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Show THE CURIOUS WERE SOAKED. " 'Bout time for him to come out" In the cold, gray drixsle of yesterday -morning, a party of shivering men and boys stood on the pier at the foot of East One Hundred and Sixteenth street peering peer-ing out into the foggy waste of waters in the East river. It wae 6:30 o'clock and a numerous crowd had gathered to see an alleged election elec-tion bet paid. James W. O'Reilly, master of the dock, was reported to have made an election wager with Herman J. Week-hoff Week-hoff of 2048 Seventh avenue, that if Roosevelt Roose-velt won the election be would swim the East river from the foot of One Hundred and Sixteenth street to Randall's island and back. Minute after minute slipped away. An hour and then two hours. The cold mom- I ing light crept over Astoria, and the breakfast bells rang cheerily In the boarding-houses, but no swimmer had appeared. After breakfast more persons arrived and stood around in the rain, getting wetter and wetter. Suddenly the door of the pier house opened and Mr. O'Reilly, who lives over the dock, came out fully dressed and carrying car-rying an umbrella He looked surprised. Someone tried to cheer faintly. Mr. O'Reilly looked at his watch and sarted up the street "Ain't yer goin' ter do It?" asked someone. some-one. "Do what?" he asked. 'Tm going to breakfast" "Ooln' ter swim it?" "Oh, why, no; of course not That was somebody's Joke. I never made such a orasy bet as that in my lite." John Ashton. an old man, now lies erit-Icallv erit-Icallv ill as a result of exposure while waiting for the swim to take place. New Tork World. |