Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1893-09-22
COGSMITH's BACK.

I am certainly the most unfortu-
nate man in the world.
IT not, how does it happen that l
am not married to Miss Priscilla
Pritchard, only child and sole heiress
of the late not much lamented Jede-
diah Pritchard of Pritchardstown?
She is worth q million and. a half
at the very lowest computation, and
lin not worth a penny, except in
the wav OF credit. i am worth quite
u sum in that way, however, and.
have plenty of unpaid bills to prove
it.
1t was ALMOST q sure thing. / know
she would have said "Ycs." If l had.
popped the question the last time we
met.
oh. why didn't I pop the question
the last time we met?
1t is of no use. I suppose, to cry
over spilled milk. She has gone and
married another man. / understand,
and / am set out in the cold. 1 can
not cry, but 1 should like to do a lit
tie swearing il it were not against
nv principles.
You see, I flowed her passionately
with my whole heart and soul and
was greatly in want of money.
She entertained, / think, o strong
feeling OF regard for me, and as she
had had very few offers for the last
four years she might easily have been
led to accept my hand, heart, and
no, not my fortune; I have none, but
we will say, my name, which Is just
as good, ii a body only thinks SO.
Only she doesn't think SO any
longer.
Let me collect my bewildered senses
and relate the narrowing story. 1t
may calm me.
Peter Cogsmith is one of my Oldest
friends. We were boys together. He
is celebrated for two things only, SO
far as l know: for being cross.cyed,
and for carrying the largest, vulgarest
silk handkerchiefs-all red, and vel
low, ring streakcd and spotted-that
eve were seen.
Notwithstanding which he is an
excellent fellow.
If he had been a little fellow, he
might have been celebrated for that,
too; but he had u serious failing-his
back closely resemblcd that OF Il re-
spectacle old br fer, with whom I am
but slightly acquainted.
hate respectable old buffers with
whom I am but slightly acquainted.
1 remember that when Cogsmith
and / we're at school together. he used
already to carry those hideous hand
kerchiefs, and it was considered
rather a lark, among the boys, to
steal them out of his pocket. The
head boy of u class had eight Of
them, all at once, that he had stolen
aud accumulated.
"Ah, why did I remember the
frolicsome days of boyhood? Why
did J. ever attempt to renew a for
gotten s%p0rtiveness and an obsolete
jocundity?
Let us pause to drop a hrinv pearl
and proceed with a fresh penful Of
ink.
Business-which 1 loathc and de-
test-keeps me occupied during the
daytime, and my only hours Of recre.
alton are those that [ snatch from
the balmy period of slumber.
Therefore, 1 never had many op-
.portunities to visit Miss Priscilla
Pritchard, save on Sundays, and on
the evenings of the week. My suit,
then. prospered slowly, but it did
prosper. oh, yes; did I not press her
hand unreproved? Did I not insin-
uatc, three several times, that l con-
sidered her personal attractions con-
siderably superior to the averages:
Did I not express my affection for her
fE a Thousand nameless ways-by
signs, by signs, by means, by groans,
by every means, in a word, that your
akil1tul lover understands SO we'll?
\ OF course I did.
And she-she not only accepted all
this homage SO %delicately rendered,
but she gave me to understand that
she should like to have me keep at it.
.:FrailtY thy name is womanw
How true!
1t was one year ago last Wednes-
day night, that she and I sat alone in
the little extension room off the back
parlor of Miss Pritchard's palatial
city residence. We were alone.
lhad been getting along very finely,
but somehow Icould not get my cour.
age up to the point.
So I determined to give myself one
more chance the next night. l had
q brilliant idea-something new and
original.
Young men. take warning. by my
fate! Never trust brilliant, new
and original ideas Strike while the
iron is hot, and clinch the nail as
/. soon as possible.
4 My idea was to invite Miss Priscilla
to accompany me to the opera and to
propose to her between the acts, in a
proscenium-box. I 1lattered myself
that music's dreamy swell, the faint
perfumes Of the house en- toilette, the
mellowed glitter of 1000 lights, the
witchery OF the spectacle, all would
lend an artful aid, aud insure the
success for which / trembled.
Concealing myemotion. I suggested
the opera for the evening following,
in nv airiAAk manner.