The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-06
tail. Funny scrape for the part owner Of a
rich silver mine, wasn't it?
The Story of a Clock,

Inspired by the laudable wish to do q
kindness to one of his blood, a venerable
citizen, giving his affairs a deathbed settle
ment, added to his last will and testament
this clause: n" "
And to my beloved granddaughter, Laura.
my sitting room clock.
A little after he was gathered to his faith
ers and now sleeps the sleep Of the just.
Some days after the funeral, some Nom
bers of the family scnt the clock to Laura's
father at his Office, not deeming any for
mality necessary about SO small a matter.
Th clock was an ordinary machine made
affair worth when new $3. 1t had been in
use about a dozen years.
Lau,a's father hired a boy to carry the
clock to his nome in the suburbs, at the
total expense of about a dollar and a half,
of the trouble.
It seoms there was something very irreg-
ular in carrying of a legacy before the will
had been probated. and the beloved grand
daughter was cited to appear by a guardian
specially appointed for the occasion and to
just as the poor man was getting his bust
ness in shape to start for a weeks trip to
the Catskills. Accompanying the paper was
some sort of an affidavit form which he was
expected to ill out, make oath to before a
notary and return. I'll day set for the pro-
DouO Gill IA - tAp AASNA III sAo =
ing fathers mountain week. OF course he
ought to have stayed at home. qualified as
his daughters guardian, attended the pro-
bate and accounted for his clock somehow
or other. But his wife was waiting for him
at the station. Catching up what he sup
posed was the affidavit blank he beat a
hasty exit. In a minute or two q boy came
running back with this hastily scribbled
note:
Find that id clock affidavit and send ii
to me and call up the lawyer by 'phone and
fix things somehow.
Evidently the guardian and father of the
girl who got the clock, who is not usually
r~rofane, was getting excited and had lost
his affidavit. But it was nowhere to be found
on his desk until some hours later: Mean
| while, the office boy had spent half IN hour
at the telephone, which was working very
posed lawyer, only to find out that he had
nothing to do with thu case and didn't know
| who had.
Now the suffering hero of this tale fully
expects to be arrested for contempt of court.
but he swears he won't 90 near the probate
court about that old clock; no, not if they
put him in prison. He ia don with it.
Men Milliners.
Nobody would have supposed that the
men dressmakers of New York would stop
at the tnilor-made gowns; and they haven't.
That was merely an auspi6ious beginning.
But from being a lady's tailor to becoming
a lady's dressmaker is not sosvery long q
step. Plenty of men have taken it, and
there are now in this American Paris a
small hosts Of would-be imitators of Worth
and Felix. A queer sight it is to ace a great
chap big enough TO kill oxen holding up q
dainty film of lace and silk in his hand and
struggling hard to make it appear that the
French phrases he 40 literally uses are in
hia native tongue, despite his potato mouth,
Tho most famous of tho ladies' tailors ID
unquestionably the one who proudly boasts
that he IN honored by the patronage of
| Queen Victoria, hut he has plenty of rivals.
One of these men recently overheard some
one asking II ono of his patrons had not or.
dered Ter summer wardrobe from Paris.
| This lady declares that the dreHsmaker il
now 40 proud Of the implied compliment
that he il as imperious AZ the czar and puts
on the airs Of a Napoleon.
It's a queer world. Women blacksmiths
and dentists and BARRIERS and men mnntua
makers would have astonished our great
QrandmotherH.