The

The Welcome back, everyone to one thousand one classic short stories and tales.

This is your host, John Haggardorn.

Today, two O'Henry's stories from his book Sixes and Sevens.

The first is called The Sludes.

And now our story.

In the big city, a man will disappear with the suddenness and completeness of the flame of a candle that is blown out.

All the agencies of inquisition, the hounds of the trail, the sloughs of the city's labyrinths, the closet detectives of theory and induction, will be invoked to the search.

Most often a man's face will be seen no more.

Sometimes he will reappear in Sheboygan or in the

wilds of Terre Haute, calling himself one of the synonyms of Smith and without memory of events

up to a certain time, including his grocer's bill. Sometimes it will be found after dragging

the rivers and polling the restaurants to see if he may be waiting for a well-done sirline

that he has moved next door.

This snuffing out of a human being like the erasure of a chalk man from a blackboard

is one of the most impressive themes in dramaturgy.

The case of Mary Snyder, in point, should not be without interest.

A man of middle age, of the name of Meeks, came from the west to New York to find his sister,

Mrs. Mary Snyder, a widow, aged 52, who had been living for a year in a tenement house

in a crowded neighborhood. At her address, he was told that Mary Snyder had moved

away longer than a month before. No one could tell him her new address. On coming out, Mr. Meeks addressed

a policeman who was standing on the corner and explained his dilemma. My sister is very poor,

...