A Wasted Day by Richard Harding Davis — The Wisest Man on Wall Street Goes to Criminal Court

A Wasted Day by Richard Harding Davis — The Wisest Man on Wall Street Goes to Criminal Court

From LitReading - Classic Short Stories and Timeless Tales by Short Storyverses

August 18, 2026 · 34 min

About this episode

A Wasted Day is a comedic short story about Arnold Thorndike's unexpected experience at a court session.

Arnold Thorndike buys a Correggio before breakfast and can price his own time to the minute. Two hundred dollars of it. So when he stops his car at the Court of General Sessions to say a word for a young stenographer who got drunk, lost five hundred dollars of his employer's money, and is due up for sentence, he figures the errand will run him about a thousand. The court has other ideas. Richard Harding Davis, the most famous reporter of his generation, sets the Wisest Man in Wall Street down on a hard oak chair and leaves him there, unrecognized and unimportant, admitted only because he's "with Mr. Andrews," while the whole sorry parade of the city files past the bench. This is a comedy of manners with a soft heart. If you enjoy well-narrated short stories, check out our many story-telling podcasts at shortstoryverses.com If you enjoyed this story, buy me an e-book! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/donmcdonald or click FOLLOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Short Storyverses

Topics covered

  • comedy of manners
  • courtroom drama
  • short story
  • narration
  • character study

Keywords

  • Richard Harding Davis
  • Arnold Thorndike
  • court
  • stenographer
  • short story

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Apple Podcasts, shortstoryverses.com, Acast

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