The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-01-15

seiZeu Win burning 0eslre TO marry
Mary Holme ?" he asked with a smile.
"Of course I can" said MacShaugnassy;
II can imagine anything. and believe any
thing of anybody. 1t is only in novels
that people act reasonably and in accord
ance with what might be expected of
them. l knew an old sea captain who used
to read the Young Ladies Journal in bed,
and cry over it. l knew bootmaker
who always carried Browning's poems
about with him in his pocket to study in
the train. / have known a Harley street
doctor to develop at As a sudden and over
mastering passion for switchbacks, and to
spend every hour he could spare
from his practice at one or other
of the exhibitions, having three
pen 'orths one after the other. 1 have
known a book reviewer give oranges
(not poisoned ones) to children. A man
is not character; he is a dozen charac-
tiers, one of them prominent, the other
eleven more or less undeveloped. l knew
a man once, two of whose characters were
of equal value, and the consequences were
pc culiar."
We begged him to relate the case to US,
and he did so.
"He was a Balliol man. said Mac
Shaugnassy, "and his Christian name was
Joseph. He was member of the Devon
shire at the time l knew him, and was.
think, the most superior person | have
ever met. He sneered at the SATURDAY. Re-
uieW as the pet journal of the suburban
literary club and at the Athen1una as the
trade organ of the unsuccessful writer
The difference between Punch and AAy
SlOper he held to be twopence. Thackeray.
he considered, was fairly entitled to his
position of iavorte author to the cultured
al Enr x-ia !, al
ponent OF the earnest partisan. Living
authors he never read, but this did not
prevent his critIcising them contemptu-
ously. The only inhabitants of the nine
teenth century that he ever praised were
few obscure French novelists of
whom nobody but himself had ever
heard. He had his own opini n abou,
God Almighty, and objected TO heaven on
account OF the strong Clapham contingent
liKeiy to be found in residence there
Humor made him sad and sentiment
made him Ill. Art irritated him and
science bored him. He despised his own
family and disiiked everybody else. For
was mainly confined to an occasional
shrug.
Nobody liked him. bu: everybody re-
spected him. One felt grateful to him for
his condecension in living at all.
lone summer, l was riShing over the
NoIlotu pioAHc, anu On Tue DdOk holiday
thinking l would like to see the London
AIRY III his glory, l ran over to
Yarmouth. Waking along the sea
front in the evening, suddenly
found myself confronted by four
remarkable choice specimens of the class
They were urging on their wild and err
ratio career arm-in-arm. The one near
est the road was playing an unusually
wheezy concertlna, and the other three
were bawling out the chorus of a music
hall song, the heroine OF whicu appeared
to be Emma.
They spread themselves right across
the pavement, compelling all tie women
ana children they met TO step into the
roadway L stood my ground on the curb,
ar & as they brushed by me something in
the face OF the one with the concertina
struck ME as familiar.
II turned anu followed them. They
were evidently enjoying themselves i'm
mensely. To every girl they passed they
yelled out, On. you little jam tariff and
every old lady they addressed as Mar
The noisiest and the WI garest of the four
was the one with the coDcertina.
Il followed them on to the pier. and
then, hurrying past them, 1 waited Tor
them under gas lamp. When the man
with the concertina came INTO the light
ana l saw him clearly | started. From
the face could have sworn il was joseph.
but everything else ABOUT him rem
dered such an assumption impossible
Putting aside the time and the plac and
forgetting his behavior, his COMPANIONS
ana ms instrument, what renamed was
sutncient 10 make the suggestion absurd.
Joseph was always clean shaven; this
youth had smudgy mustsche and pair