The Gold Leaf

GOV. PECK'S LATEST.
A GOOD STORY ON HIS SON.
George's Confidence in the Governor Put to a Severe Strain-He Found a Woman's Clothes in the Room Where He Went to Look For His Father.
[Chicago Record.]
Says Governor Peck, of Wisconsin :
"My son George had a funny experience yesterday. You see, I ran down from Madison rather unexpectedly in the morning, having certain official business to attend to in Milwaukee. That morning a friend meets my son on the street.
"George," says he, "have you seen the Governor to-day?"
"No," says George; "is he in the city?"
"Yes, I saw him an hour or so ago."
"I wonder where he's putting up?" asks George.
"At the Pfister, I believe," says the friend.
"So George headed straight for the Hotel Pfister, for he had a good deal to tell me-the campaign is at its height, you know. Well, when he got to the Pfister he asked one of the clerks: "Is the Governor here?" The clerk said he was.
"Wonder where I can find him?" asked George.
"I think he has gone up to his room," said the clerk.
"Gee whillikins!" thought George, "the governor is putting on a heap of style to come down here to Milwaukee for one day and put up in such grand style."
Then he said to the clerk : "What's the number of his room?"
The clerk answered "Parlors A and B," and then George whistled and wondered still more what it all meant.
"Well, he rode up in the elevator and found his way to parlor A. He stood not upon the formality of knocking, but just opened the door and walked in. He was surprised to see articles of feminine wearing apparel upon the bed. What did it mean? Was this, indeed, parlor A? Yes; there could be no mistake about that.
"My son never before doubted or mistrusted me. But at that moment for the first time in his life it dawned and glimmered upon him that perhaps -oh, harrowing thought! his father was not the uncrowned saint he was cracked up to be! A cold sweat broke out upon his brow, and he felt a strange sensation of faintness in the pit of his stomach.
"I will go back," thought he. I can hear people in the next room. I will not humiliate myself and my father by investigating this affair further."
He turned to go, but just then a lady came from the adjoining room. She was startled at the appearance of a stranger.
"Sir," she said, loftily, and drew herself up, as an indignant woman does.
"Beg your pardon, ma'am," says my son, civilly, "but there is evidently some mistake. I am looking for the Governor; I was told I should find him here."
"He is here," replied the lady.
"Great heavens!" ejaculated my son.
"Yes, I'm here," said a masculine voice, and with that a man followed the lady from the next room. It was Maj. Bill Upham.
"Hullo, major!"
"Hullo, George!"
Then followed explanations, and the major introduced his wife, and there was a great laugh over the confusion which had been occasioned by that hotel clerk's supposition that when my son asked for the Governor-that's me-he wanted to see the fellow who expects to be Governor-and that's Upham.
"Father," says George to me later in the day, "my confidence in you got a terrible shock this morning. You'll have to be terribly good to me for a long time to make amends for what I suffered while I stood in that doorway and pondered upon the possibilities."