The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-25
CLEANED BY A GIRL.

! Is is said of Mrs. Kipling that she
| knows a good story when she hears one
/ and such disdernment is probably the
! best characteristic the wife of so great
a writer can possess. If the wife of
/ Dickens had been capable to judge of
! good story, the great authors life would
! indeed, have been another story Nothing
4 in any of his wonderful novels is more
pathetic than that letter he wrote his
| friend in which, speaking of his separa-
! ton from his wife, he says: I'VE agreed
/ to live apart. Our tastes are incompati-
bic"
! Many a life more obscure than his has
this for its tragedy-its incompatible
surroundings.
bringing out the point with what you
consider a fOrcibIe adroitness, and the
friend who listens receives it with a seri-
Gus stare, or at best, a smile that is
sickly in it's insincerity; and you make
the sudden discovery that after all this
particular friend is very far removed from
/ you in sympathy and Congeniality.
Perhaps you come across some touch of
| pathOs in real life, some hidden bit of
heroic suffering or sacrifice suddenly laid
/ bare before yOu-and you dress the Incl
| dent up in such words as seem to fit it
! best and when you sit down to talk with
| your friend you tell the little occurrence in
| your most touching manner; and you feel
chilly isolation when he makes some
fippant remark or INDUCES in a sardonic
smile.
There is perhaps no one so much feared
| in society, and with good reason, as
/ the man who eleven times of an evening
/ tells the same story and as likely as not
| eleven times leaves out the point
| I once knew a girl Just home from
/ school whose family numbered AMONG its
| friends one of these bores She was as
! frank any child, and when he told
/ his story s, j would say, smilingly but
seriously, BIT you told that before
! This afforded great amusement and salts
| faction to his other victims; until one
| day her mother heard her, and she in
structed her daughter that now when he
! tells his pointless plagiarisms the girls
| counterfeit laughter is truly heart-rend-
ing; for she has learned to feign amuse-
ment at his jokes.
This is the story of 4 story and goes
! to show what horrid brutes some men
| can sometimes be.
She is a bright girl and she was talking
! to a young man who is likewise some
1 what brilliant. The talk somehow got
around to the subject Of writing and par
! ticularly to short, amusing incidents.
! Now, this man writes a little, and the
! girl had an inspiration. Il know a real
! funny story, she said with charming
! enthusiasm. 'IH tell it to you and then
| you can write it upI'
! He was all attention. Go on he said.
| We'll, one evening l went into a cafe
| she related. cit was horrid dark place,
! and after I had taken a seat al one OF
! the tables a young man and a girl came
in end sat down opposite me- They look
| ed just as sentimentaT'-
! oh! did you leave?" inquired the man,
with slight attempt at joke
| NO" she said, purposely misunder-
! standing him. 1t was the young man
! and wmoan VINO looked sentimental-not
| 1: But, to go on with the story. On the
! table near them lay 3 0 b and a
! Press. The girl, with a glance in my di-
! rection, picked up the papers and with
! them formed a sort of screen for their
/ faces-and then l heard a resounding kiss
/ and the papers came down again, and
/ she looked at me if 10 say, Z don't
care whether you heard that or not
Now, isn't that good story?" she
! concluded radiartly, ana aren't you go
| Ing to write it up?"
And then that great british man simply
pursed up his lips and said indifferently,
I'm afraid I shall not have time"
An excellent way to make an enemy
/ is to let a story teller know that you
/ know his new tale is quite an old one.
On one of the very sloppy days with
/ which we were visited last spring, a
young man called at the home of some
girls.
81 heard something good and original
today, girls he said, and when they
had expressed a desire to know it, he CON
! tinued, 81 met a friend of mine today
on the street. 'Awfully sloppy, isn't it?'
he said. But said I, its beautiful over
head Yes he rejoined, but unfortun-
ately there are not many going that
way Three of the girls showed their
appreciation Of the joke, but the fourth,
who has the bad habit of thinking after
she has spoken If at all, exclaimed.
why, telephone girl. friend of mine
about three years ago was told that same
thing by a travelling man She thought
it good enough TO telephone to the girl
at the next station, so that when the
travelling man tried to work it off there.
| the girl had the pleasure of forestaIling
him, and noting his surprise, The Young
woman who was speaking stopped short
here for the look on the young mans
face was perfectly savage; and she was
sorry for having added to the story when
she realized that she had added nothing
4 to his pleasure by doing 2