Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1900 — How Mathews Paw[?]ed a Spoon. [ARTICLE]

How Mathews Paw[?]ed a Spoon.

Charles Mathews was well known among his friends and admirers for his remarkable powers of rapid imitation and characterization. He was invited once, with his manager and two others, to dine with a citizen, who, thongh be carried on-a pawnbrokering business, was an amusing fellow. It seems be kept but one assistant, and, during the dinner hour, the host was called out of the dining parlor, at the back of the shop, to attend a customer. Mathews, altering his hair, turning up bis collar and putting on another man’s hat—of course with suitable change of countenance—took a large silver gravy-spoon from the table, ran into the street, and entering one of the little boxes that universally shield one customer from another at pawnbrokers’ counters pledged to his unsuspecting host his own piece of plate, and returned to his place at table as the pawnbroker re-entered the room, unconscious of the Joke.