The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1913-06-13
SILLY SIDE OF IT.
How an Aspiring Society Girl
Was Taught a Lesson in
Summing.
BY ClAUDlNE LlSSON.

~ ~-SN~ 0ssN. @sSoSNs
1t was strange that Jack Ashton
should be bored. He was a young
man of wealth and social privileges,
college educated, a member of four
or five clubs, rather a favorite with
the fair sex, always invited every.
where-baseball, football, regattas and
the races, with a trip here or there
every few months. 1t seemed like q
crime to be bored.
And what does a young man do
when he is bored?
There is Africa with it's big game
and mosquitoes.
There is Mt. Mckinley to be
climbed.
There are theatrical companies to
be "angeled"
There is the chorus girl to be won
and divorced again.
Young Mr.. Ashton thought of all
these things and rejected them. He
went to Sunday newspaper editor
and had a talk with him, and the re-
suit was that he did just what no
friend OF his would have looked for
him to do. On the next Sunday, and
on every succeeding Sunday for many
weeks, there was an article signed
Toff." 1t was descriptive of life in
the underworld. The underworld said
Of them:
Believe me, dat guy is surely one
of us!''
There was no remarks made about
the sudden appearance of a strange
guy IN the hang outs of the under
world. He might be yeggman, pick
pocket. burglar or what so long as he
was not detective. He didn't talk
too much. He didn't listen too closely.
He made few inquiries. He played
poker with murderers and pool with
burglars. He spent his money just as
the others did-not too freely. He
limited at prison term or two, but
did not go into particulars. After be-
ing watched for spell to make sure
that he was not stool-pigeon for the
police, he was in way admitted to
the underworld. That is, he was not
blackJacked or robbed as a summer,
and now and then ne was offered a
partnership in LOB" to be done.
The articles 81 'Toff' made a SEN
sation. They were were read and COM
Tented on by the under as we'll as the
upper world. To get the local color
they said the writer must speak from
personal observation and experience.
Was he Raffles taking a vacation
from crime? Was he some young
man not yet so hardened in crime that
he could not be saved if he could only
be Identified and wrestled with?
Among those who hoped so was
MISS Clara Converse. She had long
been interested in and had taken some
part IN mission work. Indeed, she
had, as she fondly supposed, been the
direct means of reforming several
hard cases. She had furnished them
money to go west and make new
start and grow up with the country,
and the police, not wishing to hurt
her feelings, had concealed the fact
that they had gone to Sing Sing in
stead
1t was on account of her mission in
others that Miss Converse made one
or a Summing party one evening.
They saw just what they were in
tended to see and no more. The un-
derworld doesn't do any safe-cracking
or blackjacking before the eyes of
summers. Miss Converse had a
mental photograph of "Toff," and she
looked for him.
AT length, in den frequented alto
gether by men who had shed human
blood, as the guide solemnly assured
the party, the man was discovered.
He looked intelligent and almost re-
spectacle Met in walk along Fifth
avenue, he might have been taken
for rising young lawyer hoping that
some workman might be killed and
his widow bring suit for damages.
The only crime "Toff" was commit
ting just then was thai of beer drink
ing. This greatly astonished the
summers. They looked for blood on
his hands, but they were cleaner than
a trolley car conductors. Miss Con-
verse spoke to him, and he talked in
eentlemanly way. IN fact, she boosted
afterward that he almost used as
good grammar as a floor walker In a
department store" She did not want
to preach to him before his wicked
companions, and so she quietly left
him her card. In return she received
a look which she interpreted to mean:
For heavens sake, don't betray nv
identity here!" and she needed the
request After she had passed out,
"Sl1ppy," the pickpocket lifted up the
card with a laugh and showed It
around and said:
Another Of the sex gone bue-h6;7se
over saving us from ruin! Why didn't
some of you pinch her diamond breast
pin?"
"A week later, one rainy afternoon,
Miss Converse received . caller. The
butler who brought in the written card
said that the owner appeared to be
bill collector, but he was admitted, and
after a moment was recognized as
'"roff." He hadn't come to pay So
eial call. He had come at the request