The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-11

to the check room and procured his
overcoat. which was of the short, box
pattern. Every one in the vicinity
noticed that the coattails tapped below
his overcoat for nearly foot.
When the inventive society man re-
turned to the hall after partaking OF
refreshment, it was observed that no
coat-tails protruded beneath the lower
edge of his overcoat. When the over
coat was removed, he was seen to pull
the coat-tails into place. They had
been tucked into his trousers pockets
on either side. When he saw smiles
on the faces of every one in the re-
gion where he removed his outer gar
ment and placed himself in readiness
for a return to dancing, he was pleased.
Few fellows would have thought Of
that. he muttered, as he whfrled gid
Oily around the hall with young lady
clinging to him. The coat-tail episode
pleased him, and the smiles made him
proud of his invention. but when the
dance was finished, his partner re-
| marked, Pardon me, Mr.. Smart, but
did you know that your trousers leg
| is tucked into your shoe top?" The
| goring in his patent leather congress
shoes had lost its elasticity and the
trousers leg had wedged itself in. He
understood the reason of the smiles,
went home. and thumped himself to
sleep.
| Down at Father Mathew hall yester-
| day afternoon two old-timers were dis
| cussing the days when parents had to
purchase school books for their child
rem, and Richard o. Flynn, a member
| of the society, had a practical monopoly
| of the business in secondhand books.
| His store at the viaduct used to be
| crowded, with people on the sidewalk
| waiting for a chance to get in. As he
sold the books at amazingly low prices
/ 1t was not such a hardship on the
poor as many now believe since the free
| text book act became a law through the
fundamentally of Eugene NJ. Moriarty
and Others
Il remember" said one of the old
timers, "of being in line with my two
boys for whom 1 wished to get books.
There was an old woman, a younger
woman. evidently her daughter and a
child whom 1 should judge was her
granddaughter. The old grandmother
didn't like the idea of waiting and tried
number of times to break through
the trocha and enter the store but all
in vain.
Il forget now just what was the oc-
casion, but there was some sort of cele-
bration in town that day. You will
recall that years ago every gala day in
worcester was like straying into
Ll1ut IOr the average faKlr. While
we were waiting a fakir came along.
In voice that sounded like a head-on
collision of two freight trains he shout
ed his wares. Among other things he
was selling childrens books, those
pamphlet-like affairs with highly color
ed pictures and a nonsensical text.
He showed them to the old grand
mother and urged her to buy one for
the child. The book was one of the IL
Illustrated alphabet kind and ran some
thing like this; A, was Ann bringing
milk from the COW; B, was Benjamin
making bow; G, was Charles, green
apples picking, and D was Dennis get
ting a licking, etc.
It's just as good said the old
grandmother, as any reader. Sure
she's only just going to school and
can't learn much more than her letters
the first year and no amount of per-
suasion could convince her that this
five cent book was not Just as good as
the regular reader that would cost 80
cents at the least.
'She bought it and off they went I
afterwards learned that the child was
actually sent to school with it and to
this day, old-time teachers refer to the
incident with uproarious laughter.
1.-THE old grandmother is long since
dead and the child is now a matronly
woman with children of her own in the
schools"
"Tempus fugit' said the old racontur
as he wiped his glasses.