The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-26

bow and arrow, and so long
L- as so many of the people
who do get married take such unusual
ways of getting into that state there is
small excuse for the novelist who chooses
his subjects among the few people who
strysto get married and don't.
Here are four of the tricks played by
the pudgy gentleman of the wings and
bow. 1t will be agreed that they contain
material for four large romances, with
the possibilities of serial to EACH
In the first, Cupid seems to have shaken
a dice box and let the result OF the en-
tanglement depend on the throw. If 1t
proves anything it establishes the fact
that simply because woman has sew
eral grown children and is nearer seventy
than thirty is no reason for assuming that
her matrimonial prospects are not pros
poets but retrospects.
The characters with whom the small
gentleman set to work were a woman
Of sixty-siX years, another of forty and a
man of forty-five. Not directly connected
with the play, but still much interested,
were two grown children of the man and
several distributed between the two wonl-
en- All lived in st. Louis.
Barnes Bowman, the man in the case.
kept a restaurant Mrs. Henrietta Lang,
aged sixty-six, and Mrs Emma Wooden
berg, her niece. aged forty, lived next to
his restaurant. Bowman was WldoWer,
Mrs Lang and her niece widows. The
restauranteur began to pay visits to the
home of the two women. His attentions
at first were directed toward the younger
woman, and it was accepted as under
stood that their marriage would be the
ultimate result.
Mrs Lang, however, engaged herself In
an effort to help her niece entertain the
caller, and gradually she succeeded so
well that for every glance the restaurant
keeper gave the niece he gave one to the
aunt. Then the aunt grew more enter
tanning. and the restaurateur began CIV
ing her two glances for the niece's enc
Pretty soon he stopped looking at the
niece altogether.
Mrs. Woodenberg noticed that her aunt
seemed to be outclassing her as an en-
tertainer, but she did not put serious
construction on the matter. The neigh
bors, who were watching the play. saw
also that the attentions seemed more d.
s~reoted@to the aunt than the niece, but
neither did they suspect.
The awakening was rude. The res
taurant-keeper and the aunt disappeared
one day and came back married. The
aunt of sixty-six had won out against the
niece of forty-five years, and now they
are wondering all around how the chill
dren will take it. The children have not
made up their minds yet, but are think
ing over it. The niece makes the best
of 1t.
81 did not realize that he had fallen In
love with my aunt" she said. "She is
twentysone years older than he Is. But
hope they will be happy"
There is more romance and less comedy
In the second eseapade Of the small gen.
tleman In London the announcement OF
an engagement has just been made. 1t
is that of an English nobleman to the
daughter of bank employe. Behind 1t
lies the story Of pretty romance.
The young earl Of Leitrim went to
South Africa as a soldier So did a young
Englishman named Henderson. Both
saw considerable service, and Henderson
was wounded in one of the battles. When
the news Of this reached his parents in
London his sister Immediately left for
the Transvaal to nurse her brother back
to health.
She succeeded In this and after a half
year he was able to rejoin his regiment.
Miss Henderson was then ready for her
return to England. The earl of Leitrim
had completed his service and was return
ing. Among the first persons Miss Hen
derson met on the steamer was the earl.
Their friends say the affair was prac-
tically settled at first sight, but those