The Wilmingtonian., 1885-04-18
THE STORY TELLER.
That Young Dentist.


strings of his wife's best bonnet. The cause
of this unwonted quickening of pulse and
limberipg of tongue in the lethargic little
village, hidden to an everlasting repose by |
the railroad that tapped it for neighboring
city, was man | ",Only this and nothing
more;" but he was Young and good looking
and had evidently come to stay, as modest
sign, whereon was painted. "Dr. Graham
@, Stacey, Dentist" bare witness.
If further prook of his staying qualities
had been asked it could have been found in
kindly statement (price ten cents per line)
conspicuously printed in the "Middletown
Plaindealer,n TO the effect that DR.. Graham
G. Stacey, fresh from Philadelphia with
his well-earned laurels had furnished elegant
dental parlors at No. 20 Main street ovei
the barbershop, and would be pleased to
receive the patronage of the public. DIR.
Stacey the editor professed to know and
esteem, taking seven lines of nonpareil for q
statement, and adding postscript relative to
''new and improved instrument" ''teeth
extracted without pain," ''fillings warranted
to last tor three years." ct cetera, st. f."
nMiddletown read, marked. learned and
inwardly dgested the Plaindealer's encomi-
ums, sent out scouts to find where the young
stranger boarded, and finally gave him the
freedom of the city by inviting him through
the agency of perpetually standing committees
to take sitting in each of the churches, to
contribute to foreign and domestic missions
to attend "bazaar,n to have membership
in the circulating library, how devoutly the
young ladies wished there was vacancy in
the choir, and how scornfully they comment
ed on the basses and tenors of tho we'll
meaning old deacons and elders who inno-
Gently praised the Lord from the or gan-loft
No one knew until later that the shapely
throat of the blue-eyed stranger was not
built for singing. His talent for vocalization
resembled the first Napoleon's for dancing;
he could not sing himself, but he set his
associates to warbling-generay in his
praise. Small cause was there for wonder
that he should be the theme of eulogistic
discourse, even in the communities where all
the eligible young men had not taken Horace
Greeley's advice and gone to the land of the
setting sun and rising value of stocks and
real estate. He was tall, he was slender, he
was elegant; his raiment did not bag at the
knees or ''hunch up' in the back; his teetl
were white enough and even enough to sery,
as an advertisement of his profession. his
dark brown hair gracefully outlined th,
smoothest and farest of brows, his mustacht
was love, his mouth was darling; to b,
sure his nose-e iine straight one, by the
way-was rather longer than Apollo Belvi-
dere's but then az Tom, Miss Aurelis
Wintergreen's impertinent young brother,
said, "You can't have too much of good
thing"
''Physical charms and grace are well
enough in their way" says some sensible
and didactic old literary smooth bore, 'but
after all they are but the guards and trap.
pinings of q real man and they conceal
rather than reveal him to u.s."
True enough, old gentleman ! No ont
could have told by looking at one gentle
genial dentist of sweet smiles and deferentia
address that he was equal to the task of act
ing the role of guide philosopher and friend
with IT'D 1suspioi0n 81 sentiment thrown IN, I,
twenty maidens, more or less mature, with
out danger of pistols for two or breach. of
promise case.
"'Tis opportunity that makes the man.
If he bad lived in the far West, where belle,
are scarce and beaux are drug on th,
market, he might have gone to his grav,
without suspicion of his talent for fnesse
For instane: if he had any rivals save thre
or fonr downy-lipped boys and an ancen
widower that Couldn't see what the blaze
made all the women run after that blamed
carpenter could he have taken Mis-
Milicent Winter to a festival one evening
and applied balm to the feelings of her 81;
Intimate friends by taking them in couple
to the ice-cream parlor three successiv
evenings thereafter Could he hav
extracted all Mrs. Higgins upper teeth, whel
her intentions had been to part with onl
the two front ones, and then lured her bacl
to invest in the wisdom teeth the manufac
turer cuts for you at two dollars tooth, an,
plate given as a premium, if he had no
been the sole masculine auditor when th
twins, Dora Isabella and Maud Ethelnd
Higgins, executed their soul-stirring duet
on piano and euitarP
Would twenty beautiful and acoomplishe,
young ladies of the best families at Middle
town have submitted to the trying ordea
of haying their lovely countena .ces almos
turned wrongside out while DR.. Graham G
Stacey dug and scraped and scratched a
their pearly molars with his lilliputian pick
axes and files, pounded red hot gold owe
shrinking nerves, OF examined the pimple
on their tongues with his little magnify 10
glasses, the while he halfchoked then wit
napkins, whitened his sleeve with tn
French chalk intended as an ornament
their check bones, rubbed their autocati
noses the wrong way, unused their fror
hair aud Knocked their back ditto into
chaos of tangles and hairpins ?
There is no occasion for echo to answe
these questions; they answer themselves
otis perfectly Ridiculous, soliloquize
the widow Blondine, .'the way those sill
chits of girls taken on over that man.
Anybody can see that they are waseing p
time. When he marries, ifT am me-
much mistaken, it will be woE<
knowledge of the world some eI
affairs of the heart, not a crI
like that pert Sally Satte<
unsophisticated villag
absurd old Aureli
do say he knocked
him note the
fever turned
mere babe.