The Dreamer of the Lodging House

J. Clark, a laborer, who was locked up Saturday night for disorderly conduct, walked away from the municipal court yesterday afternoon so pleased with himself and the world in general that he hardly knew what to do with himself. Clark went to sleep in the office of the N. E. lodging house Saturday evening and, when the clerk told him to either get a room or go out, Clark struck him with a chair. Then he relapsed into a dreamy mood, to be awakened by Officer Barbee. Clark drowsily asked what was the trouble, and the officer, to make him come along, said that there was a dead woman in the house. Clark accompanied Barbee to the station, where he was locked up. When Clark came to himself Sunday, he collected his scattered senses and suddenly thought of that dead woman, and in some inexplicable manner, he associated a stabbing affair with the case. Was he arrested for murder? That was the thought that puzzled him, and when he was taken into the municipal court and fully realized that City Attorney Fortson was making out a complaint against him, he craned his neck and strained his eyes to see the words that were being put on the paper. The complaint charged him with disorderly conduct, and when he was called to plead to the charge he stood up and said that all he knew of the matter was that some one said a woman had been stabbed. The officer then explained the 'dead woman' part of the story, and the prosecuting witness said he hoped the court would be lenient with Clark, as he had been in jail over Sunday. Clark commenced to feel relieved when he realized that he had not done anything desperate, and was as pleased as a boy with a toy when the judge dismissed the case.