The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-11-26
PERSONIFICATION OF MEANNEss.
Girls Who Had no Consideration for
Their Companions Feelings.

Chicago Post.
1T was very sad" the little girl with the
beaver bands on her frock was saying,
for from his earliest youth the poor fell
low had but one limb"
"Gracious!'' whispered the smart girl in
the corner, Il wonder what happened to
do you suppose he was left with a soli-
tary arm-or would it be a lone, lorn leg?'
asked the girl in green cloth impressively.
THAT reminds me-" said the schoolma'm,
"of an unpleasant person who used TO
board at our house. One evening he under
took to tell me a wonderful convoluted
story concerning the action of a man who
had become e%ntangled in some machine.
1t was q pathetic little story, / believe, but
what impressed me most was Mr.. Milling
tons careful reference to the conVulsive
movements of the unfortunate's arms and
limbs In fact, [ lost the thread of the
narrative in the interest this evoked"
The young woman who writes for the
newspapers sighed. 81 once wrote a neat
little story about a woman with a broken
leg. and my managing editor had it set up
limb all the way through. 1t spoiled ali
the force of the story-but why do we ell
interrupt Emmeline?'
That young woman frightened visibly.
SmoOthed down her beaver bands and went
on. so l had been used to always seeing
him walk with a crutch@"
Then he had a leg left to stand on"
whispered the smart girl again.
And when the other day he came to
Chicago and called upon me. and had two
Call 'em what you like" said the girl
in green: "only go on-we are trembling
with anticipation"
"Well-one Of them was cork, of course.
but that didn't dawn upon me, and /
thought ! had made a mistake, and I
couldn't place him in my memory as any
one else, and / made a dreadful muddie.
and so-girls-only think of 1.-THE actually
had to explain!'
That was pretty bad" said the girl in
green, but no worse than Julia did. Julia
always was an intolerable little goose, and
one night young Collins walked home with
three OF MS girls from a church fair, where
there hadn't been enough young men to so
round. AS 1t was, we three were in luck to
Setsa whole man when you come to think of
II, because he was gifted with a wooden leg.
Bessie knew that and so did 1. but Julia
didn't, and pretty soon she noticed that our
escort was limping a little: and she began
climate gave him rheumatism. Julia al
ways posed as a dear. sweet little house
wifely creature. you know; the sort of a
girl who would nurse her deadliest enemy
through an attack of typhoid. and then
cross her hands over a lily and be
waited upward TO slow music. 1t was a
inSly, and she had become letter perfect.
OF course. there was really TO occasion for
her pose this night, but Julia would make
up TO the wooden man of a cigar sign it
there We're none other round about, and
this time her man was at least only partly
wooden, which is as much as can be said
for most of them. And how she kept it
up! You really ought TO be more careful.
| Mr.. Collins she said p%rettily. Rheumatism
Is sucn a oreaoIul thing. Tell me, now, DO
you wear cork soles on your bootS?' At
that Bessie pinched me so that | nearly
| screamed aloud, for we both couldn't helm
thinking how one of the boots had cork in
| side was filled with cork and the
poor fellow, of course, knew
that we knew, and was frantic,
but too sensitive to put an end to the farce
by telling her the truth. And, would you
believe 1t, that little idiot kept the thing u
the whole way home-told him that she no
| ticed the lameness growing, asked him il
the pain increased, begged him to be as
quiet as possible and rot try to do much
walking for a couple Of days. Oh, it was
funny"
"Of course. you got even with her?'
asked the girl who had not yet spoken.
Didn't we, though? We told her the
whole story-with elaborate detail-aftel
we had got safely housed"
'Well?'
"She hasn't spoken to either Of us since
and poor young Collins has gone to Aus.
tralia. We never saw him after thai
night"