Being Kind to a Stranger.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 997, 8 December 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

Being Kind to a Stranger.

Among the passengers in a parlor car on the Lake Shore Boad the other day was a handsome woman, whose husband shared the scat with her and who would have been picked out as a quiet, sedate, absent-minded man. The seat opposite waß occupied by a flashily* dressed young man, with a lady-killing twist to his moustache, and he was considerably surprised when the husband handed him a daily paper, with the remark :

"Have a glance at the news. Plenty "of excitement around the country, I observe." The young man was busy with the paper for half an hour, and then the husband offered him a popular magazine. This enter* tamed him for an hour, and he had scarcely closed the book when the good man reached over with :

" Have a cigar. These are prime Havanas and I know you will enjoy one."

The young man accepted with thanks, and naturally made his way to the smoking-car, i where he put in nearly another hour, but without the other's company. When he returned he was greeted with : " Perhaps you'd like to look at the latest novel ? Very entertaining, I assure you." He read until weary, and upon being offered another cigar replied that he was to leave the train at the next station, and added : " I want to tkank you again for your many courtesies," 11 Oh, don't mention it." " You never saw me before ? "

" Never."

" Don't know my name ? " " No." " Then tell me why you were so very cour teous to an entire stranger." "Young man, I will explain. In times past when a loafer sat and stared at my wife as a steady job I got up at the end of an hour and broke his neck. This made me much trouble and expense, atfd I changed my programme. I. now carry books and cigars to bribe them. Had you been going a hundred miles further I should have offered you a drink of brandy, a new puzzle, two more dailies, and another cigar, and my wife would have secured quite a rest."

"Sir! I "

"Oh, it's all right— all right! It was cheaper than throwing yon out of the window, and I hope you'll get up to the hotel safely. Good-day, sir— good-day— glad to have met you 1 " And that young man with the lady-killing moustache and crockery-colored eyes and hair parted on an even keel picked up his grip and walked out without being certain whether he had been mashed in a collision cr pulverized under a land-roller.— Detroit Free Press.

Old Hyson, who has arrived home in a state of malarial exhaustion ; " Whaz zat — whaz zat noise in 'er parlor? " Mrs. Hyson, soothingly : " Oh, it's nothing ; just Jenny and some friends playing the piano." Ola Hyson, with a waking show of interest and intense sobriety: "Playin' piano? Whaz trumps? " Falls down and slumbers.

The only money that does a man good is what he earns himself. A ready-made fortune, like ready-made clothes, seldom fits the man who comes into possession.