How often have I seen these old men--the children of Gottlieb's brain--sitting patiently and silently on the streets! And how often have they paid us handsome fees to get them out of the "jug"! In this catalogue of clients I must not forget "Banana Anna," who recently, I am sad to say, met her Waterloo.

Anna was a lady so peculiarly gifted by the Almighty that she was able at will to simulate a very severe physical mishap.

I shall not describe with any greater degree of particularity what her precise affliction was, save to say that if genuine it would have entitled her to the sympathy and generosity of mankind.

It was the kind of thing that might easily result from a fall; but which, in fact, under ordinary circumstances gave her no inconvenience whatever.
Anna would conceal a bit of banana peel in her muff and, dropping in upon a station platform, would put her heel upon it and fall prostrate, uttering a groan of pain.

The guard would come hastily to her assistance and find, to his horror, a woman with every mark of respectability suffering terrible agony from a condition obviously the result of a fall caused by a bit of banana skin carelessly left lying upon the premises.