Evening journal., 1909-06-23
The Two OverCOatS.

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Syndicate.l
I had the law papers Of my client in
my overcoat pocket, checked the coat
and sat in the Office writing a letter.
Right after that along came q man Of
my acquaintance, and we had a talk
lasting half an hour. Then / went to
the desk, paid my bill, handed in the
check for my coat, put it on, and, going
upstairs for my grip, I proceeded to
the depot. / saw that it was my coat
all right and took particular notice Of
the papers in the pocket. / left them
there that might look them over after
getting on the train. You are prepared
to hear that when / got ready to
glance over those papers l 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 a woman to
man. In brief, they were love letters
and twelve in number, and on the en-
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-
BILE to tell them apart. The check boy
had made a mistake.
was thirty miles out of Chicago
when woke up to the fact that a
blunder had been made, and l left the
train as soon as possible and took my
way back Tho check boy denied hav-
ing made any mistake. but finally ad-
mitted that it was just possible he had
passed my coat ont to some one else.
But who was that some one else2
There were over 800 guests in the ho-
tel. Perhaps not one of them would
have checked his coat for a couple Of
hours. as had been the case with me.
It was more likely to be some one who
had simply entered the dining room
for a meal.
The letters were addressed to a man,
old or young, in a village in Iowa and
were signed "Gussle.' The latest of
them was six months old. Each one Of
them proved that the girl was in love
with the recipient, and so I took it that
he was a young man. Obviously the
/ thing to do was TO write TO him. ! was
SO anxious about my own papers that
/ / did not wait to write, but telegraph
ed. An answer was returned that
I James Fairfield was no longer a resi-
dent Of the place. Then made jour
l ney to the village to discover that
James, after being engaged to the cir
for a year or more, had skipped oui
rather than marry her and that she hat
threatened him with a suit for breacl
OF promise. Where he had gone no one
but his widowed mother knew, and M
information could be got from her.
I then advertised in the Chicago anC
New York papers every day for ;
week, but the result was nil. watch
ed the papers for the next two weeks
hoping that the other party would ad
vertise, but he did not I had TO e,
over the ground again and get as mucl
Information as l could. Meanwhile tn
suit had to be adjourned, and some o
the parties had seen before could no
be found the second time The evi
dence I had at first gathered woul'
have won the suit right of the reel
j but now the matter was very doubtful
I had finished up in Chicago, and 81,
j weeks had elapsed when brought NJ
b In Detroit on the same business. / hat
only to see one person there and there
fore did not take a room at the hotel
had arrived in the morning, and
handed my coat TO the check boy ant
was seated at the table with anothe
man. We were both inclined for cor
versation and talked as we ate.
learned that he was lawyer from
small town in Wisconsin, and tn
breakfast passed off very agreeably
5 When we went out OF the dining room
. both Of us walked to the window Q
the cloak room and presented on
checks. I received my overcoat frs
AS he received his he invited me I
take a cigar, and It was after we ha
lighted up that / rammed my hand i
my pocket for my gloves, pulled out
pair not belonging to me and said:
"Well, this beats the Dutchl Th
boy has given me some one else
overcoat. This is the second time thl
winter that the mistake has occurred
The stranger instinctively put b
hands in the pockets Of his overcoa
and out came a pair of gloves that
instantly recognized as my own.
you have got on my coat" he sal
as he looked at the gloves in my 'han'
'Then you have got on mine"
That proved to be the case. We turl
ed to the boy. but he stoutly denie
that he had changed the checks.
fact the western man checked his COT
fifteen minutes before l did. and I ha
taken my cost out first. and it WI
lard to see how a. mixup could hay