The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1904-05-12
CHARM or THE OVERHEARD


f
straaEe Raseina1ien ~ Renarls Not
Meant Uor Oar Ears.
Why is it that the legitimate CONVEX
cations of our associates. to which we
have harkened from the beginning and
which we are predestined to follow
siacklyt to the end, should So often fail
to interest Us. whereas the interrupted
remarks we overhear and which were
' meant for u ears. fill us with
the liveliest curiosity and concern? The
brea king OF Of a serial story is a trial
to most mems minds. But we know
that another month will bring another
number. The inevitable breaking of
Of a causerie in which we bave no
share fills III with q sense of hopeless
and irr~emediable loss. i once ever
heard an old English lady say. with
slow emphasis. to a friend: 1t is q
charming book. q charming book. 1t
is just the kind OF q book you would
want to give to your dressmaker." And
for fifteen years I have specialized in
vain as to what that volume was.
Apart from the manifest indiscretion
Of giving any book to q dressmaker
and Inns withdra wing her attention
from ne's clothes. the only appropri-
ate literature ! can fhink Of is the in
structive history OF Ananias and Sap
phira. and that has ceased TO charm.
A man waiting patiently at the glove
counter Of a New York department
store heard one young shopwoman say
to another as h handed down a box
- -I~,.oo NNF-.:e ia I;-, 4
she'd have nothing more to do with
him. and she called him a poison faced
adder. he gripped her in the waltz
that scandalous."
This was all! Customers ciamored
for attention. and the confidence ceased
at this point. But the force and rich
ness of the language, the liveiiness OF
the allusion. captivated the hearers
soul. He confessed hat for years aft
erward. when he was Waiting, with
decOrOus reluctance under the compel
ling eye of his hostess, memories of Ma
ria's partner would assail him and be
would find hiuiself envying the adder
the mysterious nature of his enthusi-
asm.
1t sometimes happens that fortune
favors us beyond our deserts or our de-
sires, and the conversation to which
we ha We no right to listen. but which
we cannot well help hearing. goes on
as TRANQUILITY in a railway carriage or
on a steamer deck as though we were
not in close and helpless proximity.
English travellers are particularly Il
hauStive in their condolences and par
ticularly Indifferent to their surround
ings. In one our on a Como boat !
have learned a whole family history.
full of purely domestic features-how
Dan had been sent to school Eat Lau-
Same because be was so troublesome
and the school SO cheap. n how Con-
ME Ga sister-in-law. l think made the
"castle" a most unpleasant place Of
residence. and how Laura, with her
three children. came to stay a week
just when granny was dying. which
was, to say the least. announcement, and
how the trouble between Harold and
his wife lay entirely in the bringing up
OF the children. At this point the de-
tails became too intimate for repeti-
ton. though there was no question Of
Withholding them from my ears. I
felt like a fellow countryman who once
ira velpd from Bordeaux to Paris in the
company of a young Englishwoman.
her sister. nurse and child. 81 entered
that railway carriage" he said. IAN in
nocent American bachelor; I left it ca
pable Of running a day nursery. an in
FAINT school or a mothers congress."-
Agnes Repplier in Life.