Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1900-05-24
Efforts at Friendship
By Kennett r. Harris.
NS7E7iE ~ ~ 7vE'1ENEa|


T'ATE seems occasionally to descend
from her magnificent conduct of
the affairs of men to what appears to
be mserably trivial spite, an incident
of which is shown by the interrupted
friendship of a prominent real estate
man and prominent lawyer, both of
whom have offices within few blocks
of each other on LaSalle street.
It is a circumstance perhaps worthy
of passing remark that most real es-
tate men of whom stories have been
told have been prominent, either at the
time of the incident related or at some
later period. It is the same way with
lawyers. Various theories have been
advanced in explanation of this from
time to time, but it is probable that the
real reason has never been discovered.
However that may be, the real estate
man and the lawyer met for the first
time at public banquet early last fall,
and instantly made the discovery that
they were kindred spirits.
They happened to sit close to one of
the doors, and after the second speak
er had resumed his seat amid wild ap-
plause and the enthusiastic waving of
napkins the lawyer said: ''Let's cut
this and duck" and the real estate
man answered: It'll go you," and they
both faded away and materialized three
minutes later in the smoking room be-
low.
Then followed sweet communion
that lasted until long after the ban
quetcrs had dispersed and until the
weary walters yawned enormously be-
hind their napkins. They found that
they had much about the same views on
Imperialism and single-tube tires, that
their estimates of their mental caliber
of the chairman of the banquet were
identical, that they had both smoked
a certain high-priced and praised and
widely advertised tobacco and had no
use for it in the world, that they had
encountered the same difficulties in
golf and that both had warm admi-
ration for Fra Albertus and Kipling.
When the lawyer began a quotation
from wind-tossed weed tangle of
The Seven Seas" the real estate man
finished it with just the right inflec-
tions to denote his sympathetic appre-
citation.
Then they fell to talking of the sad
and solemn things of life-of the deep
mysteries of Nature and Being with
side lights of personal experience, and
they told the waiter to bring some more
of that, and discoursed of bygone fish
ing and hunting trips and of fishing
and hunting trips which they hoped to
make together in the roseate future.
They looked fondly across the table at
one another with the kindly glow of
perfect understanding in their eyes,
and brushed impatiently aside the
fragrant smoke wreaths as they drift
ed between them, as though they had
been palpable barriers to the mutual
flow of soul.
It was beautiful thing. When they
reluctantly decided that they would
have to part they exchanged cards, and
each glancing down at the one he had
received said: "Why, we're near neigh
bors."
Then the real estate man said:
whats the matter with taking lunch
together?" and the lawyer said:
'There amt anything the matter
yes, there is, though; my wife's going
to do some shopping tomorrow, and
promised to take lunch with her. 1
can't go back on that this time. But
then there isn't anything to prevent me
calling you up by phone any time-or
could drop in on you or you could call
for me. I'll tell you what; I'll tele-
phone you the Gay after tomorrow and
we'll go out together"
As the lawyer said, there was moth
ing to prevent them from telephoning.
AS amatter of fact, they have been do
ing nothing but telephoning ever since
except when they call upon one an
other-and call in vain.
The lawyer began it by telephoning
according to promise. A silvery female
voice answered him and said that the
rea1-estate man had just gone out, but
would most likely be back about two
or three o'clock. The lawyer said that
in that case he would probably call
around at the Office about two o'clock.
He had just started out with this inten-
tion when his stenographer got tele-
phone call from the real-estate man,
who announced that he had received
sudden summons out of town.
The next day the real estate man
rang up the lawyers Office. It hap
rened that the lawyer had gone over
to the Criminal Court building. WheE
he returned he called up the real estate
man and found that the real estate
man was at a board meeting. Four un-
availing personal calls were exchanged
in the course of the next two weeks.