e of those who
constituted the Manhattan police force and provided the country with
justices of the peace, this young man was a philosopher.

He could always provide a silver lining for a cloud as long as it was
plausible to do so, and when he had exhausted his genial resources, he
looked at facts squarely.

On this basis he decided, finally, that his was a case of "bricks
without straw," enthusiasm minus its basis, an unhappy conclusion which
was emphasized by his patient attempts to soften his angularities with
the advantages provided by a night school.

Unfortunately, a business man, with an eye to the bizarre, to whom
Dennis had presented some of his characteristic enterprises, had put the
young Irishman in the way of securing a biography of the Hebrew premier,
whom he provided with such an absurd travesty of likeness, and the "ole
clo' merchant" was so impressed by the resolution and dexterity of the
celebrated statesman, that he became, from that moment, the prey of a
consuming ambition whose direction he could not determine.

He grew positive daily, however, that, in view of these stimulating
aspirations, he could no longer pursue his embarrassing avocation.

On the basis, therefore, that the greater the pent the more pronounced
the explosion, the young merchant developed a dangerous readiness to
embrace the first opportunity that presented herself in the hope that
the caress would be returned.

Presently, the determination to exchange his present humiliations for
future uncertainties advanced him to the point where he informed his
father of his decision, and the latter immediately succumbed to a
collapse which was Hebraic in its despair and entirely Celtic in its
manifestation.

When this irate parent realized, at last, that this invaluable arm of
his business could not be diverted from its purpose, with cruel celerity
he cut off his son from all further consideration and forbade him the
premises.

With the previous week's salary in his pocket, which, fortunately, had
been undisturbed, Dennis Muldoon, on the day succeeding this unhappy
interview with his sire, set out for New York City with his few
belongings condensed, with campaigning foresight, in a satchel whose
size and appearance would scarcely inspire the confidence man to claim
previous acquaintance with its owner in order to investigate its
contents later.

In this manner protected from the insinuating blandishments of the
"buncoes," and gui