Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-08-27
THAT DRUMMER.
by A RANToUL GIRL.


You see never qras partial to drummers.
They are IN important, conceited set, The
when to take hint. And even while you
know they are professional "mashers," and
invariably glory in their conquests, they
are generally 80 handsome and smart that
a girls heart fails her, even though she
knows they deserve to be snubbed; unless,
as / said before, one happens to have an
especial dislike for them, as is the case with
me.
Tho following narrative is confined
striclsly to facts and is entirely true, ex-
cepting the proper names and places, which
will be omitted. l dare say dozens of girls
have passed through just such an expert
~encc, minus the notifying conclusion to
which mine comes.
You see, happened to be on visit to a
friend of mine, a college girl, in small
town in The State of Illinois, and was just
returning home. When I entered the
car l found that the only empty seat was
beside drummer. was sure he was
-drunmcr, because.--well no one pos
ably could mistake drummer for any one
else.
He was so nice looking, and had the finest
eyes, which seemed to fairly twinkle with
fun. ] saw no sample cases, but sup
posed they were there, somewhere, out of
sight.
Well, he arose at once and offered me his
seat in such polite way that accepted it
at once and thanked him. I then pro-
ceeded 10 make myself and my belongings
comfortable, supposing, of course, that he
would betake himself to the smoking-c car;
but he didn't. That would not have been
like a drummer. He just waited until /
got settled and then calmly sat down be-
side me. Ihave very strict ideas, or rather
my mother has, in regard to talking to
strangers. especially young men, and l
knew by experience what to expect from
drummers. So extracted a paper from
my package and began to read. In the
meantime this young man sat there and
eyed me quite as coolly as if had been a
piece of crockery or some other inanimate
object
"Now." thinks I, "heres one of those
-abomnable drum creatures again. Maybe
he thinks he can make an impression on
me. If he does, I'll just give him tc
understand that I'm not to be impressed.
His impudence, however, did not take
that turn, folded up my newspaper pretty
soon and began to gaze around the car, il
an abstracted sort of way, at the othe,
passengers.
He at once began to talk in kindly
rcondescending fashion, quite rs if he were
addressing small child.
Now. 1 will admit that have an ex.
tremely youthful look, in spite of my
stwenty-one years of wisdom and ex-
perience. l have been reminded of it more
than once. am also the unfortunate pos.
SCISSOR of a pair of checks, which will per.
sist:in being red; and on this particular oc-
casion, I had my hair braided and hanging
down my back. 1 shall always bewail the
fate which denied me the five feet 81,
inches of height some girls possess. A
small. plump girl stands no chance at all
SO far rs being made a heroine is con.
cerned. A tall girl can be graceful
.queen'y, dignifed, or imposing at will
while small girl is always and invariab1,
spoken of as being bright, or quiet, OF
rather pretty, if indeed they are spoken OF
at all. in stories. But 1 nearly forgot.
started out to tell about this member of tho
Sample case" profession. Well, there he
sat. aud talked, and talked, and 1 assumed
an air Of lofty indifference, which main.
tanned throughout the journey.
L wondered if the passengers were
shocked at his presumption, but they die
mot appear to notice in the least.
But the very idea of being mistaken TO,
school girl who had graduated foul
years ago with honors, and left school fol
good.-it was very annoying.
He went on in this amiable strain fol
some time, though did not deign to take
the least notice of what he said.
He finally wound up by asking whether
I lived at j., the town We had left
replied that did not, in tones calcu.
Hated to freeze the marrow in any mans
bones, except drummer's, for it positively
seemed to have thawing effect on him.
Ho at once started off again, giving run.
ming commentary on the different States
through which lie had travelled After
several Intellectual attempts to draw me into
conversation, he inquired if 81 liked te
,travcl?"
An infant behind us was bowling at the
top Of its lungs; directly in front of us sat
half drunken old Dutchman, who sampled