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Show Maw and I. A young woman in a pink and white foulard beat her way past seven waiting men and got an audience au-dience with Commissioner of Buildings Stewart. "Maw and I are greatly worried " she began. "Let me introduce my chief inspector, Mr. Mc-Gill," Mc-Gill," said the commissioner. "He has charge ot the Department of Worry." Mr. McGill was all attention. The young woman shoved a colonial slipper bearing a big gilt buckle out from beneath the said pink and white foulard and resumed: "Maw and I keep a boarding-house. Since the Park avenue fire we have been greatlyvorried because be-cause there are no fire-escapes on the building. So I came down to have you fix it." m Mr. McGill said he couldn't order the landlord to buy fire escapes unless the house contained fifteen fif-teen rooms. "Oh, you're clever, I know. You can fix it if you want to," said the young woman coquettishly. Thus inspired, Mr. McGill found a way. He went to the boarding-house and contrived fifteen rooms. One big, old-fashioned room was cut up into four rooms, each suitable for a gentleman with a hall bedroom income. Another room was made into two. An inspector was sent to examine the house. He counted the rooms, and reported that fire-escapes were necessary. The owner was notified and bought a pretty little set of fire-escapes. fire-escapes. Mr. McGill went calmly along the tedious routine of his official life, confident that he had made Maw and the contents of the pink and white foulard happy. But yesterday the gilt buckles pattered in again. "My," said the young woman, "You've made an awful mess of it!" Mr. McGill arched his eyebrows inquiringly. "Yes. Maw and I are worried more than ever now," she went on. "The agent was over this morning and showed us a clause in the lease saying say-ing we must pay for all improvements of that sort. Go right up there and take them off!" New York Sun. |