Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-10-31
TWO OF A KIND.


fore read Kipling's "Plain Tales from the
Hills" was rushing from one short
story to the next, as had fallen into the
pounding meter of the express train, and,
all the while / was tortured by subcon-
seriousness that presently would come to
The end and be angry with myself for
squandering all the stories in one morn
ing The extravaganza was worse than
foolish, Tor ! was missing the best of it by
not giving myself, after each story, that
pause of smiling "Reminiscences in which the
bouquet of the drained cup comes back
with suffusing sense of delight
When we drew into the long, dark sta
ton at Philadelphia laid the book down
ION the pit of its stomach" more than half
of the pages were on the wrong side.
There was the usual shifting of passen-
gers. Most of the old lot got off and new
ones came on; but the slight woman who
had sat in front of me since We left New
York did not move. | had only noticed
that the contour of her cheek was fiat. and
that her manner had the unexacting pas
SIXTY of woman who makes no claim to
attractiveness
picked up Kipling at the "Bisara of
Poorie," and wished that we might get ont
INFO the light. The car door opened, and a
large woman came in She walked up the
center of the car, passing several vacant
half seats and sat down, with a sharp
jangling Of her jet wrap, in the seat in
front of me, beside the small woman who
yielded her room. Perhaps she chose this
seat because she took up broad space.
She had a well groomed fatness which
she carried off. in her tight fitting clothes,
with something of aswagger. She looked
little handsome in the dim light.
The engine jerked all the slack coupling
pins taut, and we began that long, backing
maneuver that the Pennsylvania trains
male in going south from Philadelphia.
As we came out into the light the large
woman shone like freshly gilded sign.
Her hair was well blondined, only showing
a shade darker at the roots than at the
brassy ends. 1t was very perfectly ar
ranged in layers of fiat curls, beneath her
small bonnet of twisted black and scarlet
velvet. The thick lobes OF her ears were
penetrated by fine diamond screws Her
embroidered handkerchief unfolded a scent
Of heliotrope. There was an air of pros
porous vitality about the whole creature.
After a little while she turned and looked
her neighbor over. l had gone back to my
book, when heard her say good naturally:
BEN travelin longp
"No; only about two hours"
New York;
YES; l came from New York"
New York's a fine place. know il
well. Lived there over twenty years"
i lost the answer. and the large woman
| went on:
"Yes, indeed; ought to know it pretty
well. and do. like it; like the people
Pm sociable by nature. Now there's lots
| Of fol IS that would have rode by you all
| the way to Baltimore and never once
opened their mouth. l amt that kind.
Pm willin to talk, and / get as good as ]
take, and better too" Then, lowering her
voice % whisper that had three times the
| carrying power Of the well oiled voice in
which she had been speaking, she added.
You see it's in my line"
The other started and turned toward
her, SO that for the first time l saw her full
face IL was very thin and long, with that
beauty OF skin that still suggests disease.
The eyes were beautiful, and looked out
from The painful, sensitive ugliness of the
other features as il in perpetual appeal
| from it.
| How do you mean2" she asked
| wei, i don't care If do tell you. You
see, i write stories and novels, and when
talk like Pm talking to you hear things
that give me an idea That's all want
an idea when once get the start Pm all
right"
''That is very interesting. Have you al
| ways been an authoressf"
For the last ten years. l have been Mt
It pretty constant, and yet you wouldn't
think it; but if it hadn't been for kind Of
an accident never would have dreamed
had it in me. Never had notion that
had the gift, and that makes me say that
| vnu'rp fOOl can't till
you've tried"
IAN accident9"
Yes; il was this way: That was long
about 1887, and was saleslady at Macy's
| You know Macy's, corner OF Fourteenth
street and Sixth avenue? But of course
you do-lust listen to mel forgot you
said you were from New York. Well,
! was great reader | used to read every
thing. / lad chum ut Macy's, an awful
nice girl, and when business was sort of
slack i VIC uld tell her about the stories. /
used to tell 'em like they really had hap
| psned-you see, we were at the perfumery
counter. You know Macy's-the perfum-
cry counter is right by one of the Four
teenth street doors. Well, we could see
everybody that came in and went out. I'd
say: Maud, see that lady in the seal plush
wrapt know all about how she came to
get marrier,' and I'd start right in and tell
the last story I'd read, like it was all gos
pei truth. Then the girls would get around,
and they sc r0er half believed it was all so
but Maud, she knew better. One day we
were sort Of running each other a little,
| and Maud said:
Il suppose you know all about Two
Hundred aud Three's family-knew her
mother init nately before she was married,
didn't your
1.-Two hun bred and Three was just going
by, swinging her basket. She was the
ugliest, worst little knot ever saw. All
cash girls are aggravating, but Two Hun
dred and Three was the worst girl on
our floor. | never could see why they
didn't disc large her. She kept her
apron SO dirty that you'd hardly know
it had ever been red. and she had way Of
pulling the end of her great red pait of
hair under Ter arm and across her chest,
and there she would stand, holding her
basket SO sli nting that, ten to one. every
| thing yOulu slim ont chewing on the end