[LM_NET] HIT: Man in the middle story

[Patricia Lundquist <PLundquist@STNY.RR.COM>]

Thank you all for your suggestions. It turns out that it is not an O 
Henry story at all but an urban legend.

Janice Pellagrino told me:
It is a short story called "The Man in the Middle" in the book More 
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz.  Schwartz is not 
the author of the story.  His endnotes indicate that the story is an 
urban legend type story told in NY, London, Paris (cities w/ 
subways)...  The note states that in the early 1900's the same story 
was told about a horse-drawn bus in NY....

Garth Rogers sent me this link to the story on Snopes.com:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/subway.asp

And Terry Thomas in Venezuela sent me the plot summary of a similar 
story I think I would like to read, but it isn't my teacher's story:

My 7th graders are reading an O. Henry story about a marshal and a
prisoner on a train. They are handcuffed together and one of them chats
with a lady he knows. At the end it is revealed that the one chatting 
with
the lady is the criminal (we are led to believe he is the marshal, which
is a surprise to her). There is no dead man in the middle, though. This
story is called "Hearts and Hands"

Thank you all for helping me out here.

Patricia Lundquist, SLMS
Panama Central School
Panama, NY 14767
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