Salt Lake Tribune | 1905-01-01 | Page 73 | Special Edition, Took Revenge upon a Woman

TOOK REVENGE DPOIUMAN k Recent Comedy of the Bail. Pretty Passenger Hart Six Berths but Only Two Shoes. Drummer Tells of ajn Adventure in "Which Every One Claimed the Victory. Probably no one will ever knov Just how It happened that a remarkably pretty woman engaged three whole sections sec-tions of a sleeping car on a Rio Grande train recently. That she had engaged and paid for them there was not a doubt, as she had the tickets in her purse, but the efforts of thne who were without berths to take the extra ones off her hands met with failure. "She was pretty, was this woman." I said a traveling man who sat up all nlRht In the smoking car. 'She was pretty and haughty and Independent. At first we thought It possible that friends of hers were going to Join her at some point along the road, but when 11 o'clock came and the woman with th-- t. k ts r- iln-i, v.e called an Indignation Indig-nation meeting. "There were five traveling men present pres-ent and none of them had been able to secure a berth. They were tired, sleepy, and thorotifrhly disgusted More than that, they were Indignant to think that one woman should be the cause of all their trouble, and the thought of sitting ln the smoking car all night while the train made Its way through the mountains, moun-tains, did not have a tendency to cheer them up. Several cold bottles were ordered, or-dered, and by 1 o'clock the spirits of the five men had risen 5 per cent. They had given up all hopo of securing a berth, but. as the matter was talked over and first one thing and then another an-other was suggested, lt occurred to them that It was not Impossible to have their revence " "Not a very gallant thing to do,' said the man who sells shoes. 'Gettlnc revenge re-venge on a woman sounds pretty bad, but In all of my experience this Is the first time I ever ran up against such a proposition as this. If one woman can find It In her heart to keep five men I sitting up all night, nnd all because she V Is ' master" of tho situation, I guess u 1 little harmless revenge win bo about L r right, and you can count me In.' . I And as the whisky man said the I I same thing, and the cigar man and tho hardware man said ditto, lt came to '. pass that more drinks were ordered. "One, two, three o'clock, and still no plan of action. It was a delicate propo- I sltlon, this getting revenge upon a wo- num. and a pretty woman at that. If "Finally some one proposed that they go through the sleeping car and sing a I song as they neared the six berths with . but a single sleeper. The song was sung and every person ln the car awoke j and poked his head out to see what was wrong, Just as they warbled, "Please Go Away and Let Me Sleep." In addition addi-tion to singing the song, some one stole i a shoe. It was a lady's shoe, and lt was I picked up in front of the berth occu- j pled by the pretty woman. As If by nvigb , It might be added, the dainty little No. 3 disappeared. It was a case' I of "now you see It and now you don't." The train rolled on, the traveling men 1 returned to the smoking car, and the owner Of the shoe again went to sleep, ji little dreaming that she was the victim if of a terrible plot. 1 'At 7 o'clock there was trouble enough. The porter had been accused of stealing a lady's shoe, and the story oon traveled throughout the car that one had been taken from In front of No. 12. The lady who owned It had neglected neglect-ed to bring another paJr along, lt was also learned and lt was time to go to breakfast. What was to be done? Right here the traveling men sot busy. They would search every person in the car j but what they would find that shoe, they said. It was their duty as gn- ! tlemen. How they kept their faces straight Is hard to understand, but they did. and the search went on The shoe was not to be found Then a mock trial was held. Three of the traveling men took the lady s part and two of th' r number said it served her right. A wo- j man who could afford six berths should l more than one pair of shoes, was another argument put forth, but dur- j Ing all this time the lady In the rase was shoeless, and when she silently made her way Into the dining car and took her place at the first table sh reached, there was something awfully llk a giggle from tb other end of th" I car where the knights of the grip sat. "In due course of time the conductor. the porter and the brakesman had been Informed that Miss Importance would 6ue the company unless the shoe ims found or another pair provided before Salt Lake was reached. That sh-meant sh-meant business there was not a doubt. And thus lt happened that the pro- Ij prietor "f B small shoe store In one of the mountain towns received the fol-lowing fol-lowing message. " 'Send pair of lady's best No. 3, B last, shoes to train No 5 Collect from conductor of sleeping car ' "The shoes were there on time, and what seemed most remarkable, they were a perfect fit. The missing sho- j was found later In the day. safely hid-den hid-den In an old bachelor's overcoat pock-et. pock-et. where lt had been pla. ed by ono of the drummers. It might also be added that the man who found lt had seen the ; shoe before, but no one could prove It, and the pretty woman and the five trav-ellng trav-ellng men were all claiming a victory when Ugden was reached "