The Ravalli Republican., 1898-09-14
4 PRACTICAL JOKE.

In many respects Tom Drummer
was acknowledged to be one of the
best of fellows. His penchant, how
ever, for practical joking, though it
never savored of malice, gained as
a rule moro censure than apprecia
ton. For one reason, his jokes were
not always in good taste, and the
case in point will serve as an illus
tration. It took the form, first of
all, Of an advertisement i'll one Of
the dailies, to wit: ..... 49,.
gentleman, unattached and under 90, with
good income, would like to make tho acquaint:
auce of an amiable young lady with q view to
:aatrllnoliy. Address in confidence, \. lGO
office of this paper,
He smiled grimly as he read it
over in print, wondering, with curl
Gus interest, what sort of replies he
would get and how he should treat
them. Although, literally speaking,
he was unattached-that is to say,
although thero was no spoken en-
gagement between him and his old
playmate and friend, Nellie Marsh
he felt that he was sufficiently
idolized by that lady and sufficient
ly under the spell OF her charms to
defy the possible influence Of any Of
the applicants, however fascinating
Moreover, as his income was at pres
ent too modest to permit of his
marrying anybody, he went into the
jest with a. double sense of safety.
The replies were several, and, on
the whole, not interesting Most of
them werefrom matrimonial agents,
who promised, fer reasonable fees,
TO procure him the:necessary intro
duction, while guaranteeing their
clients amiability and every other
virtue Tho rest, with one excep-
ton, were palpably bogus. The
terseress ofthis one, apart from it's
neat and lady]ike handwriting, gave
it q genuinee: ring. It read as fol
lows:
If the advertiser is willing to send by post
further particulars about himself and exchange
photos with the writer, the confidence will be
TCSpGClEtE Autl1 CS9 BLISS IL" IL Hill
street. Kings oval
Decidedly tho lady means bust
ness, thought Tom, and the thought
led to others, which convinced him
that in following up the joke he
would run a risk of making an ass
of himself, or worse. After all it
was clear there was not much fun
to be got out of the affair, and he
was about to put this reply, with
the rest, in the fire when suddenly
new idea struck him.
While rt1lnmaging among his col
lection Of photos day or two pre-
vious he had come across one of a
club acquaintance, Mr.. Pelling-
ham, which had reached him on
some forgotten occasion, probably
through third party. AS this
photo happened to be on his table
at the moment, he placed it in an
envelope. Hethen looked up the ad-
dress of the original, whom he knew
to be single man like himself, and
boldly indlted the following letter
MAPLE TERRACE, REGENTS PARK.
DEAR n lss Tow SSfIES SD-In acknowl lcuSmcn,
of your letter jnclose my photo and beg K
state that am Junior partner in the firm OF
Rawson s. Pcllingham, railway contractors
My object in advertising shall hope to cx
plain, with further particulars, at all early in
tervlew. / leave the appointment in your
hands and sign myself yours faithfully,
ALFRED PE1llHGEAM.
This letter he inclosed with the
photo and posted off to the address
in Kings oval, chuckling at the
tale Pellingham might have to tell
on some future occasion.
In his business or social capacity
Alfred Pellingham was not easily
dumfounded, yet a certain letter
which arrived one evening at hi
private residence marked an excep
ton It ran thus:
IL Hill. STREET, K1SG's OVAL.
Deaf. MIR: PELE1NGllAM-I inclose my phot
IN exchange tor your own and shall be please
to meet you rear this bcokst;t|l Of the tirea
Northern terminus ut O'Clock tomorro'
evening You a9ill have o difficulty III rccoI
nizing me- as shall dress III pale green an
wear Il hat trimmed with red poppics. Bcliev
me, yours in Confidence,
Alice TowSsn END.
It would be impossible to describ
the wonderment of Mr.. Pellinghal
on receipt of this amazing commu
nication: The photo wtss certainl
that of a pretty girl: who
Alice Townshendi And what o
oarth can st1e want. with me?' wer
the questiu*sss !ie kept asking bin
self after putting every possib]
and impossible construction on th
letter In the end curiosity d.
cided that he must at least keep II
appointment if he ever hoped
solve the problem.
Accordingly, at the time and p1a'
referred to, he found himself an
Il usly awaiting the appearance
}s,e mysterious stranger, who WI
growing all the more mysterious
.,ot being present. Five, ten, fistet
!. :nrtes passed, and yet nobody a
ll,E~ I %ir,