Show I 1 MR SORROWS BOWSER HE I 1 his office boy meets with a fatal accident g by M QUAD g 1921 by mcclure newspaper syndicate sir mr bowser came home to dinner ft ith a look of sorrow on his face mrs bowser noticed it the first thing but thinking he had a slight case cage of the colic she did not say any thing at the dinner table she likewise noticed that he had tears in his eyes at times and she intended when the meal was nias finished to recommend tome eye water nater to him when they had retired to the sitting room and mr bowser had sat down and sighed alx six or sei seven en times mrs bon bowser ser kindly inquired dear arent you feeling as veil nell as usual this evening I 1 iso no I 1 in not was his reply I 1 have been through a strenuous day ahat I 1 have hae seen today will forever cling to ray my memory even een e en it I 1 should live a thouy ind 3 ears I 1 then you have seen something the she asked 1 I have mrs bowser boser I 1 have stood face ace to face with NOW death and it avns the death of ane ne very near to me did the roof of your office tall fall in dont be silly my office boy Is dead one moment h he was alive alle aad and in bounding spirits the next moment he m was as a dead boy why that surely was inas a bad aeck dent said MM bowser bonser you told tue me about a month ago that you had changed your bos s NN vas as this the new boy it was ills his name was nero fits fitz simmons and he had been with me just a month the old boy who had been with me about five sears became dissatisfied with his wages lie ile turned to painting he ile got so he could paint a pig pen and so be he joined fhe the painters ere union they went va ou a strike a few days ago tor for eight hours bours a day five davs dabs in a arl week and seven dollars a day and the boy shook fiands with me rae and departed Ys yes this was uns the new dew boy lie ile was a good goodr boy as all office be bivs s are am he ile carried off my gold cold pen carried off my postage stamps and picked up any loose change lying aboudi but he did so with innocent Int intent erit lie ile believed that things were not evenly divided up lie ile believed bellei ed that lie had a right to have my property and so he tried to acquire it IL poor nero I 1 shall I 1 ever find another anther like him but about his ills death I 1 queried mrs bowser my office Is on the eighth floor of a skyscraper you know there were some men working on the sidewalk and nero leaned out of the u to watch them they saw him and asked ahlm some questions As near as I 1 could make out his answer was that they might go to the devil nero was a bit emphatic in his language but he dida t mean anything by it ills heart was as innocent as that of a lion one of the men threatened to punch neros licad and the innocent boy leaned far out of the window to make faces and chake his fist he ile leaned too far I 1 wa about to reprimand him when nhen he lell fell alas poor nero tell fell to his ills death I 1 he struck on the men and then bound alast poor nero fell to his di death ath ed to the walk and he had breathed his last before I 1 could get down to him I 1 lifted up hla his head and talked to him in my usual fatherly way but his soul had fled every bone jn n his body was broken tears sprang to my eyes at once and I 1 was wiping them away when one of the workmen told ine that nero had furnished them with the excuse they wanted for high cr er wages it an office boy was unis to tall fall on their heads from an eighth story window krin dow they must have hae ha e at least tour four dollars more a day there was an inquest there anaed mrs bowser yea yta certainly I 1 had to attend the inquest and give my testimony I 1 wept while giving it and the coroner paid roe me tor for IL it he ire said that a noble heart beat in my breast yes mr bowber dom her you arc are tery ery s em emotional 0 did the boy have lime parents I 1 he ile had bad a father and a mother and also a sister and a brother it devolved upon me to convey his mort marfil d remains to bis his home it Is needless to say that I 1 wept most of the time while I 1 was conT conveying eying one moment bevi was as sass log int the men on the sidewalk below and nd the next he was wu amone them ly 11 ins ing dead such Is the fate of man office boys I 1 1 inell ell you got there said mrs bowser after giving mr bowser boser time to wipe ipe his ills weeping eyes again res yes at last I 1 gothere got there and I 1 found the family eating a late lunch I 1 had some sorrowful news for them mrs BoNN bowser ser and I 1 hardly knew how to communicate it when they saw the tears in my eyes and my chin trem bling at once jumped to the con elusion that nero had robbed me of tea ten thousand dollars worth north of liberty bonds and gone off to palm beach tor for a vacation they seemed greatly relieved when nhen I 1 told them to the contrary the only thing that had happened to the boy was nas his death they did not take tale the news so kindly as I 1 hoped they would in tact fact they blamed me a good deal fc aej it een men when nhen I 1 stood before them with tears in my ebes they stuck to it that I 1 ought to have pulled him back out of the window by the hair of his ills head they talked of suing me for fifty thousand dollars damages IN hy they must be a hard hearted faill I 1 exclaimed mrs bowser bouser yes I 1 should judge they were they had a dispute as to who mho should pay the undertaker and they had another as to which cemetery he should be burled buried in what seemed to them to be the worst thing about iti it u was as the fact that they were mere all going to coney island or some other place that ee eie 71 0 A they were fighting about hia his Burl burial alv ning and alid my bringing home bome the body of nero knocked a hole in their program they asked me about the price of the coffin and when nhen I 1 replied that for about a hundred dollars they could get one to fit nero they almost came to blows blos oer it it was mas their unanimous idea that about thirty dollars was as all they filley ought to pay they argued they were not to blame for neros death and that if he was nas idiot enough to take chances any old way of getting mm into the ground was good enough I 1 NN what bat a family III I 1 said mrs bowser yes I 1 know there were any such people in this world poor neros body was waiting outside and they were fighting about his burial when they were not jawing cawing Ja wing each other they were threatening me with a suit for damages but will there be any suit no I 1 think not we effected a compromise about that what sort of a compromise well I 1 lent tent the father 25 and he will probably neer pay it it nero had overdrawn his wages about 10 but I 1 dian t say a thing about that thal I 1 handed over the 25 and got out but the father and the brother may come here this evening to borrow 25 more and I 1 think I 1 had better go to bed and you can say to them if they come that I 1 have gone out of town to attend a very important meeting you can come to bed when you like the father and brother came but u they did not see mr bowser bonser he ile had gone to bed m with ith tears in his ills eyes and mrs doin bowser ser found them rolling down his cheeks as he slept poor nero poor mr vr bowser I 1 |