The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-15
SEPTEMBER NEWS
 IN LOCAL SOCIETY An Episode Occasioned By
 Mistaken Identity THE SOCIAL CALENDAR
Invitations to Exposition Sent By the WOmans Board-Lunche0n Party for Acknowledgements
 Other Social Notes
By MYRTLE MILES

natured cnaffing among her 1flenuS pe- cause of serio-comic incident of which she was the heroine while away. It might never have been known if she had not ohanced to relate 1t to her hostess, 1T that hostess had not been one Of the clever feature writers in New York city, and if her nose" for clever incidents had not immediately scented good story which she published last Sunday morning in the New York Press, and which tells the serio-comic incident Friends of Zoe Bec<ley-for she is the writer, by the way, and Is the sister as we'll of Mrs. Leslie Fulenwider of this city-found the story and suspected its inspiration, the aforesaid matron of Birmingham. She enjoys a good joke, be it on herself or another, and friend who met her yes terday in a downtown tearoom. where she may be found almost any day, found her still enjoying the episode which mistake of identity occasioned. MISS Beckley called her little story Without Quarter" and here 1t is:
 Apartment houses play many trick on persons from small towns who are not ac- customed to their peculiarities. A woman from the south was visiting her friends, who kept a bachelorette flat. The bach elor girl had said, Now, make yourself perfectly at home. Annette and gone down town to business.
 It was a warm day, so the first thing the southern girl did was to cast about for something thin to wear. Her trunk had not yet come, so she poked about in wardrobes until she found an abbrev- lated kimono. She removed some puffs and things from her pretty head and al- lowed her hair to fall down her back in a small and spindley braid. On her feet she placed a disreputable but comfort able pair of bath slippers-and then bell rang somewhere. Thinking and hoping it might be her trunk, Miss Dixie opened the flat door and peeped gingerly forth. No sound. Perhaps the man couldn't find the name on the bells. So she gathered the brief kimono about her and made her way to the baluster and looked over.
 All was still below. Then bang! went the door behind her, with a wicked slam. The wind and a spring lock had done the business. She rushed back and tried to turn the knob. It wouldn't move. She rattled and shook and pushed and bumped, but the door semed as tight as bank vault. She thought of the extra latch key her friend had left on the par Tor table. And then she thought, with a gasp and a choke, of her costume! A pair of superannuated slippers made of Turkish toweling, poor little petticoat, a somewhat ratty kimono, and her hair In a braid. And she out in the public hallway, where five doors belonging to five strange families might open any in- stant and reveal her.
 She sat down on the top step and tried to think. Instinct told her to go below pass key. It took courage to slink down five strange flights of stairs in half portion costume. She leaned over the balusters and looked down. On the street floor she thought she described some one sitting. An! Perhaps the telephone was In charge of a girl. She looked harder. An unnmistakable masculine shoulder. a linen collar and most substantial boot distinctly met her gaze. Something was down there anyhow Maybe 1t was the hallboy. Miss Dixie was accustomed to colored ser vants Surely the hallboy would come to her aid.
 She battered down the next flight to get better look. An ear and bit of neck met her view. Assuredly it was hall boy-a light completed colored chap in good looking clothes. How we'll these Miss Dixie to herself.
 "Oh, please she called mastering cour- age from the flight above, ''I am in such trouble. You belong in the house. don't trouble. You belong in the house, don'tyou? Well, the door blew shut-my friend s fiat, you know, Miss Batchley, on the top floor Can't you get key? I'm not prop erly dressed and I must get back inside the flat"
 The wall of distress touched him.
 "There's no pass key,' said a replying voice. But I will see what I can do.'
 Miss Dixie gathered up her fimsy drap- cries and scuttled upstairs with the more substantial footsteps of the hall man fol- lowing.
 He got into the flat next, thence out the window to the fire escape and into Miss Batchley's window, quite in the ap- proved burglar fashion, opened the door in jiffy and oblgingliy kept his face turned as much the other way as pos sible. so as not to embarrass the lady in the ratty kimono, who called out Just wait 3 moment, please, and whisked within.
 ''There," said she, returning and hold ing out a quarter through crack In the door. You have obliged me so much.".
 But the quarter did not connect with the hand it was intended for. Miss Dixie heard something halfway between grunt end thank you and then the sub stantial feet made their way quickly down the stairs.
 That night. when her friend returned, Miss Dixie said:
 Kitty dear, you have most wonder full hallboy here. He absolutely refused to take quarter for scramPling out the window and letting me into the fiat this afternoon when l got myself locked out"
 'IIallboy? said she. 'Hallboy? We haven't any. You see the house Is new and things aren't running just right yet. The owner says as soon as there are more tenants he will have regular tele- phone operator, a hallboy. and all the modern inconveniences.'
 '"rhon who let me in? Who was it saw me in that awful garb? Who refused my quarter? He had a bluish suit and q checked cloth cap and-and-I didn't see him very closely--his face was dark and he wore a small mustache." why, that--that was Mr. Blattman,