The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-02-08
SEEN AND hEARp.

The Major came in tearing mad the other
day. 1t was not one of the little spells
which he indulges in some times when the
Boarding Mistress is out and meals are late,
but real angry fit. At first he was almost
incoherent; but finally he Gained down suf-
ficiently to give an account of himself. 1t
seems that he had been riding ON the rail-
road and had had seat in front of talk
alive couple, ut wasn't so much the simple
fact that they talked" he said, "as it was.
what they said. The man began it by de-
licately limiting that he understood the lady
had said no to very important question.
The lady admitted the charge and then fol-
lowed ing explanation of the causes and
reasons therefor. They embraced, the
Major said tale of love on the one hand,
and of devotion to the letter of the Bible on
the other that astonished him. 81 thought"
the lady said, "of st. Paups command, BE
we not yoked together with unbelievers,' and
when l have heard Mr.. scoff at reli-
gion and laugh at church-members / have
made up my mind that l never should marry
him. told him that it was better for his
life to be made miserable now. than for both
that could not marry him." 1t appeared
further that when the lady first went to the
town where Mr.. - lived she was caution
ed against falling in love with him and to
judge by what the Major said she said, she
succeeded beautifully.
My object in the foregoing paragraph was,
not to continue in the business of a manu-
facturer of plots for noyelists; but to excuse
my friends wrath, or at least to show, a
cause for 1t. He says that in the first place,
the young woman had no shadow of right to
lay open her love affairs to disinterested
third party which he thought the man Was.
In the second place he says the young wo-
man made mistake, il she would speak of
them at all, in takinga railway car as the
place for doing it. Since car is place
where all people are Obliged to sit for a
greater or less time, nobody has the right to
force the whole car to listen to his or her
personal affairs. He says that this is only
one ola great many personal histories he
has been obliged to listen to during his ex-
perience as travelling man, and that it is
time TO call halt
"What would you have people talk about
in the cars, Major?" asked the Other Lady.
''Had you rather listen to discussion of
the doctrine of predestination and free will,
or the cause of the great fire on Browns
wharf the other night, this with side
glance at Jack, who has made the fire sta
pie topic of conversation ever since it &C.
cured than to the doings of Cousin Sally or
Uncle James?" "Yes, nam, had, decid-
edly," was the Majors emphatic reply. "Or
absorption as to whether Nelson won the
Beacon Park race fairly last fall, because
those are live topics in which good many
people are interested. This paraiing of
family history in public, on the other hand,
is of no earthly use to anybody"
The Schoolmistress and l attended lee
ture by certain distinguished man the 9TH
er night; she, suppose, in pursuit of use
full ideas, and / as an escort | do not know
how many ideas she captured, as he had no
note book, but there was a row of gentle
men seated near me who evidently made
good use of note books and pencils. and
doubtless secured materials for-not perhaps
whole sermons, but at least good points for
illustration in sermons. These gentlemen,
as may be inferred, were clergymen, and
they formed sympathetic sounding-bo
as it were, for the speaker, responding to all
of his telling points with applause, and
laughter at the proper times. They kept
their pencils flying at the same time, trans
ferring the gems to more enduring tablets
than those of the memory.
The Schoolmistress was Inclined to blame
these ministers of the gospel for appropri-
ating thus freely the IDEAS of the lecturer.
undertook, however, to convince her that
she was hasty, if not actually in error. In
every newspaper office, an instrument in
much use is the editorial shears, and much
in paper that is most interesting is writ
ten" with it. 1t is, L imagine, although per-
haps am letting out secrets OF the business,
part of a clergyman's business to adapt
scraps iudiciously culled either from papers
or from. the words and works OF other
preachers.
A friend put into my hands the other day
paper from the provinces which contained
this sentence. in the account OF the proceed
ings Of a certain learned society:
Before the meeting adjourned an article on
the ethnology of the Amazonas valley by
Mr.. Blank of Blankville, was read by title
and referred to the essay committee.
Our friends across the line may be as some
people are fond Of declaring little below
the yankee standard Of enterprise, etc. But
here, it seems that they are a long long dis
lance ahead of US. Whoever heard of So
ciety in this country, unless 1t be the socie.
ties that hold their sessions under the dome
of the capitol at Washington, which ever
took pity on its members and 'read by title"
an article, referring it to the waste-no 1
mean to the essay committee? On the con-
trary, how many people are there who have
not attended some gathering at which essays
we're read. and sat patiently waiting through
mass of prosy matter for one really inter-
esting and instructive paper. simply because
some of the members would feel hurt il they
were not allowed to read their productions
Tn ConprnsS thew have the convenient nrac-