Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-09-18

~ He WAS fluent and fowery Of speech,
and he had seen almost everything under
the sun in every corner OF the world,
but for that very reason he was fatiguing.
One could speak of nothing without
eliciting such q food of information
that one was nearly drowned in it, and
seized upon any straw to reach land
again, only to be submerged airesh be-
fore one had done gasplnS after the first
deluge And this was what | said to
my friend and hostess when she unwise-
ly insisted upon an opinion. OF course
she didn't like it; we never do like to
have our friends refuse to look ont of
our eyes, although we are constantly de-
Ginning to look out of theirs
well, what kind of mar do you
call an agreeable man if he is mott" de-
manded she, rather pettishlv.
What kind Of MANI repeated |, mus
ing over the question. "Why, man
who pleases me is to me an agreeable
man"
THAT is to say" retorted she, laugh
ing, IF you like that kind of a man that
is just the kind Of man that would
please your"
The entrance Of visitor broke off the
conversation; but, as is my habit when
social question has been raised in -
ciety, I unconsciously carry it home, and
sometimes ponder it in the weary hours
of sleepless nights
" hat is an agreeable man, and where
have | most frequently found him? de-
manded | of myself that afternoon as |
! drove around the park and exchanged
salutations with hundred or so of my
Appropriateness Is it THIS hor5eman? Is
| it this pedestrian? Is it either of these
two with the tandem team, or is it that
| dear old man in the barouche? But still
the voice within said Nor The horse
man is silly and fatuous, the pedestrian
is buried in abstruse studies and is at
this moment walking off surfeit of
Semitic roots before Undertaking light
collation. of Dead sea fruits. The two
boys with the tandem team will
bring it with them to whatever re-
cepton they attend tonight, and
tell everybody just what time Xerxes
and Artaxerxes made last week on the
trotting course, and how they are capa-
bic of beating Cyrus and Darius ''into
fits at any moment.
AS for the old gentleman, he is very
dear and very sweet, and | make point
of talking to him for three minutes
whenever we meet, but after three min
utes he has told mo all about his health,
and where his wife l. and how warm
ana crowded Inc room is, and that is the
end of our 81. J)ects Of mutual interest,
for he is too deaf to hear any remarks
might offer, and too self engrossed to
care TO listen if he could hear.
SO coIlating the egotistical traveller,
and the vain exquisite, and the book
worm. and the horsey pair and the sell
absorbed old gentleman, one sees thai
they have one fault in common, and thai
is sefshncss, and it becomes eyiden'
that the agreeable man must not be- sci
fish or At least that he must, by cdUCa
tion and good breeding, have learned 81
to disguise that Tori anal sin" common
to every child Of Adam, that II shall no
offend other people. AS for eliminating
II, i do not suppose that is ever done
and perhaps it Would not be well if i
> could BE-, for if self preservation is thu
first law Of nature a certain amount o
seltirhncs1 IS as necessary 10 the prOtec
ton OF every man as claws are to a cat
the thing Is to keep those same claw
sheatAed in a velvet paw,