Year: 1879

sun as brightly as any OF Messrs. Moon-
stone & Co. IS most costly wares, over
which he presided


There were other assistants in the
shop, and with them am sorry to say
Mr.. John Riddel was not popular =
young men rarely appreciate in their as
sociates so much virtue as resided In our
hero, and especially if that virtue has
not been its own reward but has enabled
its possessor to walk over their heads
and stop there. There was hardly one
his servitude with Messrs. Moonstone
had mislaid a ring or trinket for a
few hours, or had even caused some loss
to the firm, not so much through care
lessness as from not being as wideawake
as weasel.


For the way of jewelers. assistant is set
with springs. 1t is calculated that about
one per cent. of the customers at such es-
tablishments are roughs and vagabonds,
people who come to spy out, not the
nakedness of the land, but its richness,
and if possible to possess themselves of
them by force or fraud. And these look
as little like rogues as nature and art can
enable them to do. Notwithstandinga
that has been written upon the deceitful-
ness of riches, it is difficult to believe
that a gentleman who drives his own
mail phaeton, or lady who comes in a
chariot, upon G springs, are brigands in
disguise. Yet the young men at Messrs.
Moonstone's has been, most of them,
taken in by appearances. One of them
had taken jewelry to a newly married
couple at fashionable hotel "on approx
AL" and had been so successful in his re-
concentrations that they had "colored"
the whole lot, and gave him such dose
of chloroform in exchange for them that
he was unable to give any clear account
of his adventures for hours afterward.
Another had been set upon 10y whole
gang of thieves, in such a promiscuous
and overwhelming fashion that he could
recall nothing of what had happened ex-
cept that he had been " struck with an
instrument like the ace of Spades"
which the newspapers expressed hope
would afford some clew to the police;
they thought it showed, suppose, that
the perpetrators of the outrage must be
either gardeners or gamblers; but moth
ing came of the suggestion. Others,
again, had been exposed to the seduc-
tions of the fair sex, and in losing their
hearts had sacrificed the diamonds of
their employers.


In this last regard Mr.. John Riddel,
because adamantine, was invaluable
His youthful as well as handsome looks
attracted these ladies of industry, who,
on entering the shop, gravitated toward
him quite naturally. A man of that
age, as they flattered themselves, must
surely fall an easy victim to their fas-
cinations. Thieves as thew We're, they
were still women, and perhaps they al
lowed their feelings to carry them too
far; if they had stopped half way where
Mr.. Boltby, the Cashier, sat, or at the
desk over which Mr.. Nation (the hero
of the ace of spades) presided, they
would have had better chance; but
Boltby was bald and Nation was gray,
and woman never will understand that
it is from forty to fifty that men are
most impressionable with respect to fe-
male charms. Your conceited young
fellows think it nothing surprising that
any lady should fall in love with them,
but when a man comes to that mature
period which we call Tor at least L call)
the prime of life, he appreciates the
compliment.


do not say that Mr. John Riddel
had not some admirers among the fair
sex who loved him for his own sake.
Indeed, it was whispered among his
detractors that, like the first Duke of
Marlborough, and .other great men
who ought to have known better, he
derived pecuniary advantages from their
devotion of him; that the sums ex-
! pended in macassar oil, etc, for the
adornment of his appearance, came
back to him twenty fold in substantial
tokens from Duchesses and Countesses,
and the like. Goodness knows whether
there was any truth in such stories.-
Perhaps it pleased his rivals to invest
the drudgery that was their daily lot
with this halo of romance. For my
part, my tastes are sensational, and l
do what l can to make my beliefs cor
respond with them ; but, on the other
hand, my strong common sense declares
for moderation as regards Mr.. Riddel
| mud no o1 Of. l. r..