The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-30
Reflections About a Water Nymph.

There is certainly no more faithful re- vealer of feminine nature than hose. If l were set to watching a number of sprays playing upon a garden, and with out being permitted to see the hands that guided them, or the heads that controlled them, l am sure that l could pick out without the least difficulty those that were managed by women. There Is an absence of concentration and a lack of fixfty of purpose revealed in woman's management of a hose that is evident to the most casual observer. Of course these observations are drawn from the rather limited experience obtained from watching the lady gardener below me. but narrow as such reflections may be they have afforded me some delicious mo- ments and some fresh insight into the feminine mind.
 My fair one is an unfair sprinkler. She waters flowers much as | fancy she dis tributes favors among her admirers, al- lowing some to perish of thirst, and drowning others in flood of favofitism. Her whole heart or rather her hose, is given to sweet peas a milder devotion to nesturtiums. and the driest indifference to bleeding hearts. As for the lawn l fear 1t will present a spotted appearance, and that bright green polka dots will ap- pear upon sere and yellow background.
 Upon the days when more fair minded nature takes the sprinkling in hand my undaunted lady of the flowers makes her appearance under a wonderful red um- bi ella, and watch with delight this bright blosso m go bobbing about, and note an occasional gloved-hand reach down to remove weedy impostor. The gloves are dingier than they were, and 1t would be useless to wish that you were glove upon that hand. fer you would stand but little chance of touching that check: on the contrary you would most likely enter into an intimacy with worms, which, if you are such man as l have been. is all that you deserve.
 But all things are reversed in these days and it is Romeo. sallow. dyspep- tic Romeo. who sits on the balcony of fiat and signs for sturdy, gardening. Juliet below. Our families are not divid- ed they simply don't know each other and am prevented fron playing the role of Romeo, not only by lack of personal qualifications but by the fact that have not a speaking acquaintance with the lady of my fancy.
 I can imagine. however. that were I an ideal Romeo this democratic heroine would not be incapable of reversing the situation and of climbing. by the back stairs to my place of enforced imprison- ment. I like to think, nevertheless, that unconsciously she is climbing bv proxy to my lofty station. One Of the vines that are beginning to transfer her fence into the Ioveliest of leafy backgrounds is making rapid strides up the supports of these porches I had hoped that it might be honeysuckle, but the janitor tells me that 1t is a wild cucumber vine. and | can only pray that 1t may be sufficiently wild to climb to my point of observat tion and that it may not be arrested in its career bv the vicious small boys who live in the fiat below. I do not know wheth- CT this vine bears fruit, but. though cu- cumbers are not among the articles of my prescribed dietary. shall eat of these for the sake of the hand that planted them. Could Romeo do moreN than this?
 A Floral Knight