Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-07-27


overwhelming event: III their lives, and
their almost speechless primness as they
ae pa s sa thin, ia 60 to to s sss
S,nn1ariy tas he to scarcely smile
spouse al ! cart plain how all these
they accon,pa led |eir husbands to the
trains ON M9hdayN morning they still
seemed to be rapt In that high state of
spa,,.ual CAIN. yet. strangely enough,
many OF them appeared to be distinctly
merry and cheerful when they returned
from the trains after having babe fearful
wsh-lohs Iarewefls to their lords and
connecsion mere many many things In
pu@@ie me, and this is one Of them
Men Who Talk shop.
round the man who nails me I'D in
corner OF the hotel veranda and talks at
nie ior hours about the details of his bust
ness or professional pursuit. I've always
iooho hfm. Just when I'm thinking about
changing my collar and cuffs so as 20 take
q nttie twist up and down the boardwalk,
Tins saFraious person always approaches
me, pms me in q corner of the portico,
anu oeeins to- tell me all about the hat
or snoe or necktie or shirt factory that he
conducts in Cleveland or Pottsvi;le or lps-
wien OF some such place. I try to switch
MN on Dy remarking that ths water was
.nily To-Day or that the sea-netties are
unusually Dad this year or something but,
no, he won't have IL for minute He
wants 10 talk about his business, and all
l can 40 Is to lean back tip my hat over
my eyes ana let him go ahead until the
period Tor which he is wound up mas ex-
pired.
1t Is my one end and aim In life when
get away from my business for a few
the business until I'm yanked reluctantly
pack to 1t at the expiration of my leave
OF absence; nevertheless I've never gone
doWn TO the beach yet that I wasn't cor
Failed up IN corner Of a porch and fm-
posed upon by one or more of these fell
lows VINO can't or don't want to forget
ABOUT their business, and who think it's
the duty OF casual hotel acquaintance to
look interested and enraptured while they
oescant duly upon the relative prosperity
or siackness Of the business in which they
are engaged.
FrOnt-POrch Wives.
OF course, l found at my hotel numerous
OF those front-porch wives who calmly but
nrmly declined to do any old thing their
husbands wanted them to do. They'd
take rocking chairs on the veranda i'm
mediately after breakfast, with pinkish-
tinted novels in their hands, and they'd
hold down those rocking chairs all day,
except at meal hours. Their husbands
would Deg and fmplore them to get move
Dut, no, they We're all for a continuous per-
romance of rocking on the front porch, and
wild horses couldn't have got them away.
Inc one consoling thing in connection with
cases or this sort is that the husbands of
these 1ndofent porch-rocking women usual
~ revolt after about week of it and
saily out some morning and mobilize thun-
dering good jays out of spirit of resent
ment over the uncongeniality of their
spouses. The alacrity with which the lazy
women or the front porches jump up to
accompany their husbands after the latter
have declared themselves by resorting to
the rum remedy is worth witnessing.
The sulky, dfsagreeabIe girl Of the large
party at the hotel, who wants to arrange
all of the plans for the days amusement,
ana VINO never wants to go where the over
Wnelm1ng majority Of the others are anx-
ious to go, and who pouts over their de-
cision and declines to speak to them. and
who has to be soft-soaped and coddled and
petted to fetch her around again-she was
there, as usual. She threw the customary
amount OF gloom and depression over all
the members OF her party by her peevish
selnshness, but she didn't mind; In fact, &
was plain to see that she looked upon
herself as a Considerably trampled upon
young person. Il. I'D r
She of the Sharp Tongue.
The sharp-tongued, scrappy woman who
quarrels shrilly with her husband at the
hotel table was on hand. too, to make me
feel at home. She sat down upon him, and
Inundated him, and showed him sup be-
fore all hands, including the walters, but
he took 1t all without murmur while he
gazed intently at his plate. or else he let
1t go with 'Sh-h! Gertrude, the people1l
hear you!' Whereupon she'd reply more
shrilly than ever that she didn't care one
bit If they did hear her. so she didn't. and
that If they only knew what she had to put
up with. with a husband that had the
nerve and presumption to stay out on the
boardwalk as late as IL O'Clock at night,
they'd feel sorry for her. so they would.
etc, etc, until all hands within sound of
her voice Chat is, nearly everybody in the
dining rOom) wonder II the sharp-tongued
woman who quarrels constantly with her
weak husband has limited return ticket,
and when it is going to expire
THE thing wouldn't have been right.
either il the real naughty woman hadn't
been at the hotel. There's always one of
them. She has weary-looking maid with
her, of course. and she has as many dresses
as had Queen Elizabeth, wherefore her
hauteur, which is something beyond ex-
preston. She never by any chance speaks
a single word to any Of the other women
guests of the house during the entire period
of her stay. Fact is she glares at 'em from
her corner Of the porch. her idea being
to convey a proper idea Of the prodigious
gulf that yawns between her and such as
they. She is snappy with the walters and
pushes away, with toss, most of the
dishes that are brought to her at the table.
She complains to the proprietor or the clerk
how pitifully small her apartments are,
and she always manages to drag in lit
tie expression of regret over how sorry she
feels that she was induced to rent this
summer her comfortable villa up on the
northern coast.
wouldn't BE the Same.
"And the little girl in stiffly starched
skirts who sits down at the piano in the
hotel parlor at an early hour in the morn
ing and begins to play the chop-sticks and
The Waves of the Ocean Galop' and The
Maiden's Prayer and Monastery Bells
and 'Frolic of the Frogs Waltz and The
Blue and the Gray and who keeps right
at it. of and on, until she is tucked into
her little bed at night-this nice little girl
Is at the hotel, of course. What would a
seaside hotel be without her? Would 1t be
the same old languishing smile? Not
much!
"And I've seen all the rest of the types"
wound up the man with the cold eve. heay-
ing away his raveled cigar, "but it's all
right. That's what I come to the seaside
for-to see 'em. The same ones figure tn
the summer life everywhere along the
beach. from Bar Harbor to JacksonyiIle
Fla. and they're part OF the game If
hadn't found 'em all here, as / saw. I'd
have got mad and demanded my money