Stranger's Story Hits Irish Hearts

A sob story featuring large amounts of Irish whiskey and Irish blood won $5 for a rag-clad "merchant seaman." The donors were two soft-hearted Wigglesworthy residents, Frank Ensign '52 and Richard Craven '52, who admitted to Yard cops yesterday that they were completely taken in by the confidence man's tale of woe.

The tattered stranger appeared at the sophomores' door, claiming that he was "a poor merchant seaman off the S.S. Flamingo" who had gotten drunk on pay day and had been robbed of all he had in the world. His spiel ended with an appeal to the open-mouthed listeners to have a warm spot in their hearts for "a poor Irishman who had a wee bit too much to drink."

This was evidently the right tack Craven, who boasts "a wee bit of Irish blood," forked over three dollars, and Ensign followed up with two. The stranger promised to return the money on the 21st, when he would rejoin the Flamingo in Brooklyn.

University police jolted the pair with the information that the merchant seaman has been stranded from the Flamingo since 1930.