Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-11-17

SO much SO, indeed, tha6 we DelieVeu tlat
he was as firmly lodged on the rocks of
bachelorhood as Great Britain is III Gil
braltar. And yet he had married!
There was no inkling of his prospective
marriage about the office, but after ii had
happened we recalled that he had appeared
absentminded, and also that his story,
Fighting Against Fate, " running as a
serial in The Alpaca Magazine For Young
Girls, was teeming with love-a topic, by
the way, he had never before attempted.
Baxter had gone IN "A wedding tour-a
"spoonin jnnket, " the office boy called it
and every day we counted the hours be-
fore he would return and let us know all
of the particulars. One of the reporters
had learned that his wife was a young
milliner who boarded at the same place he
did. 1t was not learned necessarily for
publication, but as a guarantee Of good
faith.
The two weeks finally ended, and Baxter
returned to the office, and, what is more,
brought his wife with him. She was a
quiet little woman and during the half
hour she was about scarcely said a word
but Eyes" or no." and she was not very
pretty, just passably good looking.
One day, there being IL lull in the work,
Baxter spoke up and told us this:
zoe course you are all reading Fighting
Against Fate, now running as a serial.
Well, that was an entirely new line for
me, for it tells of a gay young man who
was always making love to some girl. AS
you are aware, ! knew nothing about such
business, never spoke a word of affection
to a girl in all my life, but as that was
the kind of a story the magazine wanted,
and as they had offered me a good prize,
why, such a story it had to have. How
we'll l succeeded in filling their wants you
must Judge"
Its a beaut," interrupted the office
boy.
"Thanks, said Baxter and went on. II
studied the subject over for several days,
and finally l decided that the only way for
me to get the spirit of my hero and give
him life was to do as he did. When | made
up my mind to do that, l just put on d
bold face and started out. l tackled the
landlady first, but she did not take kindly
to my ways, and then L tried a woman
who lives next door and with whom l had
a slight acquaintance.
"That woman was all right when it
came down to a Irritation. We We're get
ting along swimmingly; had got SO far
along that one night l actually pressed
her hand. Things were getting to be a bit
dangerous, and her husband interfered. |
told him my object, and he said some
things about literary men that my religion
prevents me from repeating.
"It vas about this time that a quiet,
modest little woman came to board at our
house. She worked in a down town store,
and as she seemed to be all alone in the
world l singled her out as my victim. She
had no husband Or brother to come be-
tween us. In fact, she was just the woman
l had been looking for. AS soon as | saw
her I knew that l could do the story i was
scheduled to write justice. So l began
with her the second night she was there,
and l was very well satisfied with my first
experience, for l went back to my room
and drafted the principal features of the
story.
"We got along %splendidly. Inside of a
week l was reading Maud to her, and
the second week we began on Lucille and
had tackled about all the poems of that
kind. Why, that's what l was doing so
much Of the time in the exchange room
cutting out sentimental poems. Then we
used to talk about the moonlight and all
that sort of thing. The more l went on
the more interested I became. We were to-
gether all the time. When we didn't have
anything to talk about, we'd sit close to-
gether and hold each others hand and 81
lently look at the wall.
"Oh, it was awful!
"Of course there was some uying going
on about us, but I didn't care, for I'd
leave her and go to my room and grind
out a chapter of my serial story and suffer
just as much as my hero did and groan
with despair over the uncertainty of my
fate, whether Gwendoline returned my
affections or whether she loathed me, for,
you see, / was playing the star part in the
story myself. l had a troublesome time for
a few months.
"Well, of course, l had to finish the
story some time. 1t couldn't go on for all
time, you know. I had killed the girls
father, brought her down to sewing in a
family where the old woman was jealous
Of her husband, sent her lover away be-
cause she was too proud to accept him
now that she was poor and thought that
he simply pitied her, and had generally
got the story mixed up SO that the reader
of The Alpaca Magazine Fol Young Girls
had nervous prostration waiting for the
next numberl
"Of course 1 married the two after she
had gone to him and nursed him through
a siege of sickness, and had had some old
mining stock Of her fathers make her as
rich as her lover, and that ended the story.
But l couldn't keep away from that little
milliner! The fact Of the matter Is that
I had gotten so in the habit of chasing
around with her that couldn't stop it.
"Things didn't go right with m at all.
I was restless nights and couldn't eat and
I was irritable and liked to sit at the win
dow and look out into the night and
think. l got gloomy, too, and wanted to
be alone and walk the floor and sing An
ME Laurie and songs of that character.
81 would invariably look her up when
ever l could, and l noticed that when I
was around where she was l was calm; a
great peace seemed to descend upon me.
But the moment l left her that same old
tired feeling came back. Why, I would
get up in the night and take long walks
through the dark and silent streets.
II mentioned this to her one Sunday
afternoon, and she said that she had had
the same symptoms. but a woman has a
name for every ailment and she had for
ours. It took me a long time to get out Of
her what it was, but finally she told me.
1t wal love.
Hanged If she wasn't right. While l
had been practicing with her for my story
well, l married her, and now neither
one Of us has those symptoms"
"And you never will" said Dobson,
who has been married 20 years and is
grouchy.-R. A. Eaton in St. Louis Re-
public.
Her Practical Views.