BABY SPOILED IT ALL.
Case of Mistaken Identity Loses
Young Man a Companion.
A young man and woman were seated together in the waiting room of the Union depot last night. They had never met before, but were getting along famously when a little child about 3 years old emerged from the crowd. At first the child looked lost and bewildered, but seeing the young man her face brightened. She ran toward him, threw herself in his lap and called him "Papa." The young woman grew indignant.
"You told me you were not --"
"But I insist I never saw this child before," the young man interrupted.
"You need not tell me," said the young woman, with all the dignity and hauteur possible. "You are just a common masher. I thought I liked you, and that you would be pleasant company on my trip, but I hate you so now."
It was useless for the young man to attempt to further explain. The child had her arms about his neck and was calling him "Papa."
"I guess I will take this child to the information bureau," the young man announced, for the benefit of the young woman.
"No, that story does not go here," said Pi Howell, the "ask me" man. "That kid is probably yours, and I have all the kids I want. You cannot leave the child with me."
While the argument was waxing warm a woman rushed frantically to the information window.
"I have lost my baby," she shouted. Then seeing the child in the arms of a strange man she snatched it to her.
"I found papa," the child said.
Then the woman took a second look at the embarrassed young man.
"Well, you do look something like my husband," she said. "you see, my husband is a traveling man, and it has been a long time since 'Baby' saw him. I left her in a seat a few minutes ago and when I returned she was gone. She mistook you for my husband."
"Say, there is a young woman -- a very angry young woman here in the depot that I want you to explain this affair to," the man said. But the young woman could not be found.
