The San Francisco call., 1896-08-02

I said to my opposite. She smiled.
.'How do you know? 1t would be so in
teresting to KNOW" signaIed back the
lady from Borneo.
The sign was sure enough. The waiter
brought morning paper and the man
took it.
"Chirrup. chirrup," said his little wife
to him, or what would amount to tnat II
she were really as birdlke as she looked.
She was trying on the ante-marrlage pro-
gramme-the tactics of the period when
he listened to her prattle with due regard
to its importance.
Somebody or other had found 1t neces-
sary to tell the newspapers all about why
he was going to vote or was not going TO
vote and the gentleman found this OF more
account than the twitterings OF his really
beautiful companion. He plunged into
the paper and was reading about horse
race, when
"Cheep, cheep," piped the birdlike WIFE,
But the man hardly looked up, and as
he answered only mechanically, we could
both see that his real attention was for
s'20 to shot," or something like that, OF
which the paper told him.
The bird plumage ruff1ed. She would
not be ignored without a protest.
"Chip, chip!" The sound came from
between her lips, which were. l think,
naturally red--or if they were not the color
was well put on-with the emphasis AMI
sharp accept of very business-like and
not altogether amiable English sparrow.
Then he looked up. He recognized
4 La% ha lodi W M
Borneo? You must judge whether she
was sarcastic according to your knowledge
of the Borneoese mind.
s'I never saw anything like that in
Borneo." she said slowly.
1 am reasonably hardened against the
outre. / have seen so many persons In
our public restaurants use the tabiecloth
for q napkin and soil the interior Of the
sugar bowl with muddy stains from their
individual spoons that hardly think it
worth while to dwell upon such happen
ings as these. Nor may it be necessary to
descant at any great length on those men
monsters who place their knives in their
respective mouths and use them as if they
were plasterers, putting into crannies sue
cessive layers or strata. The party who
also not enough of rara avis to entitle him
to be specifically put down. All these my
Borneo friend looked at, cogitated about.
and would have given shiny silver dol
lar to know what she thought concerning
the people who were contributing to her
social and intellectual progress. She only
slipped tea demurely and concealed her
feeling behind a velvet mask. which was
as impenetrable as chilled steel,
The scenic revelations from one table at
which We sat, will be bound for a cer-
tainty, brought up pictures of a far dis
tant land to my lovely companion. In the
half dusk of tropical forest of Borneo,
the CHEEKY Simian customarily depends
from the gnarled and lusty branches of
the immemorial banyan tree. holding on
with prehensile tail. What he dimes on
or how he eats it don't know nor care.
He may eat cocoanuts, first breaking them
to get at the milk, or he may dine in
courses and wind up with "a little black"
That is not material, except in this, that
he is natural and all his vices of eating
are his own. They are not initiated vices.
Next to US sat young man with dreamy
and soulful blue eyes. the brow of poet
and a woman's complexion, upon which
a silken mustache grew with ornamental
effect. He smacked his lips over his wine,
which was so distinctly an offense that
the lady from Borneo cared for him no
more until he ate. Oh, for mirror to be
held in front of that young man. Up and
down. up and down, on the sides of his
mead travelled his ears as he opened and
closed his mouth. Not that the lobes
were attached to his cheeks, for they were
not. His devoted mouth was stretched
to its widest extent He had practiced so
long that his ears had become sympathetic
and moved with his Jaws.
One more instance. We sat at table
while next was a man who took out his
false teeth and wiped them upon his nap
kin.
'T.et me GO" said the Borneoese lady,
faint,y. We went, CATHERINE
THE BRC