Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1911 — TALES OF GOTHAM AND OTHER CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TALES OF GOTHAM AND OTHER CITIES

Sad-Faced Swindler Haunts Funerals

MEW YORK.—A well dressed young II man with downcast eyes has recently been visiting r homes on, ‘ the East Bide that have been visited by death, exchanging sympathy for a square meal. In most cases he left the houses riche} not alone by food but by substantia! gifts of money and clothing. His last experience, though, sent him away somewhat less sympathetic than when he approached the mourners. the husband, or wife and the children of a dead person to observe a period of seven days’ mourning,, in which they sit constantly together in one room. In these seven days, called the “Shiva,” the mourners’ grief is unrestrained save for such comfort as they can draw from their religion. In the midst of this period of mourning there recently appeared at one house a rather good looking young man with infinite pity in his sad brown eyes. Like all other comers at such a time, he waß ushered directly into the room of mourning,

where the widow and orphans sat “I am so sorry, dear madam," lie said, with a slight German accent, to the widow. "I read about your dear husband’s death in the newspapers. It may seem strange to you that i have come here, for you probably do not know me, but I feel almost as if I have a personal interest in your dear husband’s death. As a matter of fact, I bear his very name. Me was my namesake." In the course of the next half hour be managed, in answering the kind questions that were put to him, to disclose the fact" that he had only recently come from Germany, bringing hie wife and several children with him, and that both he and they were at present badly stranded and without more than a few vents for the next meal. Just then a woman among the assembled friends who had been trying to place him looked up with a glance of sudden recognition. . .“You ate your fill at my house when we were sitting ‘Shiva* for my poor husband!” cried the woman. “And you knew how to be his namesake and swindle us out of a memorial gift at that time, didn’t you? And now you come to be somebody else’s namesake, with your wife and seven children, and to try to dupe them, too!” But he had gone.