Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-07
BOTH WERE SURPRISES

Two little incidents that happened With
In my purview while down at Atlantic
CITY,, said man whose grip pallor of .
little while ago had been bronxed away by
board walk constitutionals, furnished me
with additional testimony that you can
never know much about anything until
you find out.
The incest little woman at the hotel at
which stayed was black-haired, vivaci-
Gus matron, not much above twenty, who
was accompanied by her mother, pretty
woman herself who looked quite young
enough to be the sister of her daughter.
The biack-haired little matron was the
life and soul OF the outfit. There was no
such thing as anybody having the dumps
around the sun parlors while she was with
In sight or hearing. She was clever and
accomplished. For one thing. and a mighty
unusual thing at that, she could play you
a swell concerto on the hotel piano. and
tEen she could wade right in and play the
rag-um1est rag-time thing you ever heard,
ana sing it, too; and the ability to do those
TWO things doesn't often go together She
got up a lot of delightful little entertain
mants, dances, Salimagundi parties peanut
Iestlvais. progressive euchres and such
GROUND the hotel parlors Of evenings; and,
-, ssnsfai she came pretty close to being
She was mighty attentive to the lone
some old folks In the hotel, and she was a
tenoer-nearted woman. at that. for she,
alone OF all the women in the hotel. used
to pay couple OF visits every day to a
SICK chambermaid up in the garnet. and
carry the woman nice things to eat. and
All Inat. The housekeeper told me that,
on the quiet, and 1t made me think even
more of the black haired little woman than
I had before ''--
She was great pals with her mother, who
looked SO ridiculously young. and they went
together constantly when the Younger wo-
man wasn't fixing up some kind of fun for
the children around the house. She was
oeVoteo 10 children, and was always tossing
the shavers about and picking 'em up and
hugging EN-, and all that sort Of thing.
One evening she was having lot Of fun
with little two-year-o1d girl, when the
her.
You are very fond of children, are you
not, Mrs. Blank? she said to the little
blach-hafred matron. Have you any of
your own?'
No, was the reply. but adore chill
dren,' and then she added. In a reflective.
were a child again myself. There were
thirtyfour children in our family, and such
a rompish time of it as we had.
We'll, that remark caused the mother of
the little girl to pick up her child somewhat
hastily and edge away. There seemed to be
something mighty queer about that remark.
Thirty-four children In the family! And
there was the mother of the maker of
that remark. sitting right over in corner
of the room. and she assuredly wasn't much
more than fifteen or sixteen years older
than her daughter.
THE woman to whom the black-haired
little matron had made the peculiar remark
quickly got of into corners with other wo-
men in the house and told 'em about it.
Then the buzz began. Surely. was the gist
Of the buzz. the little matron with the
young looking mother and the black hair
decidedly, she must be one of the most as
tonishing prevaricators OF any age or cline!
Thirty-f0ur children in her family, and her
mother almost as young looking as she her.
self!
''The next morning. in the sun parlor.
number Of the women fell to talking of the
Smoot inquiry, a lot of details of which
were printed in the morning papers they
had In their laps. The little black-haired
woman was with the group. She was about
to go away. and she had settled down for
a final summing before leaving. The wo-
men talked pretty fercely about the MOT
mons. The black-haired little woman DIT
her lips and took 1t all In as long as she
could stand 1t. Then she spoke up.
"'Could you not. she inquired sweetiy,
addressing none of the women In particu-
lar. but all OF them at once, defer the dis-
cussion of this topic until some other time.
or at least permit me to Withdraw
thought 1t was well understood among you
all that was a Mormon, or at least reared
IN the MORMON IdttH. blu lHdt laSt hoe
occur to you as reasonable presumption
when you knew that was from Salt Lake
City and when let slip the remark that
was one of family Of thirty-four chill
drenT
.'They all looked very shocked. and the
black-haired little woman. not without
somewhat mischievous smile, trfpped out OF
the sun-parlor, and inside OF an hour she
was gone with her mother. II those wo-
men in the sun-parlor hadn't fallen to talk
ing about the Smoot inquiry, they'd have all
gone through life believing that the black
haired little woman whom they met at the
Atlantic City hotel and who artlessly tod
them that she was one OF FAMILY OF
thirty-four children was one of the most
gigantic distorters of the truth that ever
came down the pike.
'sThen there was the incident Of the some
what foppish-looking middie-aged man with
the yachting cap. He was very ruddy-
faced man of about fifty. who paid a very
great deal of attention to has apparel. He
was a quiet-spoken and far from loquacious
man, but the extreme attention that ne
gave to his clothes got the tongues of the
knockers a-going. and they handed him
wallop behind mis- back every time that ne
came in or went out of a door.
1.-The ornate-looking yachting cap that
he wore whenever he went down to the
board walk to parade was the cause OF
good many of the furhve cracks that were
sent after him.
Now. look at that old dude the young
er fellows got into the habit of saying
every time that he appeared with thar
Yachting cap. It's ten to one that he
doesn't know the difference between cat
amaran and cat-boat. and that he was
never more than ten miles or the coast In
his life: and yet he goes hiking around with
a yachting cap on. like as if he knew what
1t felt like to be on deep water! Wouldn't
it pain you?
"a tramp steamer came ashore and was
stranded at Brigantine Beach. The man
who went out to the tramp steamer in
raging sea with the crew Of the life boat
and the man who directed the maneuverng
that at length succeeded in pulling the
tramp steamer off the shoals and started
her, all taut on her cruise again. was our
dudish-Iooking middle-aged man with the
Yachting cap that was such a red-rag-to-a-
bull to the knockers around our hotel. And
after he'd done that the Atlantic City and
Philadelphia papers came out with long
accounts of him.
.'Oh, no. he didn't know anything about
deep water or anything like that! He was
one of the most celebrated clipper shippers
in the world, and had been a deep-water
man for thirty-five years, or since his If
teenth year. He had only recently retired
from the sea with large competency. And
he was only down at Atlantic City from
his Philadelphia home to have sight and
sound of the comforting sea. He held the
worlds record for getting fuli-rigged ship