The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-11-03
Polite to the ast.


do listen to him. said the elderly
lady impetuously. Cant he stop for a
single moment?"
Impossible. utterly" said the witty
man. Evidently Ike the street beggars,
ne gets his living by MS i'll health"
at isn't I'll health" interrupted the ner-
vous man pstulantly. IF i were cot '
have a great deal Of sympathy for him.
No one could have more excuses for a
true invalid than myself. But that ras-
by, hacky, tickling cough-husf! huSfi-
fairly sets me wild II isn't cough, it's
"a"
Nervous ailment, just like your own.
isn't it?' innocenly suggested the stout
man He doesn't seem 10 get any more
fun out of it than we do. he sits al his
desk and coughs till his throat feels as
If it was on fire, and he goes 10 bed and
cougnC until he fails asleep from pure
exhaustion"
The young lady boarder had not ven
tured an opinion until the nervous man
turned TO her and asked her If the fe!-
low did not annoy her.
81 cannot say no, and I'm ashamed TO
say yes" she answered gently. As you
have saiG, ne undoubtedly has the worst
OF IT,"
AS she rose and left the room the muir
nnurs redoubIed, including her IN their
criticisms; kindly, TO be sure, but
'She wouldn't say anything against him,
you, know" said the short man. They
used 10 be engaged TO be married once
Shouldn't wonder If she couldn't stand
the cough, then, herself. Strangest thing
to me is that they seem TO be good friends
just the same" He hitched his chair
nearer the rest Of the group as he ad-
ded:
Il know one thing that will be good
news TO most of US. The landlady has
given him notice to change his 'bo'dins
place Said his cough disturbed every
one, and twas everybody or him
The elderly lady coLored as she an
swered:
"Oh, don't know that we want him to
leave. He seems TO be nice quiet little
man."
But the quiet little man had received
his notice, and blushing, confused. the
next day he left the house and passed
on his way, still coughing.
Not for the first time had the cough
proved his enemy. Even his father and
mother had been annoyed by it. His
schoolmates had ridiculed it. His fellow
CitIhS udu C4lCAASu IlAI dOOuS IL anu
when the chatting or rid1cule or annoyance
became painful 10 him and the cough be-
came uncomfortable to others he was mere
ly asked to move on"
After he left the boarding house II was
several weeks before the young lady saw
him again. Perhaps for her sake. per-
haps for his own, he had not told her
where he was going. and it was with a
feeling of surprise that from her posi-
ton in the choir she saw him enter the
church one evening. How he had hest
tated, advanced and retreated, she did not
know.
She did notice, however, that. he looked
wretched1y I'll, and not for the first time
a feeling of concern for her friend over
came her.
He had hardly seated himself before the
little sound was heard. the beginning OF
his cough.
The minister stopped several times for
the noise to cease. Evidently they could
not both run at the same time He
glanced at the dsturber with some won
der at first; then annoyance; then vex-
alton. He began to grow pale. They said
he had a bad temper; it began to show.
He had not spent hours on his finely turn
ed sentences TO have them drowned by
that