The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-05-26
How One Was Brought to Grief.

Going out to Cambridge, the other
day on the Fitchburg Railroad, saw
modest looking woman enter the car
accompanied by couple of girls, appar-
emily her daughters. They were of the
common, Daisy Miller type, not at all
wicked but excessively silly and Argus
eyed for admiration. Soon they hooked
a pair of guided Harvard youths who
to eye their victims over. By the time
people were in the full tide of glorious
Irritation, notwithstanding that the poor
mother tried her best to stem the food.
As the train slowed up the women
showed signs of departing and the young
men Immediately got up and went out
on the platform. By this time the whole
car had become interested in the scene.
As the girls got off, the two mashers
raised their hats, smiled from ear to ear
and delivered the Harvard bow, feat
of contortion which must be seen to be
appreciated. But as the younger cub
slowly came up to the perpendicular the
old lady gently lifted him by the ear,
and, with sweet smile, handed him ten
derly as Jug of molasses on to the train.
The maneuver was effected without a
word from any of the parties. Only
when the boys re-entered our car, blush
ing deeply, there was smile along the
aisle. The conductor coughed uneasily;
three or four of the passengers echoed
it; man in the corner remarked audibly
that he didn't know as Jesse Pomeroy,
the child killer, had been let out agin,"
and Professor Ko-kun-ho took off his
iron clad spectacles and said in choicest
oolong, "Melican boy muchee cheeky all
samee one foolee" The boys we're very
young in the business of captivation and
kept extremely quiet until a brakeman
poked in his head and sung out, "Cam-
burridge." Most of us got off there,
but the two youths pretended they were
going further, until the train began to
move, when they hastily jumped from
the front platform and ran up the steps
of the depot, disappointing an enthusias-
tic crowd, who wanted to give them an
ovation. The scene on the platform,
minus the ear pulling, was complete
and perfect ''mash." A young man,
proud of his store clothes, stares at q
young woman till she grins at him, when
he grins back; perhaps they exchange a
little nonsense; then they bow and
part, and there usually is the end. of it.
The youth goes off to tell other equally
talented dummies of the conquest he has
made; and the girl confides to her chums
how perfectly splendid feller" firted
with her Occasionally the mash and
Irritation culminate in the perfectly
splendid joke narrated in this letter.
But that is the exception, not the rule.
Ordinarily it is merely an affinity of
vacuums. Hence the Henry James lit
erature and much ugly comment from
ignorant foreigners on the forwardness
of American girls, who have no thought
of being immodest or anything but en-
joying good time. On the part of the
male player think the game is not so
innocent, and doubt if any firt of that
sex would care to see his wife or sister
indulging in it. Regarded in its inno-
cent aspect, the fun of grinning and be-
ing grinned at must be as delightful as
writing love letters to ones self and pay
ing the postage.-Letter in Detroit Free
Press.