The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-02-12
THE FRIENDLY LANDLADY.
AN AFFBICTToN SUFFERED BIZ THE
UNPROTECTED BACHELOR.

Lodging House Keepers who Want to BE
Sociable with Their Boarders and Tenants
Continued Flight of an Artist to RS
cape Their Attentions-His Experiences.
Now there is an advertisement which inter
ested me considerably when l read it in a daily
paper one morning last week." said the dis
g~runtled artist. The advertisement ran thus
WANTED-By a gentleman, an unfurnishsd room
w in a house where the landlady lie not sociablc.
How l sympathized with the unknown adver-
tlserl' the artist went on. Have / not myself
suffered from that most terrible OF aflictions.
the friendly landladyp As an artist who has
lived in New York for the last ten years. my
experience has been a large one owing to the
fact that l have never fingered long In one
place. being invariably driven away sooner or
later By the inslstent attentions, motherly or
otherwise, OF the Ian ilady.
81 we'll remember the first apartment which
l occupied In this city. The landlady APP
peared to be a pleosant-mannered Irish wo-
man from the little / had seen OF her, s:the house
was clean and well kept and l looked forward
to q long stay. Alas, It was a dream. One
night, Just as 1 had put on my slippers and an
old coat. there came.a knock at the door.
"'oh, Mr.. Jones' said the landlady. for she
II was. you must be so lonely up here and We
are going to have a little music this evening.
Won't you come DOWN. Tho gentlemen who
have the room next yours are down there and
one Of them sings beautiful. Such nice young
men, both walters at the Millionaires' Club
she added with pride.
Now. 1 may be q snob. but I must own that
I did not I'd II altogether in the light Of an
honor to meet waiters, even.from o Million
aires Club. on a footing OF social equality.
Still. the invitation was 30 evidently kindly
meant that l felt It would be unmannerly to
refuse on such grounds. go I murm ured some
excuse about old coats and slippers not being
quite the correct eet-up for a musicale. But
Mrs. Hovey was not to be put of so easily.
why. that's no natter she exclaimed. you
can easily slip on your coat and shoes again
and be downstairs as soon as l am l saw l
was in for it ind weakly consented to make the
necessary change. Over the horrors of that
evening draw a veil. Read Thackeray's de-
s~criptiun Of tho dinner party ut Mrs. Cams
and you will get some idea OF it.
This was but the beginninG'of many SINH
lar evenings. In vain 1 made excuses. l had
work to do. had toothache. I was just going
out. 1 went through the whole list. why, Mr..
JONES' said Mrs. Hovey. 1 do believe you think
you-are not welcome. I can assure you your
company affords us great pleasure After
three weeks I left. Mrs. Hovey on bidding me
good-by insisted that 1 was to sbe sure and
come to see them often. Too bad you are
leaving she said. lust. as we are getting to
know each other
My next landlady wes.a stout. motherly-
looking person hailing from Chicago. In an
swer to my questions. she assured me that the
house was q quiet one and that / should be
able to work without disturbance. The very
next day my troubles began. About noon
..,.a ,ln ;nn,ttnh1A lrnnl II ~ my hNo-
tess with many anxious Inquiries as: to how ]
had passed the night. and il everything was to
my ikina As she was speaking her eyes
wandered continually to the sketch on which
was engaged. toward which she gradually
edged herself.
" Well. l DECLARE she exclaimed as she
finally brought up in trout Of 1t. II you ain
quite a mcdaniel!
Having thus created an opening, this ap'
preciative creature entertained me for at leas'
half an hour with the complete history Of the
! various members Of her family: how Joe. whs
much resembled me, had married beneath
him. while Emmeline had married a Russian
nohleman who spoke seven languages per
fectIy. 'Emmeline is coming on to see mi
next week and you must meet her. You'll lik,
her. she concluded. with conviction. 1 neye
met Emmeline. as l left after the first week.
l. " VNliC W ~ "a iShNibh
ment. as l had always heard that things wer,
so differently managed abroad. whore land
ladies' treat their tenants as their superiors
With this idea in my mind. l engaged q room
from 4 German woman who / coon found oc
cupied the room adjoining mine. the two be
ing separated by folding doors. All went we
till New Years Eve. On that night when
reached home somewhat tho worse for a littl'
session with the boys l was considerably star
tied to see the folding doors suddenly part l
the centre and to behold a smiling femal
figure Of ample proportions which babe N
Happy New Year in a CHEEKY voice. the door
then closing as suddenly as they had openet
Great Scott l calculated. the thin end
the wedgev
Next day I was very i'll and kept my room
Toward evening l heard repeated ringirgs
the hall door bell and the murmur Of voices
the frau's apartment. A New Years part
was evidently under way. For some time
was unmolested and was congratulatinR my
self on the good sense displayed by my lane
lady when suddenly the twang Of a either WI
heard, almost, Immediately followed. by 4
party. / was nervous and wretched and pleat
ed Ill health. for which l received deep sympS
thy from M, wopld.be hostess, At any ret
would leave the door open. And she d
There | sat. n pitiable wreck. In full view OF Il
HSSe lnleu guests. 1 mhub u o eDI0 pTeLouS
of being deeply interested in nv book. br
was painfully conscious Of the curious ey,
which were watching me. Time passed and
wanted to go to bed, but dared not. so final
in desperation approached the folding doc
and. with. n CHASTITY attempt at gayety. d.
clared that the attraction was too strong an
asked to sing l had an inspiration and star tt
Good Night, Ladies' 1t was no use. TT
people looked surprised and said it was rath'
early for that song, and for two solid hours
suffered fortunes. did not stay in that houl
long enough to see whether the intimacy thu
auspiciously commenced would have CONT
ued. / feared the worst and fed.
In this way. like poor 10. l was kept cor
tinuully moving on for several years; Tin
and again my hopes were raised. only to
dashed once more 70 earth lust as was &c
stance in which / engaged q room entirely
the strength of the landlady's manner and a
pearance. She was a dark. heavily built W
man with n lowering expression and a sulls
almost r~epellant manner.
"'Eureka.' thinks i to myself. That WON,
will never encourage geniality.'
THE first night / spent In the house. as
was sitting reading l heard the handle Of II
door softly turned, and looking round saw Il
Jnnr Clpurlv nnaninu IN tho Inn nnlaa nj N