Smyrna times., 1885-05-06
That Young Dentist.

That Young Dentist.
MiddletOwn had not been so excited
since old Capt. Pidgers hanged himself
with the stringsof his wife's best bonnet.
The cause of this unwonted quickening
of pulse and imbering Of tongue in the
lethargic little village, hidden to an
everlasting repose by the railroads that
tapped it for a neighboring city, was
a man! "Only this and nothing more !"
but he was young and good looking, and
had evidently come to stay, rs Il modest
sign, whereon WAS pain,cd DR.
Graham g. Stacey, Dentist, bore wit
ness.
If furtherproof Of his staying qualities
had been asked it could have been found
in a kindly statement price ten cents
per line) conspicuously printed in the
Middletown Plaindealer, to the effect
that l}r Graham G. Stacey, fresh from
Philadelphia with his well-earned laurels
had furnished elegant dental parlors at
No. 90 Main street, over the barber
shop, and would be pleased to receive
the patronage ofthepublic. Dr. Stacey
the editor professed to know and esteem,
taking seven lines of nonparell for a
statement anl adding IA postscript re-
lative to "ncw and improved instru-
ments teeth xtructeI without pain, e"
filings warranted to last for three
years, ct cetera, st. f."
Middletown read, marked learned
and inwardly digested the Plaindealers
encomiums, 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 a bazaar" to have
a membership in the circulating library,
How devOutly the young ladies wished
there was vacancy in the choir, and
how scornfully they commented on the
basses:. and tenors of the well-meaning
old deacons and elders who innocently
praised the Lord from the organ-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 war ling generally in his praise.
Small cause was there for wonder that
he should be the theme of eulogistic dis
course, even in the communities where
all the eligible young men had not
taken HOyace 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 teeth we're
white enough and even enough to serve
as an advertisement OF his profession.
his dark brown hair gracefully outlined
the smoothest and fairest of brows. his
mustache was a love, his mouth was
darling to be sure his nose-a fine
straight one, by the way-was rather
longer than the Apollo Belvidere's but
then as Tom, Miss Aurelia 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 trappings of a real man, and
they conceal rather than reveal him to
us.
True enough, old gentleman! No
one could have told by looking at our
gentle, genial dentist of sweet smiles
and deferential address that he was
equal to the task of acting the role of
guile philosopher and friend, with
suspicion of sentiment thrown in. to
twenty maidens, more or less mature.
without danger of pistols for two or
breach-of-promise case.
"'Tis opportunity that makes the
man." If he had lived in the far West,
where bellies are scarce and beaux are a
drug on the market, he might have gone
to his grave without suspicion of his
talent for fneSSe. For instance if he
had any rivals save three or four dOwny-
Tipped boys and an ancient widower that
couldn't see what the blazes made all
the women run after that blamed tooth
carpenter" could he have taken Miss
Millicent Winter to festival one even
ing, and applied balm to the feelings of
her six intimate friends by taking them
in couples to the ice-cream parlor three
successive evenings thereafter? Could he
have extracted all Mrs. Higgins upper
teeth, when her intentions had been to
part with only the two front ones, and
then lured her back to invest in the
wisdom teeth the manufacturer cuts for
you at two dollars a tooth, and plate
given as premium, if he had not been
the sole masculine auditor when the
twins, Dora Isabella and Maud Ethelinda
Higgins, executed their soul-stirring
duets on piano and guitar?
Would twenty beautiful and accom-
plished young ladies of the best families
at Middletown have submitted to the
trying ordeal of having their lovely
cOuntenances almost turned wrongside
out while DIR. Graham G. Stacey dug
and scraped and scratched at their
pearly molers with his liliputian pick
axes and files pounded red hot gold
over shrinking nerves, or examined the
pimples ON their tongues with his little
magnifying glasses, the while he half
choked then with napkins, whitened his
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