The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-09-11
MIS- BIBBSS TELESCOPE
N TIE TRAGEDY IN GRAY YARN
WHICH IT BROUGHT ABOUT.

Goin' on tOrty-nine year m out TO be settled
down II he's ever eoin' to be. Sometimes"
continued Mrs. Teeters. II tell him It's q good
.-s5e we Amt get any young ones for me to
take care OF. Mr.. Teeters he keeps me as busy
as half a dozen children could.
Don't you remember how, whom you was q
young one. you was always teasin' your ma to
tell you a story about when she was a little
grip Law l guess every child that ever
breathed done that. l know / did. As for Mr..
Teeters. he Amt quit doin' It yet, an as he amt
got his ma to ask. he takes II ont on me-. 1
dunno's 1 mind. either. l kind o. like to 60
back to the time when / was q girl livin' up to
the Corners, an when I'd as soon thought O.
Twin in Europe as New York.
"Idunno as they was any more queer people
up to the Corners. than they Is here in Harlem,
Idon't s'pose they was; only. there We knowed
every body through an through an back again.
j can't tell much about folks here In the city,
exceptin'I can see their fire escape. an even
then it's pretty much guesswork. How. for in
stance. would l ever know 1t II they was a wo-
man inlthe next block Z had O telescope settin'
handy to tho front window sot she could tell
every leetle thing abot how l looked when l
went down my front stops?
"Oh, I amt sayin' that there is such a woman
round here. don't s'pose there is. There's
too many folks under your very nose here. let
alone spyin' round with a telescope tryin' to
see more. But it amt that way up to the Cor
ners. You can set at your front window there
by the hour an not see one Twin soul go long
the road. So maybe you'll believe that when
there was human beins to look at we didn't
turn our backs on 'em. Not much! That's
whyit didn't use to seem 80 awful funny about
Mis- Bibbs's telescope. or course we used to
kind o'laugh 'mongst ourselves. but. l noticed
that we was all keen enough to get a squirt
through 1t when we was at Mis- Bibbs's an
any one happened 10 come in sight.
dunno how / happened to tell Mr.. Teeters
about that telescope first place. but when l did.
thought he'd like to kill himself laughin' over
It. An to this day. when he's got his pipe lit
winter nights an we're fixed all coy an COM
Portable by the parlor table. Just as like as not
he'll lay Town his paper and kind Of look
around the lamp shade at me an say:
Emmy, feline a story about when you was
always look mp an ketch his eye, just as if
he'd never asked me that before. an l say:
well, what shall tell you about e.,
sd An, then a"t 9 hedl ttSSE G s ms pipe p su 1Hr an m 9 biS a tae
as IL he was studyin' over something very inn
portant and then. more than half the time. he'll
"'Well. tell me about the time your cousin
from Albany come to make you a visit
~, With OnIlt that at, he he'll SlT sHsr Puts 1T h his d 5ipsg back "a ! in in
can 5 ses me sss E %{s! Ar nib | ofST Tsa in an awful good
place for obServin' people II thereid only hap
pened to be more people TO observe. She, could
look up an down two roads that crossed each
9 Stn S6a I.ssf ri IL lF0 elo St h 9S Ms hGHi Bibb Inf Gut E2 Ms
Ruddick she lived u few rod down one o, the
roads and we lived a mite beyond Mis- Rud-
dick. and then they was houses pretty cIost TO-
Eether till you got &c, Main street. Mis-. Bibbs
drug store in the, eorner o the harness shop.
1t want more'n about six foot square, the drug
store want. but Riley. Peters KEEP it. and he
had a separate door for folks, to come in at.
though he might inst as well had the drug
Postmaster.
well. as / was sayin', Mis- Bibbs could see the
door what opened into Riley's little drug store.
s eRt Z IN IN na Tar 20 so06 o% %p' . 9 the Gss P fitehssn T! %indeS 70
house. she could see the railroad depot. too.
80 you see she had a good Point for lookin', an
s she p Mis' B shs @sf ho %l e. w nss SO o4 FUR f from eys Mss
thing that her commanding situation want Of
% PeopIe uf But to BEEN asT; p sss SoG I'D sfs h sse s 11sfEetrs not OF
being anything extry. she couldn't tell half the
t tn11iD w ]nst %b6 sIs wa; M msn az. or w sspss1aI ISt e &bse
they was wearin'. both as to clothes an to ex-
Wis Bibbs lived all alone with her daugh-
ter Mary. but Mary want much better off Tor
eyes than her ma was, l dunno how nor when
They'd got it before ever / could remember.
and 1 growed up with the idea as natural that
t asns e9s arosnd FSa Ta eilI an, f tSat M Tsf B}bb @g Sn'
SfhiFy t SSFl COX p are in Pqi,tn Il His "f BiS g ' she y Sas
pretty stout an not SO active as she might be.
30 Slt SAT TOullu llDS' U llo tl!ue .hnIItIu al
Wien they was in the fitchen they had the,
1 widow near ssis' where MARY washed the dishes
and done the work. Mis- Bibbs she set at the
the depot an for anybody goin' in the direction
of the drug store. When she seen any one she
Mary, they's somebody down on the depot
platform, Or Mary, there goes somebody
Wary wiped her hands g duick's n flash. an
up with the telescope as handy 8 II she was a
was If she knowed. an Just what they had on
about EN-. An thep, they'd. set to an talk T
be eoin' to Happen an entertain themselves by
the day. no matter whether any one went nigh
what they didn't know about the iSIks that got
OIL. an of The train want worth teilln,.
bany. an one ThanEsgivin'. when ! was long
about 10 yearold, she come OYER With her little
tittie girl. an me was about the same age, bur
She all Ma th q SI5y y thenE: WISH We Stood ssrS That shh IN a awe Mn9 Of
Aunt Susan! used to think everything Ollie
from heaven an enough more stylish! Aunt
Susan used to- com 2 an, make b,a us q Visit Wis ABOUT n1t
days you'd see ev'ry woman at the Corners try
ing 70 copy Aunt SMsan's way, q dressin'.
spend Me Tih 1nS ssy VIM fl'sS Ia IA" an an Aunt Dlt' susan ESMg stated SP ? ed
proud Of hayint a Ait, city visitor that l got Ollie
"'' Susan says Ma on the way to the store.
let's us go an see Mis- Bibbs before we go
home, You know she amt real smart on her
Shed be awful pleased II we come to see her
Aunt Susan she said she didn't care II she
did go. an 50 they settled It: But Ma, she
ever see, an she knew Miss Bibbs'd like to have
notice beforehand. not to be caught unpre-
pared. so she says to me-.
f'' Emmy, you an Ollie JUS run back an tell
Mis- Bibbs I your Aunt Susan an me II run in
good girl. Mebbe Mis- Bibbs II let you look
'""The telescope fetched Ollie an me, an w
run back TO Mis- Bibbs's as tight as we could
20. They was both in the dinin' room. which
rnayeilin' out the stockin's that Mis- Bibbs was
always knittin'. Beln' such little folks we
toof up With the big heap o. crinkled gray yarn
that KEEP a-growin' bigger the more they raw
sIied. Well. they stopped an talked to US for O
little while, all the time eyin' Ollie an taki9, N