The Globe-republican., 1890-07-23
A QUADRUPLEX COMPACT
Why South-Side Residence Will
Soon Be for Rent.

l.
There was considerable excitement oi
quiet kind in the neighborhood and
not a little cause for it, either The
roomy house in the middle of the block
that had stood empty for several un.
eventful months, had been rented. Al
least the elderly lady who lived on the
corner and officiated as a perambulating
repository of all the news of the local.
lty coEfided to the insurance mans
wife, little lower down, that a tall
young man with lavender trousers and
eyeglasses had entered the empty house
the previous afternoon and pulled the
''For Rent" card down out of the window
Moreover, he had driven up in quite a
natty cart and had worn light kid gloves
with broad black stitching on the backs,
in addition TO the lavender trousers and
eyeglasses: circumstance that indi-
Gated the new tenant, whoever he was,
to be person of perfect responsibility.
If there was mild excitement when
the news went about that the house was
rented, it ceased to be mild when it be-
came known who was to live in it, al
though it must be confessed that the
excitement was confined principally to
the young ladies residing in the vicin-
ity. The newcomers were nothing less
than four spruce, dapper young men
-four beautiful dudes,'' as the red
haired girl across the way, who never
appeared in public without her tennis
racquet and terrier pup, expressed it. 1t
gradually became known that the four
young men were guiltless of blood rela-
tlonship to one another. They were
simply friends, all engaged in business
down town, all sick of the nameless
horrors Of modern boarding house life,
and all enraptured with the prospect of
the stagger at housekeeping they were
about to make.
And it may be said at the outset that a
Ikelier-looking quartette of young men,
as young men 60 nowadays, would have
been hard to discover on the South Side
They differed somewhat in appearance,
of course, but each, in addition to the
neat and becoming clothes he wore,
bore in some measure the stamp of re-
f1nement and intelligence. They were
the kind of young men who look out of
place at a snide variety show or a cock
fight.
The neighborhood was curious. the
marriageable female element las before
Intimately especially SO, to know more
of the latest arrivals than could be
gained by mere ocular observation; and
if the neighborhood could have been
made aware of the peculiar. not to say
unique, compact that bound the quar-
tette together, this curiosity would have
been infinitely enhanced.
The sGrnames of the newcomers do
not matter; Tom, Dick, Harry and Jack
will serve to distinguish them. Their
compact was simply this: Their lease
ran for two years, and each one of the
four was pledged to his fellows not to
marry or evince any inclination to do so
until the term had expired. The ex-
penses Of housekeeping were to be
shared equally. Each one was to take
his turn for week at doing the family
marketing. pay the bills and so on:
while an antiquated colored lady had
been engaged at liberal wage to pre-
side over the kitchen. The terms Of |
the agreement were ironclad. No MEM
Der OF the quartette was to be permitted |
to stick the other three if the latter |
could help it.
The arrangement, moreover, seemed |
to work swimmingly. The experiment |
was not so costly as it might have been |
The young men lived comfortably and |
felt contented. They were all musical. |
and with two mandolins, one guitar and !
one banjo manipulated by them, formed !
a very respectable string quartette.
Attired in fetching neglige dress, they
sat in their porch in the languorous
June evenings drumming popular mel
odies after the healthily enthusiastic |
manner of amateurs. to the great enjoy
mentof the families in the vicinity. And, |
of course, on such occasions. all the at
tractive girls in the block, looking very
wholesome in their feecy white frocks,
found occasion to pay many visits to the
corner drug store and back, the route
taking them, Of course, directly past the
porch wherein the players sat When
a group of them passed by it was the
habit Of the young men to gaze blankly
up at the stars, though the gaze was
often productive of discords from Dicks
mandolin that brought wrinkles to
Toms alabaster forehead.
III.
Carrie" said the red-h aired girl to
htr chum from Vassar one bright morn
ing shortly after the last of the young