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Newspaper Page Text
LOST ON DRESS PARADE BY O. HENRY 'Illustrated With a Drawing by Dom J. Lavin, the Famous American Artist, (Copyright by Doubleday, Page & Co.) Mr. Towers Chandler was pressing his evening suit in his hall bedroom. Ope iron was heating on a small gas stove; the other was being pushed vigorously back and forth to make the desirable crease that would be seen later on extending in straight lines from Mr. Chandler's patent leather shoes to the edge of his low cut vest. So much of the hero's toilet may be intrusted to our con fidence. Our next view of him shall be- as he descends the steps of his lodging-house immaculately clothed; calm, assured, handsome in appear ance the typical New York young clubman setting out, slightly bored, to 'inaugurate the pleasures of the evening. Chandler's honorarium was $18 per week. He was employed by an architect. He was twnety-two; con sidered architecture to be truly an art; and honestly believed though he' would not have dared to admit it in New York that the Flatiron Building was inferior in design to the great cathedral in Milan. Out of each week's earnings Chandler set aside $1. At the end of each .ten weeks with the extra capi tal thus accumulated, he purchased one gentleman's evening from the bargain counter of stingy old Father Time. He arrayed himself in the regalia of millionaires and presi dents; he took himself to the quarter where life is brightest and showiest, and there dined with taste and lux ury. With ten dollars a man may, for a few hours, play the wealthy idler to perfection. The sum is am ple for a well-considered meal, a bot tle bearing a respectable label, com mensurate tips, a smoke, cab fare .and the ordinary etceteras. This one delectable evening culled from each dully seventy was to Chandler a source of renascent bliss. To the society bud comes but one debut; it stands alone sweet in her memory when her hair has whitened; but to Chandler each ten "weeks brought a joy as keen, as thrilling, as new as the first had .been. To sit among bon vivants under palms in the swirl of concealed music, to look upon the habitues of such a paradise and to be looked upon by them what is a girl's first dance and short sleeved tulle compared with this? Up Broadway Chandler moved with the vespertine dress parade. For this evening he was an exhibit as well as a gazer. For the next sixty-nine even ings he would be dining in cheviot and worsted at dubious table d'hotes, at whirlwind lunch . counters, on satidwiches in his hall bedroom. He was willingNto do that, for he was a true son ofhe great city of razzle dazzle, and to him one .evening in the limelight made up for' many dark ones. Chandler protracted his walk until the Forties began to intersect the great glittering primrose way, for the evening was yet young, and when one is the beau monde only one day in seventy, one lives to protract the pleasure. Eyes bright, sinister, cur ious, admiring, provocative, alluring were bent upon him, for his garb and air proclaimed him a devotee to the hour of pleasure. At a certain corner he came to a standstill, proposing to himself the question of turning back toward the showy and fashionable restaurant in which he usually dined on the even ings of his especial luxury. Just then "a girl scudded lightly around the cor- ajgjaMaiaiaigii