Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 12, 1927 — page 32: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

26 it on Tremont Street once, in front of an ancient and aristocratic department store where all the swell dames shop, and a tall, bony blind man had his stand, or rather his camp chair. His cup held only about fif- teen cents; these blind men, George had observed, never let much accumulate in them. Made them look too prosperous. Well, more from sheer bravado than any- thing else, he had reached for the fifteen cents; and his hand hadn’t so much as touched the rim of the cup when that blind man-—the crook—rose halfway from his chair and crowned George! Yes, sir, al- most flattened his nose on his pan. Could you beat it? And the police standing for him posing as blind! But the police were as crooked as anybody they pinched; that was George’s firm belief. Other mean things he had done over a long period, the best part of his life, passed in review before his half closed eyes, as he sat there on the bench on the Common. And for the first time he realized that nobody but himself knew how mean he really was. His light had been hidden under a bushel. In his time he would die and be gathered ‘to his fathers, and carry his secret with him into the unknown. In every funeral he had ‘known anything about, the clergyman had been at pains to find out something eulogistic he could say about the deceased; some few kind words to speak before the poor body was consigned to oblivion. But when’ George Bangs came to the great adventure, who would tip the dominie off—whisper into his ear that he was about to perform the last sad rites over the meanest man in Boston, if not indeed in New England, or possibly the whole wide world? A tear stele from one eye and ran into the corner of his mouth. Absent-mindedly be reached down and picked up the all-day sucker and licked it. Also he picked up the newspaper, found the weird want ad, and tore it carefully out. There could be no harm in answering it; if he could obtain an interview with the sender, he might at least convince one liv- ing witness of his talents in the way of ss spaatie sted meanness! As for the = : 2 - was = jam J aS ha , ee Ss i se ae _ ad i> a a a “a a ne == gg ale = ——, me ~<— > ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. any job—he didn’t take much interest in that. Of course, it would be pleasant to eat all one could, of the very best the mar- ket afforded. 3 One hour later George Bangs left at the office of the Messenger a folded scrap of brown paper which he had fished out of a rubbish can. It was addressed to X 31; and he lingered for a moment, hoping that the clerk at the desk might recognize the peculiar nature of the advertisement insert- ed by X 31, and inquire of George Bangs as to his record in the way of meanness; but the clerk, a sniffy flapper, took the paper without more than a cool glance at the shabby fat man, dropped it into its proper pigeonhole, murmured “ Aw right!” and turned to resume a conversation she was holding with another young thing. There was in youth to-day no reverence whatever, George sadly mused as he left the office. With the best intentions in the world, that young woman would never rise to the heights of meanness he had achieved! IT. Ir was two days later that George Bangs was given a letter by the clerk at the Gen- eral Delivery window of the post office. These past two nights he had slept at the Charity House, where for a bed and a breakfast, of sorts, he had been obliged to saw much wood. This irked him deeply, but not as much as the further requirement that each inmate take a cold shower in the morning upon rising. But his pension check was not due for a week and luck had not _been with him during the past day or so. He turned aside, and by the light that sifted in through a dusty and smoke- grimed window read the prim lines written with a stub pen on plain white paper. The letter was in reply to his note left at the Messenger office, and read: SiR: ; Yrs rec’d and contents noted. In response to same would state that I will interview you in person. Will be at South Terminal waiting room, in the Essex County section, on Wednesday at ten o’clock in the morning, and will wait for you there a reasonable time. I assume from your answer to my adt. and se sere tone thereof that your. time is Z 35 ee En 2 eis le Pe > 2 . - a es =e aS ae 7 = <a, as - Sens Tor oe Ra nae re a Ea eos es Se oe Sie me er $e ee a ae oa a ~ yo Saar. aah “comicbooks.com