The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-22
A Fncc That Haunted.

'Tn addition to great beauty of person
and numerous strong mental traits heredl-
tary in my family" said one OF the buy
ers for q Washington department store to
the Washington Post, I've always prided
myself upon the possession of remark
able memory for faces. But 1 was badly
stumped on my New York trip last week
The head man in one OF the big wholesale
houses over there that is patronized by
my firm took me up TO his fiat for dinner
His wife and his wife's sister a very
charming pair of women, made the din
ner a delight. But the face of my hosts
sisteT-in-law bothered me. She was a pc
tite. dark woman, with an extraordinarily
fine figure and face not so pretty as it
was animated and interesting. 1 had seen
that face; I knew that. / tried TO think
of where 1 had seen it, 1t worried me IA
heap and 1 was out on a limb. 1 couldn't
for the life of me recall Just where I
had seen her couutenance and yet 1 would
have sworn that l had seen it often. I
mentally went over the features of all the
girls l ever knew. Nope; I had never
known her, but l had seen her face slath-
ers of times. Then. thinking she might
be an actress and thus have got her pic
lures on exhibition or in the newspapers, I
raked my memory on actresses. No go.
A1AiC Nihil SEtul dClLcSSgs any now anu 1
quit that line of guessing. Now. I've
never lived anywhere else except in Wash
ington, and ii was in Washington 1 felt
positive that 1 had seen her face. Finally
L asked her:
Have you ever visited Washington?
No, she replied, but I want to go
there so much. I've never been 100 miles
outside of New York
The reason l asked said, is that
your face seems so extraordinarily familiar
to me-
" 'Truly?' she said and, although l
couldn't just make out why. I was con
scous that 1 hadn't said just the right
thing, for her face flushed good deal as
she looked at her plate, and my host and
his wife made haste to get the conversa-
ton into another channel
I went to my hotel in a sort of frenzy
Pof wonder as to where l had seen my
hosts sister-in-law's face. ] hate to let
anything Ike that get away from me.
wasn't through wondering about it when
l reached the hotel. I stopped at The news
stand to buy couple of maya zines where
with to read myself to sleep in my room
For some reason or other-probably be-
cause Pm a hopelessly commonplace bus
mess mani always look over the ads. In
the back portion of a magazine before 1
tackle the reading matter. / was turning
over Ine rear pages OF one or the maya
zines idly when my thumb clutched at one
of the pages and 1 was momentariy stun
ned Now. il was surely a modest enough
picture, otherwise il couldn't have found
Judgment among the ads. of a frst-class
| family magazine but, taken in connection
with the worriment 1 had undergone ovAr
the countenance of my friends sster-tn-
law, il sort of foored me and put me out.
The quarter-page picture reproduced from
| a photograph, illustrated an advertisement
of the merits of union underwear. And so
1 was able 10 go to sleep without any
botherment as to where 1 had seen my
friends sister-in-law' face.
said my friend when l saw him at his
place of business the next day:
" My boy, this cultivation of the MEM
DRY business Is a fake. What we all need
is the cultivation of forgetfulness My sis
ter-in-law earned an easy $1,000 by hand
| ing herself down to posterity through the
medium of a magazine ad., but she's been
sore upon herself ever since for doing it.
| So that, If you want to make a hit and
be popular in the bosom of my family,
you'll have to cut out the "Where-have-I-
| seen-you-befores?" and so on. See?' "