Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-12-03
: q s'.- y 8 n q! Z = -
STREET YARNS.
Stories Heard This Week On
Augusta's Streets.
The Drummer's Remarkable Memory
and the Trouble It Caused Him.
A theatrical Tramp. Another Police Station In.
cident and Other Stories.


I'm addition to great beauty of per-
son and numerous strong mental traits
hereditary in my family said the
travelling man of the jolly disposition
to his party of friends in Water
street clothing store. yesterday "Tve
always prided myself upon the posses
sion of remarkable memory for faces.
But ! was badly stumped on my New
York trip last week. The head man in
one of the big wholesale houses over
there that is patronzed by my firm
took me up to his fiat for dinner His
wife and his wifes sister,a very charm
ing pair of women, made the dinner a
delight. But the face of my hosts SIS
ter-in-law bothered me.
''She was a petite, dark woman,
with an extraordinary fine figure and a
face not so pretty as it was animated
and interesting. l had seen that face:
knew that. l tried to think of where
I had seen it. 1t worried me a heap
and was out on a limb l couldn't for
the life Of me recall just where l had
seen her countenance, and yet I would
have sworn that 1 had seen it often.
mentally went over the features of all
the girls l ever knew. Nope; had
never known her, but l had seen her
face slathers of times. Then, thinking
she might be an actress and thus have
herpictures on exhibition or in the news
papers, raked my memory on actress
| es. No go. She didn't seem actressy
anyhow, and 1 quit that line of guess
ing. Now, I've never lived anywhere
else except in Washington, and it was
in Washington 1 felt positive that I
had seen her face. Finally asked her:
"'Have you ever visited Washing
ton?'
"'No,' she replied, but want to go
| there so much. I've never been 100
miles outside of New York
The reason l ask l said. is that
your face seems so extraordinarily
| familiar to me-
"'Truly?' she said; and, although I
! couldn't just make out why, I was
conscious that I hadn't said just the
| right thing, for her face flushed a good
deal as she looked at her plate, and my
host and his wife made haste to get
the conversations into another channel.
| Il went to my hotel in a sort of
| frenzy of wonder as to where I had
seen my hosts sister-in-Iaw's face /
hate to let anything like that get away
| from me. | wasn't through wondering
about it when l reached the hotel I
stopped at the news stand to buy a
| couple of magazines wherewith to read
myself to sleep in my room. For some
reason or other-probably because I'm
a hopelessly commonplace business
mani always look over the ads in the
back portion of a magazine before l
tackle the reading matter.
Il was turning over the rear pages of
one of the magazines idly when my
thumb clutched at one of the pages
and l was momentarily stunned. Now,
it was surely modest enough picture,
otherwise it couldn't have found lodg-
ment among the ads. of a first-rate
| family magazine; but, taken in connec-
ton with the worriment 1 had under
gone over the countenance of my
friends sister-in-law, it sort of foored
me and put me out. The quarter page
picture, reproduced from a photograp ph,
illustrated an advertisement of the
merits Of union underwear. And so l
was able to go to sleep without any
friends sister-in-law's face.
Said my friend, when saw him at
his place of business the next day:
My boy, this cultivation of the
memory business is a fake. What we
all need is the cultivation of forgetful-
ness. My sister-in-law earned an easy
81, 900 by handing herself down to pos
terity through the medium of maga-
zine ad., but she's been sore upon her
self ever since for doing it. So that if
you want to make hit and be popular
in the bosom of my family, you'll have
to cut out the Where have seen you
befores?" and SO on. See?'
Mrs. Smith was sitting in the dining
room the other day and from the kitch-
! en- adjoining, she heard remarkable
conversation. 1t was a dialogue be-
tween the hired girl and tramp of the
learned sort. evidently Portland man,
for all his talk was of theatrical
nature. First of all the girls voice was
heard to say:
"What do you want?"
A gruff voice with a comical note in
it replied: More than is dreamt of in
| thy philosophy, Horatio."
But my name amt Horatio," ans
| wered Hannah.
Nor yet again, 1 fancy. is it Trilby,