The Yeah. Welcome back everyone. The one1 Classic Short Stories and Tales.

This is your host, John Hagadorn.

Today, a story from O Henry, which was written at the prime of his popularity and power.

The story is called A Ruler of Men. This very much characteristic O'Henry story is an amusing story that was published in everybody's magazine in August of 1906.

And now, a Ruler of Men. of 1906, and now a ruler of men by O Henry.

I walked the streets of the city of insolence,

thirsting for the sight of a stranger face.

For the city is a desert of familiar types as thick and alike as the grains

and a sandstorm and you grow to hate them as you do a friend who is always by you or

one of your own kin. And my desire was granted, for I saw near a corner of

Broadway and 29th Street, a little plaques and haired man with a face like a scaly bark hickory nut, selling to a fast gathering crowd a tool that

homogeneously proclaimed itself a can opener, a screwdriver, a button hook, a nail vial,

a shoehorn, a watchguard, a potato peeler, and an ornament to any gentleman's key ring.

And then a stall fed cop shoved himself through the congregation of customers. The vendor, plainly used to having

his seasons of trade thus abruptly curtailed, closed his satchel and slipped like a weasel

through the opposite segment of the circle. The crowd scurried aimlessly away like ants from a disturbed crumb.

The cop, suddenly becoming oblivious of the earth and its inhabitants, stood still,

swell in his bulk and putting his club to an intricate

drill of twirls. I hurried after Kansas Bill Bowers and caught him by an arm.

Without his looking at me or slowing his pace I found a five dollar bill

crumpled neatly into my hand. I wouldn't have thought, Kansas Bill, I said, that

you'd hold an old friend that cheap.

...