The morning news., 1898-11-27

fidgeting of other human beings. 1 some
times wonder whether l am more nervous
than most persons. Perhaps l am, and
yet it doesn't show in most of the sit
uations which call for a display of femi-
nine nerves. But one thing is sure, ]
haven't gone to theater or concert or even
church in years without having my pleas
ure partly spoiled by some little annoying
habit on the part Of persons near me. Not
one man or woman In a thousand can
be quiet At the last Boston Symphony
concert the man next to me tapped an
accompaniment 10 all the numbers on the
arm ofehis seat. 1t was little thing, but
1t got upon my nerves and marred the
evening for me.
IT went to the theater three evenings
last week. One night the man just be-
hind me scraped the bottom of my sat
with his feet all the evening long. The
next night my escort had squeaky shoes
and he evidently wrigged his toes con-
stantly and kept the soles of those shoes
squeakng. Another time the woman be-
side me clasped and uncasped her bon
bonniere necessarily, making a sharp,
clicking noise. At church, on Sunday, the
woman to whom ! offered part of my pew
had a creaky little fan, which she flut-
tered or opened and shut all through the
service At the matinee, on Saturday
two girls behind me nibbled some sort
of brittle candy from the time the cur
tain first went up until 1t fell after the
last act.
"Of course, you think am a crank; but
it irritates me to see how careless and
inconsiderate the average man or woman
is. and what absurd habits most persons
have When / see any one sit still for
five minutes at a time | feel like intro
ducing myself aud congratulating him on
his valuable Accomplishment. All the
world wrigges nowadays, and when it
isn't wriggling il has nervous prostra-
ton"
There Is a woman in the Greater New
York, says the Times Of that city. who
carries always down in the depths of her
inner consciousness a little bit of sack
cloth for an act of foolishness committed
a number of years ago. In the first place
Il must be said that the woman is the
most amiable Of her sex, though she Is
not devoid of the spirit without which even
a good woman might be somewhat inane.
At the time when the event occurred for
which she still wears the sackcloth she
was a young married woman engrossed in
the care of her first baby. The baby, of
course. menopolized great part of her
thought and attention, and beside II most
other things looked small. But a little
space in her heart That she had to give to
other things held a very warm feeling
for an old clock which had. been I'm her
family for a great many years. 1t was
charmingly quaint, with primitive works,
and somewhat out of order and so old
that the modern clockmaker found diff
Guilty in diagnosing its condition. But the
outside was beautiful; the clock was
about four feet high, and there was a de-
lightful spread eagle ornamenting H.
There was some one else who admired
this clock. She was woman stopping in
the house at the time, not an intimate
friend Of the family or a connection; and,
as the woman looks at the matter now,
she was not troubled with large amount
Of principle She wanted that clock. and
she did not hesitate to ask for IT, II is a
difficult matter for young housekeeper to
refuse a guests request and still be po-
lite. That is one of The things she has
10 learn as she grows older. This young
househeeper did not know how. She reit-
Grated again and again that the clock
could not be made 10 keep time, but the
grasping visitor was always as emphatic
in her assertions that she only wished IL
TO look al the outside. So finally, with
the interest IN the first baby absorbing
10 such an extent all other thoughts, the
remembrances Of her husbands jokes at