Judge — January 28, 1922 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“I go, uncle, in quest of giants and dragons!” “Prithee well, nephew. particular Siberian mink had gathered about it the presumption of complicity in larceny. This mink probably was a stolen mink and, being a lawyer, John Peters had a good many sup- pressed complexes which created a seven-devil lust for crime. The lust to be an accomplice after the fact in the theft of a Siberian mink rose in John Peters’s conscience, came out of its lair and snapped its chain. Said he “What do I want with a Siberian mink?” Said the tall one, “A fur for your wife; swell, elegant fur.” And the short one, beckoning John Peters still further back into the gloom of the hallway, lifted the corner of the lid of the box. There it lay, black and grim and tempting, a regular Siberian mink. If it had been striped, or polka-dotted, or red, white and blue, it would still have been to the guile- less eyes of John Peters a regular Siberian mink. He shook his head and asked with rare self-control: “Well, boys, what is the swell, ele- gant price of this swell, elegant Siberian mink?” They showed him the tag, which read ninety dollars. “Let you have it for half. Give us forty dollars and it’s yours.” “Haven't got no forty dollars. I can't buy your old Siberian mink.” But the tall one and the short one knew better, and the bargain raged for five minutes—five fierce, clashing minutes—and John Peters walked off with the long, low, rakish-looking box containing the romantic Siberian mink under his arm Proudly he shot up the elevator to his apartment and proudly he spread the Siberian mink, the proof of his bargaining prowess, before Mrs. Peters. Lamech was no prouder before Adah and Zillah after slaying his rival than was John Peters before his wife. Probably Adah and Zilloh sniffed in their days as Mrs Seek ye well our doughty landlord!’ John Peters sniffed that night Not that she knew anything more about a Siberian mink than John Peters. But she did know John Peters, and when he had told her how he had come by it, the more she had a fierce distrust of the tall one and the short one. She had seen that trio working many times before and oft—the tall one, the short one, and the easy one—and John Peters was always the easy one. She indicated rather broadly that she would not be caught dead with a Siberian mink, that they had not been wearing Siberian minks for five years, and that, anyway, this was not a Siberian mink. John Peters coun- tered by indicating that if he had bought it at Marshall Field's, or Macy’s, or Jordan Marsh's, or Wood- ward & Lothrop's, or John Taylor's, she would have worn it even if she was going to be hanged, and proud of it; but just because he had got it at a bargain, and she knew that it did not cost much, her stink- ing pride had persuaded her that it was no good. How could a man walk in the glorious and buoy- ant paths of high ro- mance who had a wife with low and _ sordid ideas that checkmated him whenever he hit the primrose path? Before glooming to bed, John Peters made this com- promise. He would go with Mrs. Peters the next morning to the fur- rier in Fifty-ninth Street and get the Si- berian mink identified, certified, and duly quali fied to move in good Peters carrying proudly a long, low, rakish-looking box, containing the symbol of romance—the black Si- berian mink. It was a proud moment for John Peters, and they sailed into Fifty-ninth Street like an army with banners. A policeman looked suspi- ciously at the box, which gave John Peters a real thrill All policemen these days look at all boxes suspici- ously. But this was well past the holidays, and any box was liable to wet a baleful eye from any policeman. Yet, strangely, this policeman fol- lowed Mr. and Mrs. John Peters Perhaps incidentally, perhaps casually, but John Peters felt that he was fol- lowing intentionally! Quite too casu ally in his mind John Peters went over the punishment which would be alloted to one who is guilty of larceny by complicity after the fact, and he wondered if it would include disbar- ment. But at least it would be an adventure. Into the fur store the Peters caval- cade went, Mr. and Mrs. Peters and the encaged family Siberian mink The policeman stopped outside, not palpably, of course; but he did stop at the fruit stand next door. Peters opened the box, flaunted the neck- piece, and said to the furrier: “Joe, what is that?” “Yes, Mr. Kartof,” said the wife, “tell this man what that is.” Peters could not restrain a guilty backward glance at the policeman Kartof saw it. The policeman out- side by the fruit stand was munching an English walnut. Kartof looked at the fur. “You want to know the truth, I sup- pose?” societ ; ¥ “Too many robberies these days to carry a good So the next morning the Peterses moved out of the apartment, John it. watch—just bought a nickel one for a dollar.” (“Seems to me you got robbed when you bought