Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1903-08-31
HIS TRUE STORY.

own story, or the story OF an incident
In my early life. / almost hesitate TO
tell 1t. because il is absolutely true,
and everything that / have heard you
gentlemen relate SO far is--well, / Ike
to be charitable, and besides. you have
not asked me for my opinion. came
to Chicago nearly 40 years ago. young
and full of ambition and hope. but not
overburdened with money. Many you
VIII say have done that before me.
agree and 1 even. in your strange ver-
nacular, go you one better and pre-
diet that many others will do SO in
time yet TO come.
Il found a boarding house over on
the West side, where charges were
moderate and whose table was fairly
good. and / went TO work in the mer-
camille house of which / am now the
highly respected head and in a short
time considered myself fairly settled
down
1T was nearly a year before any
thing occurred TO disturb the peace Of
the almost uneventful life led. Then
one morning was awakened by most
peculiar sound that seemed TO proceed
either from the room below me or
from the house next door. ! say the
sound was peculiar, but IL would be
more accurately described as unusual.
1t was this: Observation-Disclosures
dum-dum-dum.' Then a pause and
dunn dunn Observation-Disclosures
dunn
81 should have imagined that you
would know without asking. Perhaps
i didn't give it the right sound. 1t
was-no2 All right, / won't. II was
the scales. Called by some the har-
monte scales, though it's hard to tell
why. 1t was played on the piano and
IL lasted-for / looked at the watch
underneath my pillow-from six
o'clock until 6: 30 in the morning, mind
you. can tell you was pretty mad.
"You will hardly believe that the
next morning at six o'clock that mad
dening thing began again. Dum-dum-
dum'-if you don't want me TO tell this
story you have only TO say so. Well. IL
was the same sung before. II lasted
until 6,s0, as before. The morning
after that 1 had IL again and. not TO
weary you with unnecessary repeti-
ton, / had II every morning. used to
lie there In bed and grind my teeth and
say things that / had never thought
myself capable of saying. Itfairly dis
tracted me- I suffered agonies. But ]
had to take It, You will perhaps won
der why did not pound on the wall or
at least complain vigorously to the
landlady. Well. as to that was natur-
ally rather a modest and difiident
young man and then there were rea-
sons why Just then i felt an especial
delicacy about complaining and did
not desire to give my landlady the inn
preston that was dissatisfied. was
rather anxious to conciliate her than
otherwise. / say so much without
deeming IL necessary TO enter upon
particulars. No. i just took IL. !
had to.
"Now I come TO the strange part of
the story. Naturally, with my attrac-
tive personality. / had no lack OF
friends and my society was to some ex-
tent sought after. I was az the house
of one of these friends one evening and
was asked TO sing. had a fine barry
tone voice-you may have noticed 1t
lust now-well. 1t was still better then
and il used to give my friends great
pleasure TO hear it.
cit appears. however. that on this
occasion my hostess. who usually ac-
companied me. had sprained her wrist.
and 1t seemed that the company was
likely to be disappointed. when some
body said: Here's Miss Kelceyi She
can play II for him if he's bound to
sing it.
miss Kelley / had met, but had
hardly noticed on my arrival now
looked at her more closely, and de-
cided that she was extremely pretty
nay. lovely. She blushingly dis
claimed the skill that she was good
enough to say song of mine re-
ouired. but 1 treasured her, and at
last she consented, and sung. II was
"A Life on the Ocean Wave. Home on
the Rolling Deep and ] never sung
better. She did not accompany me as
smoothly as she might, striking sew
eral false notes, but I made my voice
cover those little deficiencies.
ITO make long story short, was
favorably impressed with her, and /
think she was with me. I requested
the honor of seeing her home, and she
bushingly consented. Well, why
shouldn't she blush twice In one even
ing. il she felt inclined to?
"Her home. she said, was within
walking distance. and we walked. To
tell the truth. had no clear idea
where we were going. / was too bliss
fully happy-too engrossed, too intox-
icated. With the divine essence of inn
mortal love, of course. knew moth
ing until found we had stopped, and.
looking up, found 1t was at the door
of my boarding house.
81 live here, she said.
"sYou dor / exclaimed. Why, so
dol. Was there ever more fortunate
and happy coincidencel' We stopped
and talked over the coincidence-at
some length, until ct last she said
(sweet girl): We'll, we really must go
IN now. have to get up at six o'clock