The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-06-17
A TRUE HEROINE.

"This would be jolly, Tom, if it
wasn't for that miserable shanty Just
under our window, and those Internally
noisy urchins across the street, and"
"Don't expect, my dear boy, to Sc
cure all the beatitudes ct rental of 800
per MONTH"
"And if you wasn't so everlastingly
bearish, and"
What more, my dear fellow Out
with it."
Sand if that shy daughter of the
landlady wasn't so frightfully ugly"
Well postscripted, Jack l knew
all along where the chief objection lay"
Upon my soul. Tom, 1 believe you
rented therooms just because you thought
hep looks would annoy me.
you compliment me undeservedly,
my dear boy. had not that much fore
cast But, now that you have suggested
1t, / think [ will adopt q new method of
torturing you. The great Aristotle i'm
bued his followers with philosophy
while strOlling about the groves and
thoroughfares of Athens. Why should
not initiate the master of the peripa-
Eetic school, and make San Francisco
lodgings a means of intoxicating moral
precepts upon your mind ?"
Good enough, Tom, But not such
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS lessons, if
you please"
"All wholesome instruction, my dear
Jack, is distasteful to the beginner.
You will relish it more as you advance.
"Never, Tom, never, if Miss Corbin
is an average specimen OF the studies
proposed in your new system of object
teaching"
Don't speak so confidently, my dear
boy. The future is a great gainsayer of
thoughtless utterances. But, to inaug-
urate the course, the school will please
come to order. First class in moral phi
losophy, attention !"
Ready, sir"
"Why have you seen fit to speak of
the landlady's daughter as drawback
to the iollity of our present location ?"
Because she is SO terrifcally hideous,
and because"
mo generalities, sir. Answer me
categorically. Exactness of definition
was the great point for which Socrates
contended. She has lovely hair--brown,
sleek and tastefully arranged? ?"
Eyes"
blue eyes of singular brilliancy and
gentleness ?"
Eyes"
Fine eyebrows and lashes, and
beautiful mouth and teethP"
eyes,"
can elegant fgure-girlish, but SYM
metrical and we'll developed-and ad-
mirable hands and feet?"
eyes"
Taste in dress, grace in bearing, and
prepossessing voice and manner 2"
Eyes"
"Then go tol If the total of these
be not loneliness, the world is decep-
Eion.'
''But, Tom, did you ever see any one
80 fearfully pockmarkedP"
" 1t put to my mettle, Jack, you know
never yielded the superlative to living
man, Miss Corbin's features have sea-
shell smoothness--a very gloss of finish
compared with faces L have seen. /
have beheld countenances that resembled
a colander-yea, that were engrailed
and corrugated like mass of conglom-
crate, But, after all, it is only skin
deep. If the nature within be loneliness,
these surface blemishes may become as
attractive to the eye as piece of orna-
mental fret-work."
81 grant you, Tom, that Miss Corbin
is homely enough to afford to be good"
Perhaps she is good enough to af-
ford to be homely. AT any rate, you
were not born the censor of her or any
body else's appearance. The face you
dislike may be comedy to others and to
the Creator. And, if not, remember
my dear boy, that ugliness has a license
to exist in this world as we'll as beauty"
And L have a right to express my
opinion of it."
And may have q reason to regret
ever doing so. Thus endeth the first
lesson. The class is dismissed"
Tom was awfully cynical sometimes,
but we were the best of friends. and |
uEed hun just as we'll as though he had
not been twice as old as was, and
crotchety and bald-headed beside.
We had chummed together for years,
and took adjoining rooms in private
residence on Russian Hill. 1t was dur
ing the first weeks occupancy of our
new quarters, while smoking on the
veranda and looking out upon the moon
lit bay, that the foregoing conversation
occurred.
had never seen Tom SO moved by
hook ashe appeared to be by volume he
brought from the library one evening.
He fidgeted, and wiped his bald head so
much, and uttered so many ex lama
tons, that [ finally asked him what he
had come across to agitate him so.
"A most affecting story, my dear
Jack, " he replied, "most affecting"
"It must be, Judging by your man.
ner."
eff it would not disturb you, should
like to read it aloud"
" shall be very glad to listen to it,
Tom. My book is rather dry"
Excuse me if l read it badly. It
was always difficult for me to get through
well with anything that affected me. I
shant even attempt the dialect with
which it abounds."
He cleared his throat, turned himself
IN his chair SO as to face me, and read
SLOWLY IN nervous voice
In one of the outskirts OF Edinburgh.
where the homes of the middle classes
mingled with the novels of the poor that
had formerly occupied the site, lived
family by the name of Compton. The
husband was a builder. Though his
trade was fairly lucrative, the thrifty
wife let her spare rooms to dodgers IN
order to exc out his income
They had an only child, daughter
named Annie, Is years old. Her unusu-
81 beauty rendered her exceedingly at
tractive, but she was everywhere more
beloved for the sweetness Of her dispo.