Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-21
ON The Ann OF A CHAIR

well, itsdaboutoa chair" said q gray
haired. young-looktng man in a coy cor
ner of the club. With long, black cigar
in his teethsr his hat pulled over his eyes
and his feet. on the window rail-"just an
ordinary S69S easy chair. such as you see
in any furniture store window. with or
without the price tag. But this chair I'm
speaking of gave a fellow know a queer
twist the other day-a twist that hurt him
some. and pulled him up with a round
turn. and gave him a queer nights think
ing. It all sbegan-back here in little old
Washington. That We all come back to when
We get tired and lonesome.
Back in 80 young professional man of
Washington-I say man. but he was only
boy OF twenty-one or so-walked out
one day, blew in a dollar on a marriage
license at the city hall, and about an hour
later he was married to ore of the incest
little women l ever KNEW say woman
but she was only girl of nineteen. Both
OF these young folks belonged to good fami-
lies here in Washington, and neither Of
the families approved of their marriage
said they were too young to know their
own minds. and all that sort of tommy-rot.
The young man didn't ask his people OF
anybody else to like his marriage He
wasn't chesty. or bombastic, or anything
like that over the matter, but he got his
teeth down hard, quietly announced that it
Was HIS SdLle ana tndI the WnOle PROPOSE
ton was up to him and to nobody else
whomsoever-and then he took his little
wife over to New York with him. He got
work over there at pretty good salary
and with another coupie-thc man of which
belonged to the same profession as did the
lad from Washinglon-they took one of
those cozy little fats up Harlem way, got
the furniture on the instaIlment plan and
settled down to what was probably as near
the real thing in the way of happiness as
is found on this little old atom in space
that we call world. That young Washing
ton lad surely did worship the girl he had
In % IN washington. and she thought
enough of him to feel like thirty cents
when he was away from her for more than
twelve consecutive minutes.
among the pieces of furniture-on-the-in-
stallment-plan that the little woman picked
out when the young couple took the flat
with the other young couple was this easy
chair l started to tell you about-just big
rocker for her boyish husband to spraddle
around in while he smoked and read the
papers. He enjoyed that chair hugely. On
the day that he paid the last installment on
MS furniture the young fellow. out of
whimsical, Sboyish caprice, carved these
words on the right arm rest of the Chair.
We'll, it's mine now.
1.-Two weeks later his little wife was dead.
She took sudden cold. ard the doctors
couldn't do anything for her, and she went
away. Well. that nearly put the boy out
of business so far as living in this world
was concerned. For some time 1t didn't
seem as If he could stand the thing at all,
and the young couple with whom he lived
on for while In the fiat had to furtively
watch him. Then one day he got UP and
held out his hand to them and said good
bye-that he was going away. They. asked
him where and he said he didn't know.
They tried to keep him. but he told 'em that
they couldn't do that. His man friend in the
nat asked him how about the furniture,
and the young fellow replied that he didn't
10 i1nbf MT
more. Then he went away.
We'll. he damned up and down the
world for eight years, out of the United
States a good deal of the time The wound
made by the death of his little child-wife
in the Harlem flat was a long time healing
perhaps it never did just exactly heal.
But two years ago he came back to WASH
ington. and last year he married again
married very charming woman, who look
ed a good deal like the little woman who
went away.
last week he went over to New York on
a matter of business. He was walking
through Madison Square on the afternoon
of his arrival when he got a whack on
the back and hearty greeting, and when
he wheeled around he was face to face with
the professional pal with whom and his
wife he and his child-wife had gone TO
| housekeeping in the little old Harlem fiat
The Washington man hadn't seen or heard
of his friend for nearly ten years, and the
way they talked over the dinner they had
was over the Washington mans old pal
dragged him across the North river on the
ferry to a pretty home he had with his
wife in little Jersey town. 1T was close
on to midnight when they got there. and
the lady of the house had retired. So they
went into the hosts den.
well have a bottle Of beer and
smoke, and then we'll turn in said the
| host. Sit down and make yourself miser-
able
THE Washington man sat down In the
first chair handy-a big rocker-and went
on talking. After a while his fingers came
| into contact with something rough on the
surface of the chairs right arm rest, and
he idly leaned over to see what 1t was
He saw the words. boyishly carved years
before by his own hand, Well, it's mine
now.
81 guess he went a bit pale. and he got
| UP and told his pal that he didn't believe
that he wanted any beer. but that he'd turn
in. That's ALL"