The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-01-07
old FOGY LOVE.

somehow, despite my bald head-for, to
be honest, I am uncompromisingly and
individually bald-I do not feel quite SO old
as my years would make me out to be.
1t is true that | am a little wheezy in
the chest at times and rheumatism has
marked me for its own yet with the rod
and fly I think / can still teach them a
trick or two, and at billiards the odds are
generally acknowledged to rest with tho
old buffer.
Blu it is not my intention to pirate Of
he few accomplishments which that great
thief Time has still allowed me to retain.
In my day / have ha moro to be proud
of than they. for I have had a not alto
gether unsuccessful life-no, why should
1 deny it-in outward honors at least I
have had a brilliant, if not great, career.
"Lucky"-well, "Woodburn" will do, It's
near enough-was the name by which
mon knew me at the bar, though it's only
the older generation now which will be
able to recall it, unless indeed some dill
gent and sober minded student, digging
among the archives Of the past, should
p~erehance unearth a certain book on torts
and see the name or the title page Of this,
alas, now ~antiquated volume.
All, there / go with this rambling
tongue of mine-sure sign of old age
talking of torts and such like things,
whom l have set myself down to tell you
of my love stories!
Then / am back again walking in
schoolboy cap and jacket along the Avon
banks with Hetty Price-bright, laughing,
quizzing Hetty. All, what a sad havoc
her merry brown eyes made in my youth
full studiesl She lost me the Latin prize
and was the unconscious cause of getting
me more than one good s~wishing, and old
Nobs-he became a bishop afterward-
could lay it on too. But nevertheless i
would not part with that period of my
life in spite Of the swishings and for all
the prizes that ever fell to the lot OF a
S--bury boy.
1t was a bright, merry, mischieyous face
which ever played hide and seek upon the
pages of my books, and it was a corner by
the river that l ever saw in my minds eye
when / should have been following Cyrus
in his interminable wars or hammering
out irregular verbs with old LIE Broeq, the
French master. And the fellows won
dered what was up with old Woodburn,
whose interest in cricket had gone and
ever preferred bis own company to that Of
his fellows.
Every half holiday when the others
focked to the cricket nets or the fves
courts / betook myself off on mine own
business, meeting Hetty now hers, now
there, as the necessity for secrecy demand
ed.
She was, I found, a curious mixture Of
sound common sense, which was her own,
and romantic aspirations, which, she had
acquired from sSBow Bells and such like
literature.
Her great ambition in life was to go on
the stage, and it was of this that she
dreamed as she polished III the glasses be-
hind the bar or drew a tankard of ale for
Ben Hoskins, the carter, who winkcd his
eve in un-Romeolike fashion as the cool
home brewed went down his dusty throat.
but" as she shrewdly remarked, II am
not such a fool as to throw up the Farm
ers' for an uncertainty. lam waiting for
a chance"
ssBow Bells "Bow Bells" Hetty!
Many q one has, like you, longed and
hoped for the fairy who is going to
change all that and waited, waited until
at last there comes not the gocsl fairy, for
she is away in other folks concerns, but a
wrinkle here, q gray hair there and stern
reality to obliterate the rosy dreams Of
youth.
Not long after this I left S--bury
through causes which do not concern US
now and saw no more of Hetty Price.
Our farewell was tender. AT the time
1 thought it the bitterest pang of my life.
Once only I heard from her, long years
after, when I was no longer amenable TO
school discipline, and as her letter makes
much plain / do not hesitate to produce it
in fall. have it still by me somewhere.
1t ran:
DEAR Mr.. W-ooDBURN-You will doubtless
be surprised to hear from me after all these
years, but / thought you might like to know
how things are going on. There is also anoth-
er reason, as the inclosed will show.
Well, l remained at the Farmers for a long
time after you left-much regretted-waiting
for the chance which was SO long in coming,
but it came at last. I answered an advertise
mefst and left the monotony of the Farmers
for she wider stage of. a travelling company, by
which means / hoped to reach the heights OF
fame.
Eighteen months passed by, but, alasi the
fame was as far Of as ever and the diseo1nforts
present, and, whils at one time 1 envied those
behind the footlights, / now grew to my
those in front, until at last | wished myself
back again.
The chance came, and, as you see, I am here
once again, not in my old capacity, however,
for 1 have entered into a permanent engage
inert, having, under conditions, a theater OF
my own now, being manageress and part own
er thereof.
In this business | am associated with enoth-
err, whose name may be seen on the piaybiu
over the door-to wit, Joseph Maddox. once
milier's foreman, now landlord of the Farm
ers'.
Now. if ever you come to S. again, per-,
hans you will come and have tea witt us, il
you have turned teatotaler, or a glass as beer,
if you have not, and I will draw it mysalf for
the sake of old times-that is, of course, il
you. forgive Joseph, who, | fancy, has some-
thing to say. From yours, with kindest re-
membrance,
HETTY MADDOX tonce BETTY Psice).
Heigho! So Hetty Prize had married
Joe Maddox. This, then, was the end Of
her ambitions. Lord, how jealous | used
to DO of Joe, and Joe doubtless Of mel
How mad, 90, I should once have been il
I knew that Joe would marry Hetiyl But
somehow nov I felt that it was only as it
ought to have been in the fitness OF things.
ANYHOW all is fair in love and war, /
suppose. Good luck to them buth, Il
long may tho Farmers Ar,ns flourish
And I sent them a present, and at dinner
that night I drank to the success of the
Farmers Arms and the health Of Its land
lady. once Hetty Price-merry, laughing
mischief loving Hetty-my first love-
Engiishwoman.
AD "Ar Hf3