Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-12-16
STUCK ON THE TANGLE-FooT,
Owfn9 to an Unfortunate Incident
Mrs. Noodles LOaes m Vfa1tOr.

Owing to an Unfortunate Incident
Mrs. Noodles Loses a Visitor.
MY dear" said young Mrs. Noodles tc
her most intimate friend, Mr.. Potifex ba.
not been here to call since last spring. and
my own opinion is that he will not come
again."
why not. pray?"
"Oh. it in quite a sad story. Mr.. Noodles
tried to blame me for the occurrence. but
l was certainly not responsible. If it bad
not been fly time the thing would never have
happened"
Fly timer"
Yes; otherwise the fly paper, which caus.
ed the mischief, would have been absent
1t was only single piece of 1t, about q
foot and half square, which l had put on
the window sill in the parlor 1t was the
Kind, you know. that relies not upon poison
but upon its sickness for purposes Of cap
ture. / bought two pieces but the cat ven-
tured tncautiousiy upon one Of them. When
] next saw the animal 1t seemed to be fair
ly covered with small scraps of paper ad-
herring so closely to her fur that we were
obliged to give her bath in hot water In
order to get rid OF them"
did you ever!'
80. as i was going to say. it was the
OshCa piCSC hhdl Hdu placed carefully on
the window ledge. Bridget was busting the
same morning In the parlor. and, to facili-
tate her operations. she put the fly paper
for moment on the divan. 1t was not the
spot l should have selected, but servants
are sometimes eccentric. you know. she
was interrupted in her task by q ring at
the door bell, and a moment later she came
upstairs with the card Of young Mr. Potifex.
Meanwhile the visitor had walked into the
parlor. which was darkened. and had seated
himself"
''On the divan?'
Exactly so. He rose to greet me as / en-
tered. and we had a very pleas converse
ton. Some charitable work in which he
took an interest had brought him. At the
END OF half an hours chat he got up to CO.
ana then observed that q large sheet Of
what looked like brown paper adhered to
his trousers behind. l recognized my fly
paper at once. Mr.. Potifex was wholly TN
conscious Of 1t until called his attention
TO the Circumstance"
Goodness! What did he say?"
oh, he was very polite about IT, though
1t must have cost him much self-restraint
not to swear, because the trousers he gore
were quite new and very handsome. That
10 to say. they had been handsome, but
when the ny paper was detached the seat
Of them was covered with the horrible
sticky stun. I declare that / could have
died with modification. Mr. Noodles being
upstairs / called him down. He seemed
ietheT AmuSeo IMAM otnerWlSe, Out salo that
he could remove the stains quite easily with
chloroform."
"Chloroformr'
Yes; you know that Mr.. Noodles takes
great interest in collecting spiders. He ell
was keeps a good-sized bottle of chloroform
on hand to kill them with So he took the
unfortunate Mr.. Pottfex UP to his own den
and proceeded to apply 1t. After awhile
heard them both go down stairs again, and
my husband informed me that he had liked
him up nicely. as he expressed 1t. Such
proved to be the case, in fact"
The chloroform took IT out?"
Most Of II, at all events. But being rub
bed on very hard, 1t took all the skin OF
underneath. ] understand that Mr. Potifs x
was obliged to eat his meals from the
manteipiece for three or four days after
ward. Perhaps you will agree with me in
thinking that the affair may be accountable
for the fact that he has not called upon Us
since"