Five Minutes to Twelve

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A messenger boy sauntering along the street, reading a novel, happens to look up and see that it is but five minutes to twelve, and realizing that he has but five minutes in which to get his lunch, he turns and makes a dash for the nearest pie stand. A pedestrian, thinking there is something up when he sees a messenger boy actually running, gives chase, as also a policeman and a street-sweeper. Two men are moving a large painting from a store; this the boy clears at a leap, and as the astonished bearers bring the painting to the perpendicular the others dash through it. The boy also leaps over a baker who is coming up out of a cellar with a pan of flour, but his pursuers get the full contents over them. A bridal party is coming out of a coach and the boy and his pursuers dash through their midst and all join in the chase. Fast and furious the chase continues until the messenger boy reaches the pie stand, where he buys a large pie and begins to devour it, while his disgusted pursuers shake their fists and sheepishly disperse.