The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-02-21
Everyday Tales Of the Town
TerseIy Told.
THOSE FoRGETFuL. HUSBANDS.
Mrs. JohnnAsk Her Husband to DO a
Little Shopping for Her--A Remedy
as Had as the Disease Another One
of Charlie Chickering's Stories.

eb Urehkiast the other morning, " you
will do little shopping for me as you
come up to dinner, won't you, dearf j
don't see how am to get out at all to-day
and only need two or three little things
anyway. 1t won't take you five minutes.
! know how busy you are. No-you
needn't make any memorandum of it.
They don't amount to enough for that.
A dollar or so will cover them all. Let
me see. II you would get me half yard
mo, i think will have to have q yard
or, perhaps, three quarters will do-of per-
Gale. 1t will be ten or twelve cents. It's
to match Johnnie's waist, you know-the
one with the narrow blue stripe. You
can remember it without taking a sample,
can't you, dear? Then / want
pair OF gloves for Tommy-you know
his size--not heavy ones, but something
light and dressy that he can wear for Sun
day into the summer. / don't know but
apair OF silk mittens would do just as
well. He's so little it seems absurd
70 put him in gloves. But do as you
thinks best about it,"
Mr.. John was through with the break
fast by this time and he rose from the
table and getting his overcoat proceeded
to put it on. "Oh" continued Mrs. John,
following Mr.. John out into the hallway,
VI
better make ii yard after all, and then
I'll be certain to have enough. II you
can't match 1t get the nearest you can
only be sure and don't have the stripes
too far apart-and the stripes are double,
you know-at least l think they are--and
well, 1 guess that is all-good bye,
dear.n
Mrs John kissed Mr.. John and he
passed out OF the house TO the sidewalk
shutting the door behind him. He had
not gone far down the street when he
heard Mrs. Johns voice from window.
"Oh, John, dearl" called Mrs. John
from the window. perhaps you'd better
not get the gloves - its growing so
warm 1t seems absurd to buy new ones.
He can wear his old mittens IL il comes off
cold and il you will bring me up a
skein of Saxony 1 will darn them and
make them do. Don't get coarser than
the threaded Ssxony, dear. They
are blue, you remember; dark blue.
You won't forget the shade-wait
. moment and i will throw you
one OF them down to take with
you. Never mind? All right, dear, /
guess you can match 1t without. III you
think best, though, you may buy him new
ones, or gloves-number ought Is the
y
little hand has grown so perhaps he will
wear a ~. ""s You can judge best about it.
And, John, while you are in the store you
might as well buy me yard Of lasting
asting-l-a-s-t-i-n-g-y know what 1t
b-at the lining counter of COURSE don't
know whether it will be double width or
single width-if it's double width only
want half yard-but il 1t is--all right,
dear, run along-only IL you think of il,
will 1t be too much trouble to get spool
Of letter "D"--well, never mind, dear,
suppose you are in q dreadful hurry
good bye, dear!"
Mrs. John closed the window and re-
turning to the breakfast table murmured
half aloud: "He's a dear, good, willing
fellow, butas stupid as any other man
about doing errands. II will be just like
him to get those things all mixed up-and
like as not forget everything I've told
him by the time he reaches his ofhcel"
Remedy as Bad as the Disease.
A party of clubmen were sitting around
atable in one of the down town cafes the
other night, when the conversation
turned on the subject Of the abuse OF
alcoholic liquors. Many stories were
told, when physician, forming one OF
the company, related the following:
Casually physician would advise a
patient to abstain entirely from the use of
liquor, but / had occasion at one time TO
give contrary prescription; in fact to
order man to get very drunk.
'The man had suffered SO severely that
had advised the use of chloral. When he
recovered from his illness he continued to
take the stuff. He said that he could not
sleep without the drug and when he came
to consult me a second time found that
he was rapidly becoming regular chloral
6end. i tried to ease him off on other
drugs, but he was SO peculiarly constituted
that was afraid to experiment with him.
cit was number of years ago, in my
early days OF practice, and at last de-
cided upon a heroic measure that would
seem ridiculous to me now. / advised the
man to get drunk, not once, but every
night for a week, and l consented to go
and try the experiment with him. AS far
as i was concerned kept reasonably sober,
but Jay patient slept that night and for
the remainder OF the week without the
use of chloral. What physical wreck he
was, however, and what was verse he
didn't stop there. I never heard that he
used chloral again, but he did use rum,
and he kept on using it although he never
mad touched liquor before L went on that
weeks spree at his expense"
"What happened to him at last ?" was
asked.
"Oh," replied the doctor with a laugh.
abe took the gold cure two years ago
and is all right now, but he has not
spoken to me for 10 years. 1t was very
bnkind in him, considering that suc-
ceeded in curing him of his craving for
chloral.v
Another Chickering Story.
A little story OF a story told by the late
Charlie Chickering in The NEWS started a
rich fund OF "reminiscences in a group OF
men about town the other day, and
here Is one OF the best OF them:
II was at a banquet of the Pawtucket |
Business Mems Association and a num-
Der OF out-of-town business men were
present to where the announcement |