Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20
HAD THE SAME NAME

'.The next time introduce two women
with similar names to each other" re-
marked q midne-aged woman clerk In one
Of the departments. I'm going to come
pretty near knowing as the boy says, the
kind Of ground I'm standing upon.
I've just returned from my annual leave
in the Adirondacks. My companion on the
vacation trip was a woman friend good
deal younger than I am. whose husband is
in business in Washington. He found 1t
impossible to get away from washington
for vacation this year, and so his wife
accompanied me for the months stay In
the Adirondacks. near Lake Placid.
There were not more than thirty guests
| at the pleasant. home-1ike hosiery where
we had arranged to stay, and they all SEEM
ed to be on the best and merriest terms
when We arrived there. We got in during
the afternoon, and the journey from Wash
ington had been such long and arduous
one that my companion was greatly ia
tigued and retired to our room not to make
her appearance until the following morn
ing. I remained out on the veranda after
dinner, and the Hostess Of the hotel intro
duced me to all hands around. One OF the
women to whom I was introduced bore the
same surname, rather unusual one, as
that of my woman friend.
" You are from Washington. under
stand? said this woman, sweetiy, to me.
les, SalQ L, ana i nave q 1rIeuQ With
me-now so fatigued that she has already
retired-whose name Is the same as yours.
'Yes?' said the woman, without any APP
parent surprise, and that was the end of
1t for the present. I did not think any
more Of the matter at the time
On the following morning my companion
and I arose early, an hour or so before
breakfast, to enjoy the glorious early morn
ing mountain air. and we took stroll by
the lake to put in the time before break
faSt. for we were already famished.
AS we were returning to the hotel we
came face to face with the woman to whom
l had been introduced on the evening be-
fore, who bore the same name as that Of
my friend
Il greeted her and said:
This Is the lady 1 mentione as having
your name and I formally introduced
"'How odd. exclaimed my companion.
Mrs: Blank. did 1 understand
Yes said the other. Mrs. Blank. You,
too, are from Washington, 1 believe?
Why, yes said my friend mystifedly.
But I really fancied that 1 was about the
only Mrs. Blank now. the name is so IN
"T lived in Washington at one time
said the other woman.
Yes? said my friend more puzzled
looking than ever. Is 1t not odd. then, that
husbands initials?
y. J. Blank replied the other woman.
He was in the blank-space-dash business,
and still is, presume
well. that was ALL My friend colored
furiously and clutched at my arm and
pulled me away. The other woman smiled
grimly and passed on. She was the first
wife of my companions husband and she
had obtained a divorce from him several
years before he married his second. my
friend. My friends husband, of course,
had never kept any pictures about Of his
first wife. SO that my companion could, Of
course, not recognize her when she met
her under such queer circumstances. The
frigidity that prevailed between them dur
ing the brief time that the grimly smiling
first wife Of my companions husband re-
manned there could have been cut with a
rip-SaW."