was unwilling to trespass
further on the generosity of the land
lord. whether he had suddenly died or
gone to some institution. Weeks did
not know. He only knew that his
guest came no more. and he missed
him.
John Weeks was too generous a man
to make money. He gave a shilling's
worth for a shilling. and when the
owner of the building he occupied ad-
vertised 1t for sale he had no money to
buy it, inc all that he possessed, which
was the good name Of his hostelry and
the business he had built up, was to be
q dead loss.
The advertisement Of the sale ap>
peared in the London papers, and one
day when Weeks spirits were at b
lowest ebb at the grim prospect before
him he received a letter from a famous
London banking house stating that II
he wished to acquire the house he oc-
cupied he might draw upon them for
b purchase money.
Was the offer BONA fde or a cruel
joke on the part of some one who knew
| his desires? Weeks made up his mind
tina the only way to n out was to
go to London and present b letter.
He lost no time In reaching the me-
| tropolis and. going TO the bank, sent
| the letter in by q messenger with thu
information that the person to whom
1t was addressed was without He
| was not keFt long waiting, the messen-
L uar conducting him into q nriYate Of