man of nearly eighty, drew himself well into his seat, as
though he feared Mallard in passing along the aisle might brush
against him.

[Illustration: HE MAY OR MAY NOT KEEP FAITH, BUT YOU CAN BET HE
ALWAYS KEEPS A SCRAP-BOOK.]

The only publication in America that carried a transcript of
Congressman Mallard's remarks on this occasion was the Congressional
Record.

At the next day's session Congressman Mallard's seat was vacant; the
next day likewise, and the next it was vacant. It was rumoured that he
had left Washington, his exact whereabouts being unknown. However, no
one in Washington, so far as was known, in speaking of his
disappearance, mentioned him by name. One man addressing another would
merely say that he understood a certain person had left town or that
he understood a certain person was still missing from town; the second
man in all likelihood would merely nod understandingly and then by
tacit agreement the subject would be changed.

Just outside one of the lunch rooms in the Union Station at St. Louis
late one night in the latter part of January an altercation occurred
between two men. One was a tall, distinguished-looking man of middle
age. The other was a railroad employe--a sweeper and cleaner.

It seemed that the tall man, coming out of the lunch room, and
carrying a travelling bag and a cane, stumbled over the broom which
the sweeper was using on the floor just beyond the doorway. The
traveller, who appeared to have but poor control over his temper, or
rather no control at all over it, accused the station hand of
carelessness and cursed him. The station hand made an indignant and
impertinent denial. At that the other flung down his bag, swung aloft
his heavy walking stick and struck the sweeper across the head with
force sufficient to lay open the victim's scalp in a two-inch gash,
which bled freely.

For once a policeman was on the spot when trouble occurred. This
particular policeman was passing through the train shed and he saw
the blow delivered. He ran up and, to be on the safe side, put both
men under technical arrest. The sweeper, who had been bowled over by
the clout he had got, made a charge of unprovoked assault against the
stranger; the latter expressed a blasphemous regret that he had not
succeeded in cracking the sweeper's skull. He appeared to be in a
highly nervous, highly irritable state. At any rate such was the
interpretation which the patrolman put upon his aggressive