ce, he was relegated to the dubious distinction of
an oddity to whom you would be pleased to introduce your friends if you
had only a satisfactory account of his antecedents.

He was cheerful, startling, ready and adroit.

Until betrayed by his brief but effectual familiarities, it was a
curious experience to remark the approach of this singular being and
wonder at the appraising suggestion in his speculative glance.

Presently you decided that it was the intention of this young man to
address you, and, unconsciously, you accorded him the opportunity, only
to be scandalized the moment afterward by the query, altogether
incongruous in such a promising aspect:

"Any old clothes to-day?"

And you passed on, chagrined and wondering.

For a number of years, while his auditors paused in an attempt to
disentangle the Semite from the Celt, there was scarcely a day in which
he had not subjected himself to the more or less pronounced hazards of
rebuff incident to his invariable query, and there were few citizens of
the sterner sex whom he had not thus addressed.

Apparently no consideration restrained him.

None was too dignified, none sufficiently austere to escape his
solicitation; and while, as a rule, he waited until the object of his
regard came to a standstill, he had been known to approach diagonally,
and, at the point of incidence, presenting his query, pass on with a
glance of impassive impersonality when it was evident that his overtures
were futile or worse.

When successful in his forays, he would convey the results of his
efforts to his father, who, after getting the garments thus secured in a
condition of fictitious newness, displayed them in front of his
establishment, marked with prices which, as he explained to those unwary
enough to venture within the radius of his personality, brought him as
near to nervous prostration as was possible for the parent of such
inconsequent offspring.

However, no matter what the rewards of such industry, it must not be
imagined that its disabilities did not insist upon due recognition and
ugly ravel, and that such shred and fibre did not obtrude their
unwelcome appeals for repair upon their central figure.

Shrewd, intelligent, persistent, he soon discovered that the very
qualities which made him successful in his calling rendered him
obnoxious to those who were unable to harmonize his promise with his
condition.

However, like the majority of his countrymen, outsid