The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-11
BOGGS' DAUGHTER.


headed pheasant and had lived, in spite of
her money, to the mature age of seven
and thirty without q sutton for her hand,
the chagrin of Mr.. Solomon Boggs can be
understood.
Up to the thirty seventh year of his
daughters existence the only man who
had wooed her was a gentleman from
Mexico, who, just in the nick of time, was
found to possess three other wives.
So tormented and irritated did Mr..
/ Boggs become that little by little his sub
ordinates became filed with fear and I'M
easiness and scarcely ventured to raise
their eyes before him lest they should call
! down upon themselves some ebullition of
temper and discharge from their situa-
tions.
Pennyboy, the chief clerk, whose duty
it was to do all the work that should have
been done by Mr.. Boggs himself and to
scatter over his desk every morning huge
mass of papers to make it look as though
the first functionary was terrific man of
business, began to think seriously of re-
signing voluntarily. to save himself the
pain of a dismissal, and of establishing
with his savings a small cigar stand on
the corner.
In a secluded street where lodgings were
to be obtained at a ridiculously low figure,
and where the principal features of the
landscape consisted of washed clothes
hung out to dry and clouds of SCOT ema-
mating from the chimneys lived james
| Peruke.
Right across the court from James Pc
! ruke lived Margaret Mullins and between
them there existed romantic feeling that
! belonged to sylvan groves and babbling
! brooks and was entirely out of place in
| such a locality.
James Peruke held very inferior posi-
| ton in the office of the honorable the Sec
rotary of the coastwise trade, where he
conscientiously performed the tasks of 10
high officials who on their parts lent a
tone of dignity to the Office.
But the love that existed between James
and Margaret was not bread and butter
sentiment, the lack of those elements in
deed being the only drawback to its happy
contamination.
Mr.. Boggs, having attended a meeting
of the committee on pros and cons, was
walking homo in a very bad humor when
he CHANGED to get his foot wedged in be-
| tween two paving stones SO tightly that
he could not draw it out again.
James Peruke, happening along and
seeing the predicament, fastened to lend
his assistance and soon succeeded in set
ting the foot free again, for which act of
kindness Mr.. Boggs invited him to his
house to take dinner and meet his daugh-
ter.
The acquaintance thus formed grew
regular visitor at the house of the first
functionary and was thoroughly posted
about everything therein, including Miss
Elizabeth Boggs.
But all this time the heads of James
Peruke and Margaret Mullins we're filled
with wild and desperate scheme.
James, when he visited Miss Boggs, as
sumed loverlike familiarity. All tits
was duly impaired by Miss Elizabeth to
her father, and he agreed with her that
the only thing that prevented an avowal
on the part of James Peruke was delicate
recognition of his poor estate.
A word to the honorable the secretary
of the coastwise trade from his friend, the
first functlonary of the lord mayor, would
set everything to rights.
| AS a result the assistant secretary hand
ed bulky document to the custodian or
seals and impressions, who put a stamp
on it and handed it in his turn to the
chief of the sixty first division.
The chief of the sixty-frst division i'm
mediately waited upon James Peruke,
who sat at his desk copying report sub
mitted by the commander of the Ninth
brigade to the first lord of the Shot Tower,
and informed him that he had been created
seventeenth inspector of the royal ink
stand.
Seventeenth inspector of the royal ink
standl
|
swan, and he was entirely unable to grasp
| the situation.
AS soon as he could collect his senses
James started to ask the chief If he might
absent himself for the day; but, remem-
bering the situation he now held, he looked
bored instead and remarked
II think-aw-I think will go home
Please convey my regards to the honorable
the secretary of the coastwise trade and
tell him shall call to pay my respects to-
morrow"
All this time Margaret Mullins was
quietly pursuing her household vocations
unconscious of the great events that were
transpiring.
Suddenly the door was flung violently
open, and in came James, the seventeenth
; inspector of the royal inkstand, breathless,
exultant, happy.
The cab was waiting outside and Mar
, garet ran up stairs to put on her bonnet
and came back looking SO sweet and blush
ing SO prettily that James Peruke felt a
, tremulous thrill run down his spinal col
umn and como out at the tips of his I'm
t | gers and toes.
' And now a cloud began to settle over the
, household and person of Mr.. Solomon
: Boggs.
|, Day after day went by, yet James
, James who was to marry Elizabeth-did
not come.
Again ana again old Mr.. boggS go az
to the office of the seventeenth inspector
of the royal inkstand, but an infexible at
a tendant said that Mr.. Peruke was engaged
and could not be interrupted under any
circumstanc The first functionary wa;
1 in despair.
! Finally The Daily Termagant cams out
with graphic account of gorgeous re
ception given by the wife of Hon. James
, Peruke, at which noble persons were pres
ont II, oroat MIN hers Mr. Solomon R0UQ:
read it while he was at breakfast an6
. swooned.
! AS soon as he came to his senses he has
+ tened to the honorable the secretary of the
, coastwise trade and demanded that James
. Peruke's commission be revoked.