Year: 1876

At a proper morning hour for respect
able people to be seen abroad a man
about 80 summers old was observed
paving over dirt heap near the Essex
Market building. The boys anxiously
inquired if he had lost the ring out of
his nose or the stone out of his diamond
pin, and he gruffiy replied


"B'yes, shall have to hurt some of
you if you don't go to keeping away
from me'


They saw him pick up three eight
penny nails, bent and rusty, and he
slipped them into his vest pocket and
sauntered leisurely along to the market.
The motherly proprietor of an eating
stand had just got her table spread with
all the luxuries of the season, and as
soon as she saw the stranger she beck
oned him to come nearer. -ui


90 Breakfast, ehP" she queried.
Well, sit right down. You have come
to the best stand on this market. as
sure you that l can give you better
meal for the money than any other lady
in North America"


1t didn't take him long to sit down.
He dropped into chair as if he had
on Jacket stuffed with bars of lead,
and he fell to eating just as naturally as
if he had enjoyed three square meals
per day all his life. He didn't have
much to say, but sat there and ratified
knife and fork against his teeth and
gulped down provisions as if he had
walked all the way from the Big Horn
country.


"And nowdon It fail to try my custard
pie," she observed, as she handed him
over a pie. &" If there is any one
special thing brag on tits my custard-
pies"


While she was putting more coal un-
der the cofee-pot, the stranger might
have been seen feeling in his vest pock-
ct. Perhaps he was after a tOothpick-
perhaps he wanted to see if his SO bill
was safe.


"Yes; looks like very healthy pie, q"
said he, as he poised his knife snd fors
"I've had great fOndness for custard-
pie ever since L was an innocent child.
This particular pie looks"-.


He stopped there. For some reason
the knife would pot 90 down to the
lower crust, and custard-pie ought to
cut as slick as grease, but this one
wouldn't. The man sawed away, rose
up and sawed again, and, as the woman
wondered what on earth was the mat
ter, he dipped in his fork and raised
rusty nail on line with her eyes.


" My starsi'' she gasped, as she took
the nail in her trembling fingers.


81 should think sol" ne grimly re-
piled. "Let's investigate little fur
ther."


A second nail came up on the tines of
the fork, and the woman whispered,


"How on earth did they get there?"


"Yes, just so,'' he replied, going
down for the third nail.


The three nails were laid in a row on
the table between them, and, clearing
his throat, the man scOwled fiercely at
the embarrassed female and said


Woman, never was there 4 more
dastardly attempt to take human life!"


"I-I-i'' she stammered.


"Would-be murderess, keep silence!'
he interrupted. "Was it your fiendish
plan to spike my breakfast to my lungs,
or did you anticipate that l would get
one of those nails crossways of my tho
rax?"


"May Heaven forgive me, but such
thing never happened BEFORE" she
whispered.


"Do you know, arch traitoress, he
continued, "that when rusty nail
comes in contact with custard-pie, the
pie is at once transformed from a heal
thy dessert to a virulent poison? Oh!
of course you know it. The plot was to
poison me, and get possession Of my
funds!"


$50 help me Heaven Inever dreamed
of such thing" she replied. ''How
them nails got there 1 don't know, but
such thing never happened before.
There isn't more tidy stand on this
market"


81 have no time to halt until a legal
investigation can be made" he said, as
he wiped off his chin. sit may be a
mistake; perhaps | could put you in
prison for life. You may feel CRATE
ful that l am the good-hearted man l
am"


She didn't ask any pay and he moved
on. 1t was half an hour before police
man came along and heard her story
and posted the man as fraud. she
hurried down the market with brick
bat in one hand and big fork in the
other. and was last seen falling over a
baby cart on the sidewalk.