A MOMENTARY MONTE CHRISTO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 39

A MOMENTARY MONTE CHRISTO.

REMARKABLE SCENE IN A NEW YORK RESTAURANT.

The extraordinary spectacle was witriFbScl in Upper Broadway on November 4 of nearly 200 rasrged and homeless men marcning in the di r ection of a large quick-lunch restaurant, under the leadership of a six-

foot Irishman, a large package of 20-dollar (£4) notes sticking out of the pocket of his overcoat.

The Irishman, whose name is James Mahoney, went to the races at Jamaica, Long Island, in the afternoon, and bet a sovereign with his eyes shut. It was the '" lucky way," he said.

The horse he backed was a hopeless out and the odds were 100 to 1. Mahoney boro up bravely, however, and when, by

some extraordinary chance, his horse won, the Irishman gathered £100 into his hat. " I have that Carnegie feeling," he said as he paid £1 for a cocktail to celebrate hi"? yood fortune. He made the same explanation to a barber when he gave him 8s for a hair-cut. The wind was blowing keenly as Mahonev strodn .1 Inner Broadway, and the usual ragged outcast* shi\ ered in Herald square. Mahoney looked them over, and then, in

a voice which could be heard above the din | of Broadway, invitpd every man who was hungry to dine at his expense. Whon the tratfc was blocked a moment later, the policeman in Herald square told Mahoney to move along or be arrested for drunkennrss. Mahonev explained his mission, and thf» policeman helped him to i march the ra*. ged reaiment into a restaurant ' near Thirty-eighth stio^t. Mahoney put four 20-('o'lar notes on thp.

cashier's desk, and said softly : " I have that Carnegie feeling. Close the restaurant."

And the restaurant was clo cd while the ragged regiment ate everything in the plnoo.

The banquet finished, the oui easts cheered Mahonov who ordered th^ee cabs and drove horne — an omptv hansom be.'^e in front of him and another br'iHd. — London Daily Exx>res3