Waterbury Democrat., 1902-02-03
Hodges Roof Garden Rhapsody
By JOHN H. BATTERY.

J. Dillingham; Hodges mind was made up. Nm. Lunetta, the clairyoy- ant, had told him that he would make his fortune through Cupid, and there fore he buckled down to the business of winning his way. He had reached that age when his complexion worried him. Nature had not done much for him, and therefore he began to heed those arts which are supposed to make the old young and the young mature. He had begun to shave, but the hirsute results were as yet hardly tangible. Then there were those disfguring pi1nples! Nothing seemed to quite reache them. He spent a good part of his salary buying hair growers and der matological cure-alls, hoping against hope that soon the day would come when he would sally forth with waxed mustachios and an incomparable com plexion to win the heiress.
 No matter how gayly he attired his gangling form, the girls, or at least the desirab ble, well-groomed, knowing ones, never gave him second glance. He followed the fashions as closely as an $1s-a-week clerk cssn follow them, but it was no go. He couldn't twin" anybody on his looks. The big bows in his low-quarter shoes and the drop stitch socks of vocal designs didn't help him at all. He began to think that he was foreordained to failure and that, being doomed to 1oveless life. He must be a genius. Then he began to write poems" about the moon and let his hair grow down over his raglan.
 He was we'll launched on this phase of his decline when he met her. He was coming uptown on a Cottage Grove avenue car when he noticed standing on the back platform the one girl. She wore a maroon automobile, a Gainsborough hat, diaphanous veil so pale1y blue that it glorified the wonderful beauty of her face, white gloves and lot of other things that J. Dillingham; couldn't name, but which exhaled a wondrous perfume and hut- tered in the evening breeze like an angels wings.
 As he looked at her she seemed to regard him with lingering interest.
 "Aha," though J. Dillingham;. "At last I am discovered! Now, indeed,
 
 He began to hope that the train would collide with something so that he could rescue her. He speculated upon the possible conduct of her rich father when they should arrive at the mansion, whether he might offer mere pecuniary reward and how he, J. Dillingham; Hodge, having deposited a I fainting girl upon the $4oo d7van, would spurn her fathers gold and de- mand his daughters hand. When she signaled the conductor to stop J. Dill 1 hngham sprang to his feet and beat her to the car step. He wanted to make sure that nobody jost1ed her, but the best he could do was to glare at a cab driver whose vehicle came rattling along hundred feet away.
 Then. like some errant knight of old, he determined to follow her like a 1 guardian spirit, unseen but ever pres 1 ent, ready at a moments warning to rush to her rescue. She seemed to fit along the sidewalk, so nimble was her i graceful stride, and before Hodge real < ized that he had followed her two blocks he found himself close at her dainty, military heels as she fluttered into the elevator of the Masonic Tenn pie and coyly gurgled: 'sTop floor, please"
 'Joy. joy" murmured J. Diling- ham. fumbling the $6 that lay in his trousers pocket. "Oh, joyl At least can sit and watch her divine face till the show is over.''
 But he was destined to yet greater happiness. She had no sooner reached the roof garden door than she began to tumble in her purse. A pretty frown fretted her beautiful brow; she stamped her little foot fercely on the tiles, bit her lip and snapped:
 Left it at home! How stupid!"
 She was talking to herself, but Mr. Hodge heard her, and, with reck- lessness that brought his heart pumping against his wisdom teeth, he accosted her with:
 q beg your pardon, madame, but l see. you have forgotten your ticket anS perhaps your money. May have the honor of getting one for you?''
 It was an audacious move, but the ardent Hodges narrow chest heaved with conscious pride as he saw the aemure smile of appreciation and even admiration that spread beneath } her veil like a halo of warm light. "Oh, thank you," she cooed, read. ing his card while he bought tickets for two.
 For J. Dillingham; Hodge ther
 never was and perhaps never will b such show as that which followed It was the apotheosis of all that i grand and glorious in the tradition and achievements of the stage. H didn't even think of asking the nam ! of his divinity till the intermissior . and then, with unspeakable raptur
 he heard it. Miss Grace,' she whis pered, "that will do for the present. Never mind what Hodge said. H said everything he could think ..
 and therefore was silent. except fo