The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-11
GOSSIP OF NEW YORK ]
NOVEL SUIT REVEALS A GAS
 ~ OvERCHARGE.
Sent Baum Bros. . Btl For Fuel tn Building That Did Not Exist
 --Eyelyn Thaw's Pi9tufe


 New York. Oct. I0.--(Special.) )--An amusing illustration of the fact that gas bills have In reality little concern with the actual amount consumed, was furnished the other day by a suit In tho Ninth Municipal Court.
 At the beginning of last year Jacob and Herman Baum had music hall on Broome street. The building was completely destroyed by fire on Febru- ray 25. 1907. Notwithstanding that fact the owners of the destroyed build ing received from the New Amsterdam Gas Company a bill for gas consumed in their building between February 90 and July B. 1907. The amount charged was s71.30.
 The Baum brothers refused to pay this claim of the gas company but declared themselves willing to pay reasonable amount for the amount of gas which they consumed in their building In the five days before 1t was destroyed by fire. The gas company. however. insisted upon full payment of the claim. although 1t offered no explanation concerning the strange al, legation that gas had been consumed in a building that was not in exist ence during the period In which 1t Is alleged the gas was consumed.
 The case was decided against the gas company and judgment entered in favor of Baum Brothers. All the at torney of the gas company had to say was. that mistakes were liable to hap pen,
 Many consumers of gas In New York have made the discovery long ago. that mistakes of this kind are aia ble to and really do happen with the figure and accounting experts of the gas company.
 "Slc transit gloria mundf-Evelyn Sha afn hand of Harrington Mann. the Paris painter. was sold at auction the other day to satisfy a debt contracted by Evelyn, and was knocked down at $l6 to the dressmaker who obtained the Judgment against the ex-model and ex-chorus girl.
 The hysteFieal craze for that crea- ture seems to have died. which speaks we'll for the common sense of the American public.
 The ex-Angel Child, notwithstanding her comparative youth, has managed to become "ex" a good many things.
 It Is quite possible that the festive ,ofSice boy will become a casus belll between the Children's Aid Society and the 8. P. c. A
 The Ala Society proposes to erect q school for offlce boys. where they are to be taught a large variety of useful things. which heretofore were never thought of In connection with office boys. It is quite evident that 1t would be downright inhumanity to expect the poor ofice boys to discard their sensational, yellow hack novels with Iurid titles and still more lurid H. lustrations. and to devote their spare time studying dry and uninteresting lessons.
 The s P. c. A. will undoubtedly look into the matter and champion the cause of the much persecuted oftice boy.
 Every once in a while reports come from some place in this country of the discovery of some child prodigy. able to do at the age of two to ten years what ordinary persons cannot even do ct the age of forty.
 Quite recently Boston furnished the latest addition to this list of won der-ehildren" in a boy of i've years who can speak, read and write seven or more languages. Of course. Boston owed that much to its reputation for learning.
 Cincinnati furnished the boy of eight who could drink 8 gallon of beer 6 day without becoming intoxicat- ed: Chicago another boy who could eat a dozen pair of Vienna sausages without bursting. etc,
 To get in line with the rest, New York has furnished two prodigies in one week; the first Is a boy of thIr- teen, who has a record of having committed more than a dozen success ful burglarfes, the second a girl of twelve years who, according to the amount submitted by her father and guardian, has been in the habit of spending from sl1.000 to $12.000 year for her maintenance. Her name is Carolyn K. Dorsett and her income about s40.0o0 a year.
 The man-killing folding bed, that most dangerous of all develIsh inven- tIonS. has again demanded a victim. A woman shut up one of these mon- strous things iD the dark. not know ing that her baby was peacefully slumbering under the cover. When she began to search for the child an hour later. she found 1t smothered be- yond resuscitation in the relentless and murderous jaws of the folding bed.