The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 17, 1905, Page 14

29 W theMUDSKOWS'KI went BY CHARLES BATTELL LOOMIVS A wiias ¢ iy gall, Ik & 40 S W x gy veeers £ <> ThE | _AOFFOTTE TP B LEANGE L szzge, L B B HAS ZAARE 2O $1000 D ie saw one and public taste so well, even though I felt grateful to him. I think it was in the seventh store that I discovered 1self he would have that a copy had been soid to a man and the clerk was bag, and they would one of those observant fellows who are always drawing wife hapy u. I'd conclusions. He laughed when I asked him if the book happy than a ragman was selling well. He said, * re was a man bought a copy this morning who acted as if he was glad to get it. ind when T received He opened it in the middle and then he burst out laugh- N. H. (his native ing and when it was wrapped up he left the store on the mb to the top or double quick.” “Do you know who he was?” he was poor. When he “Onby that he's a newspaper man. He lives in the i e artist he used to say that if he ever Karragut Apartments around the corne And then a floorwalker s ot ) he would do fairy stories all the while. I found his name after inquiring of pretty nearly storm to him and while she t their promises when they be- every salesman in the store and then in pure gratitude I and aske lllf‘\'l'IV ,'f,';“m[:x" ‘_w}::‘;;l‘"::‘” is just as generous and just as whim- hought the other copy, although I had searched it and bk S Bty s e > r be when he was the pet of the Latin found it moneyless and I hurried around to the rooms of e el PR b, S T st vt intoitte quarter 'wered centimes on the Parisian gamins the newspaper man; why I do not know because findings rtment and the manager of the boo p \ sold a sketch to “Le Rire is keepings and always was. d to Didd, & Co. for twenty coples ing to sell were ook tie deter o0 have kept you waiting.) I was lucky enough find him in and in a ry could send them.” . Mudskowski” off into a r Dear Buck. (He always s me Buck. Don't know Christm, frame of mifid. He offered me my choice of ANd BELOFE '~':xl|r"1'~1““r"‘§'\‘;‘i:: . i seven kinds and T took u'little of one and then I lete tNEY SERt AT Lo AU wakers, ac o ten book store X von il to t I left the bill in & Christmassy. Not too much so but just glad that We gogper's and a the reg cletle at frsLisald ~COPY Of; your xniserable ;hook. yoi » welcome to it—if were all brothe: It was wonderful how many people bought le's L you find I told you not to write that story, as it was Yes, he had bougit the book and was I the autho and then y like a :lng““'ztlh‘ a \r no ort of you, ¢ kKnow you w veed to be o 4 & . Eahe or they were afrs at ne one would snatch Ch came on Friday and it was t laughed when he opened it and he said, “Why, T've been qy . i o inion T8 w3 worth wh Laat bs Y, but T will that it was in a store opn the sea a good deal and I spened to open it on @ gaddest. \ly wanted to look at bove E street and below Forty-second. ac ere you spoke of the barnacle lamps instead of This is why it was the merriest. nephew Regular: Christmas weather up here and sleighing su- innacle lamps and I was laughing at the funny mis- My slishers sent ma a telegram that r perb. REGGY. “First edition exhausted. Likewi r i ordered an edition of 5000. Who did it You can imagine how 1 felt. Me down to {20 and no I pounded the arm of my chair. “To think that 1 Orderee “DIDD, MODE & presents bought and there the very day before I had been should have made my habitual mistake in print. I know And the' reason. Whit: St win 1R Seliteat’ Wain that prompted me. t©0 all the leading stores and had bothered them about my the difference between barnacle and binnacle, but I never ‘| was sorry that the book had not been a bett my vanity received "eW books. But I knew perfectly well that there would can remember which is right and I had actually written it n 1ave had something in it to commend ; the salesmen De at least $100 in the book when I found it, and so I down and it had passed all the proofreaders. R st Bt M < AL 2 T inviting and-T'd better buy Started out. I looked through the book and after I found there was f‘]"'”_ iaiy s ."r".’l'ry‘:‘"‘f:‘r‘l"’gn‘l; ‘“":\“:g‘:f“; . No, first I went over to my bookcase and searched nothing in it (thus forestailing the ) I'told the _ iy hoth down and up before the n: salesman was a real salesman, (hrough the miserable book I'd bought the day before. newspaper man why I had been so anxious’to look at it. peing new. he had sold me my own book But it was not the “It's a story,” said he. No one got the money and the literary peri EhoBRhE BT, SaNihE Lor suthurs I felt it was only too true that the book would not t's the truth. ald T hotly. plored the taste that would advertise a bool sell. T had written it to please a publisher and not to Noy no; I mean it's good for at least half a column r\njl m-l'n 1I‘":‘l- Mode & Co. published a dis trom Reggy Stewart, Flease myself, and such books ought not to sell. it you don’t mind.” : % : ‘qll—;l::‘rllw‘-.q:j::‘i [\dlrll eyl (o dalia inethisg Sbait hint - He is I knew it s only a question of searching and it “Go ahéad,” said L “I believe in art for art's sake and 3 ’ % Christmas rnoon I sought out that newsp public under another name and hecessary buying the fifteen or twenty hooks and that all that sort of thing and the more ast the merrier, But _ cooing he was a decent sort of chap and very eccentric and he is very rich Would take up my money. Still I'd be at least $80 there's nothing in this world like advertising and You and lonely and I asked him to come arou " He is the man who when he 10 the good can talk about me In every column, including the editorial and I'd give him the sequel of his nister a pair of somewhat soiled ried to find the book without bothering a clerk, but ones if you want to.” g0 lu(ux“:zg--:h‘eln‘m e Ay who was not at all well off and they'd relegated it to an obscure corner agair Well, he turned out to be a pretty good ’\””,"f r",“”w those comfortably clad, but a I > hard o wething big in the way of a last I had to ask a young woman for it, a 3 and as it was lunch time I threw prudence to the winds on the way to my lodgings w brok O -con he realized that five minutes hunting for it, and when she handed it to and asked him to lunch with me. pot that needed to be kept be indedness on the p: of Reggy and e and I hastily looked it through and saw there was I knew very well it was safe to let the rest of the “Say, lend me $5 to chuck st weeping. He couldn’t writeo 1O money in it she asked me in such a tired way If she hooks lie in obscurity until afternoon. And I had but brought me luck. I'm sure of it." should have it wrapped up that I just went and bought four stores more to visit anyhow. : __He saia \3.»14{14||\ t sen the logie of | g iy ‘ a pair of 1L although I didn't need it. We hud a cracking good lunch and felt Christmassier was game and he chu ta.in B last will kindly Of course, I wanted to see the other copy, but and Christmassier and then 1 Iynx'|'n\\'-<l‘37| from: bipk ARGINRItiouk & Ousts Soawi o wan 7 " hadn’t brought that, so after the package had was the d fter pay day, but he still had i an s C as an ministers have mMe I unwrapped it and made believe there was a_smudge buy the r come to ¥ $ eh with my own money und Set as because he s poor himself once. o rest of the books—telling him I'd let him in for a So we TOURE: 1. My hiada roceeding would have ©n it—although I hated to bother the poor thing any (hristmas dinner at Sherry’s if I found the money. chap sat down and picked up t ook I ore—and she brought me the other copy and there on Well, that afternoon I took up my march again ana I h‘;d Ikwl[u it jus f‘-n :;m nen b k X 3 © g i ki £t e o And do you know, en he picked i oA s intuitive to the (he very first page was tho titlo and nothing eise. And I went to. stores where they g T A e e Shte thal Tataiie Tee Macud 1 t ce been « nothing else in the entire sitetn : he book, but had never heard of me. the pag re tha : nnac eeally, quikit:(o Beye pren d 3CH 1o I HE AU S N Sl cresied g o Ane e astonished o find how many thousand peo- and there was a $300 bill minister's wife. Perhaps she I walked away without the book L had bought and 4 have never heard of me, even now that t : “Mudske I don’t know how I had missed it, b Most everybody is nowadays. Any was in the next big book department before I realized it, Skl” has made me famous. wrote a letter to Reggy up New Han ssey, perhaps he 'has tucked a $100 bill and then I wouldn't go back. But although I spent all the rest of the money T could cld ,f('lks' mhly!“v“ ~h<; nlf“_ Paper_chap a one of them 1 had begun just after 9 o'clock and 12 found me well 1ot find a bill in any of the books ana w._‘ul h‘ohln‘g. so .-mlgc ;l:rl(lT;;A;\::: atUBhemY 'S bpcaxad. we was d one of the gloves inside out and there up town With elght books STowing heavier and heavier all to Christmas I went B ts tacte. | Oanvelesieantel areyiIWell. ‘that merr , she turned the other glove inside time and nary a dollar in one of them, but me out ::::tvery particular about what they read and the “Mud And 1 » how KHSn RO theth, er §10. - And not a book had been sold except what T skowski” sailed in pleasant waters whatever else may but he w; . hardwood floor, although s as had bought. 1 couldn’t forgive Reggy for gauging the have been its defects. for the we hawv voung woman was red-haired and sk and see what you known Reggy ever since ristmas, him I was and that I had a reasons for wanting - Until you have done something worth while. The book yishing to see his copy. Then I asked .iim why he had case brought me the Will never sell so you need not hurry about looking up ew was a boy she