Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-09-29

Mr.. PETTINGILL's APPREHENsIoNs
ABOUT THE COMING FAIRS THIS VIM
TER.-"Elenora," said Mr.. Pettingill.
taking his cigar out of his mouth, and
turning up another screw On the parlor
lamp, to shed more light on the subject,
care you one of those women that go
round to fairs and want to have things
their own way, and say they'll be-damned
if it shan't be that way or none"
"Oh, Charles ~ said Mr.. P, looking up
from her work, which was a table-mat for
the next fair, "What can you be thinking
OPP
"Whose little girl are your" asked Mr..
F., thoughtfully.
"Yours," she said, getting ready to cry,
for she thought Pettingill's mind was wan
dering.
"Then why can't you answer reasonable
inquiry"
sob, Charles, because Pm not one of
those persons that say they'll be -, you
know what, if anything isn't done in a
certain way. Inever said such word in
my life"
"But you may have acted it, Elenora,
without saying it. 1t is sad thing that
your sex often wish they may be damned,
and nobody knows anything about it but
themselves. Let me see. You were down
there at the farley Wax Works?"
Eyes, Charles"
sand at the Festival Of All Nations?''
Eyes, Charles.''
land at the Garden Lantern Party. and
the Promenade Concerts, and Church
Fairs, and you never said you would
be-?''
''Charles, dont!"
"And yet," said Mr.. Pettingill, thought
fully, "women have said it. You don't
remember Xantippe, Eleanora? No. She
was before your time; but she said it; nor
Lady Macbeth; but she said it. Many wo-
men have said it to their husbands, who
were much less provoking than Church
Fairs The female mind is peculiarly SEN
sitive and is easily thrown off it's balance
1 have known an angel of robust health
worn to shadow trying to blot out from
the record the quiet interior profanity of a
woman at public gatherings. You would
know cat. if you should see one, Mrs.
Pettingill:"
ooh, yes, Charles" said Mrs. P, getting
near the window, in case he should be
violent enough to need the police.
cat all these gatherings you always see
one, perhaps two, and if heaven has alto
gether withdrawn it's favor, you see six.
They have fierce combats, Elenora. An
undone turkey may be the cause; broken
plate may incite it; the hour for the thing
to commence may bring it on. Some
times a man gets involved in it, and then,
Elenora, [ have seem him look for weeks
as if he had the typhoid fever. I know it
myself, -well: I wrote once that Mrs
Tompkins had the prettiest table in the
fair-room. was ill for long time. One
does not forget such disasters as that. Do
you ever pray, Elenora?'
ooh, Charles, you k1aoa0 do,'' said the
little woman, thinking the time had come
and raising the window an inch OF two.
s'Then pray tonight that you may never
be one of those women that say they will
be - if they don't have their own way
And, while I think of it, pray that YOU
husband may never have to write anything
about fairs,' and Pettingill relapsed into
a deep study, while the little woman stole
off to another room, to tell that "Charles
is acting so strangely tonight, Ma hi
mind seems to be affected" and ''Ma'
commenced heating water for mustard
plaster to put to his head.