The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-13
McDevitt PrOnOunces the Hill
lionaire Business All Right
LII One Only Has the Money to
Keep It Up.
HE REACHES NEW YORK
With $72. 40 of His So, 500 Still
Unexpended.
Expects to Ride Home in an
Ordinary Day Coach.

New York, Jan. 13.=Word came
from the room of John Jay McDevitt
of Wilkesb barre, who was consumed
with an ambition to live like a mil
| lionaire for day and tried it yester-
day when he came to town on a spec
lal train, that he was sleeping late this
morning in keeping with the belief
that II is a millionaire's privilege to
| stay under the covers as long as he
pleases, especially when the thermom-
eter was three degrees below Zero.
| McDevitt figured after his night on
broadway that he would at least have
money for ham and eggs for break
! fast today and the price of a return
| trip in an ordinary day coach to
Wilkesbarre. He hoped to remain IN
til Sunday.
There is nothing the matter with
this millionaire idea remarked Nc
Dewitt IF you could only keep it up.
| The last time I was in New York I
slept in a 25 cent lodging house,
"A raWDoned, dynamic, carrot-topped
| Irishman with small, sparkling green
| ish grey eyes and a, spreading fore
/ head, sprang down the steps of a spec
ial train at the Lehigh Valley railroad
station in Jersey City at o'clock Fri
| day evening. He gazed about him hun
grily and then crooked his finger in
the direction of the small, coal black
negro who made one of the surging
group about him.
14SSs YOU OIuOh6 ~ IOuBullU, lie
called crisply. Serve me up four taxi
cabs. l want wan for my physician,
wan for me secretary, wan for me
head and wan for me feet. And say,
get the kind that pants and jumps
John Jay CButchl McDevitt of
Wilkesbarre, Pa, had arrived in New
York to put the final crimp in the
$4,000 roll he became possessed of a
month ago when he sold to an oppon-
ent the Democratic nomination for
county treasurer which had been ten
dered him as joke. John Jay has
been everything in this world from
third rate hobo to (lOsing) candidate
for mayor Of Wilkes barre. If you ask
him he will tell you he's journeynan
lunatic.
He Had $72.4O Left.
When the Wiki sbarre wild cat hit
the big town after a prodigal day he
discovered that he haG but SIP. 0 with
which to tickle the ribs of father
knickerkocker. Therefore he decided
to economic right off the reel. He
taxis Cnstead tipping the crew of his
fifty miles an hour 1915 one way spec
lay with one of his few remaining yell
low backs) and consented to enter
Manhattan via the Hudson tunnel.
But the rest of his prOgrem he re-
fused to modify. He breezed into the
Waldorf, where a suite of rooms had
been engaged for him and paid for in
The first persons he encountered in
the Thirty-fourth street corridor Of the
Waldorf, we're ]. Alton Davis and two
friends, all irreproachably attired in
me names McDevitt.'' said the
jovial Irishman, slapping Mr.. Davis on
the back. I'm doing me best to put
Wilkesbarre on the map. I've started
train ($316 it cost me and here's the
receipt) beat the Black Diamond ex-
press time by a full minute"
''McDevitt, me boy replied Mr.. |
Davis, 1--WE are proud of you. We'll |
come to New York's millionaire col |
Ony."
"Shure, McDevitt," put in Fingy
Corners, who happened to be standing |
near by. You're one of US million |
aires. But when you get tired smok- |
ing them bum millionaire weeds, come |
to me and I'll give you the right kind |
of smoke for a husky lad like you"
Poses for Photographs.
McDevitt, accompanied by his secre- |
tary, John Lehan, and his physician,
DR.. Edward A. Sweeney (who is |
pledged to pay him IS for every day |
on the fourth floor. Here he posed for |
a few more photographs and glanced +
over the pile of letters and kilograms |
that had already begun to pour in
McDevitt had promised to attend
the performance of the Little Million
aire7 at George NJ. Cohan's theater in
the evening and so the first meal at
the Waldorf was of necessity hasty
affair.
.'Faith," said McDevitt, scanning the
menu that the waiter presented to
him, I'm an American. an Irish
American. I can't read Latin and
Greek. But I'll give you $40 for an
egg"
A huge platter of scrambled eggs
was placed before him and to the keen
mt Of n
demolished it in five min
utes Then he pushed his chair back
and slipped the waiter SIS.
"A man of your education ought to
be a college president" he told the
Tomorrow I'll give you $40
if I've got it left. Otherwise I'll ask
you to lend me a dime to get back
home on"
Between the acts at the theater Nc
Dewitt presented George Conan with
Yankee Doodle baton made of coal
with huge sulphur diamonds sprinkled
upon its surface. Later he was the
guest of Cohan at a supper party
which lasted until almost daylight.
EAST SIDE NOTES.