The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-09-05
A OUADRUPLEX COMPACT
Why a SOuth-Side Residence Will
Soon Be for Rent.


Soon Be for Rent.
There was considerable excitement OF
quiet kind in the neighborhood and
not little cause for it, either. The
roomy house in the middle of the block,
that had stood empty for several I'M
eventful months, had been rented. AT
least the elderly lady who lived on the
corner and officiated as a perambulatlng
repository of all the news of the local
ity confded 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 QUITO the window.
Moreover, he had driven up in quite
natty cart and had worn light kid gloves
with broad black stitching on the backs,
in addition to the lavender trousers and
eyeglasses; a 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 clearinghouse 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
likelier-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,
fnement and intelligence. They were
the kind Of young men who look out of
place at snide variety show or cock
fight.
The neighborhood was curious, the
manageable 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 surnames 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
his turn for a week at doing the family
marketing, pay the bills and so on:
while an Anticipated 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
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
ment of the families in the vicinity. And.
OF course, on such occasions, all the at
tractive girls in the block, looking very
wholesome in their f1eecy 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
group OF them passed by it was the
habit OF the young men to gaze blankly
mp at the stars, though the gaze was
often productive of discords from Dicks
mandolin that brought wrinkles to
q q no q
Carrie" said the red-haired girl to
her chum from Vassar one bright morn.
ing shortly after the last of the young
men over the way had gone downtown,
II think that little dude who wears the
black sash and the cute straw hat is
simply lovely. l wish l knew him."
Tot" rejoined the Vassar girl, with
reproving look on her classic features,
''how can you say such things? But
don't really think that one is as hand.
some, and he is certainly not so dis.
tinguished- looking as the tall one with
the lavender-ahem! the lavender
mean the one who wears light clothes. "
That afternoon Tot, the red-haired
girl, tennis racquet, terrier pup and all,
was drinking glass of that concoction
composed principally of sugar and wind,
but which is known to the general pub
lie as soda" at the little store kept by
the French lady two streets away, when
who. OF all people in the world, should
walk In but Dick. his loins girdled with
the inevitable black sash and his head
adorned with the cute straw hat She
was so astonished that the racquet fell