The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-01-30
CHARM OF THE OVERHEARD
Strange Fascination CT Remarks Not
Meant For Our Ears.


Meant For Our Ears.
Why is it that the legitimate CONVEX
sations of cur associates. to which we
have hardened from the beginning and
which we are pfedestined to follow
slackly to the end. should so often fail
10 interest us. whereas the interrupted
remarks we overhear and which were
never meant for our ears. ill US with
the liveliest curiosity and concern? The
breaking of Of serial story is a trial
to most mems minds. But we know
that another month viii bring another
number The inevitable breaking off
of a causerie in which we have no
share fills Us with a sense Of hopeless
and irremediabie loss. / once over
heard an old English lady say. with
slow emphasis, to friend: 1t IS
charming book. a charming book. II
! is Just the kind of a book you would
want to give to your dressmaker- And
| for fifteen years | have specialized IN
| vain as to what that volume was.
Apart from the manifest indiscreuon
| of giving any book to one dressmakeT
| and thus withdrawing her attention
| from ones clothes. the only approprl.
ate literature / can think 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 New York department
| store heard one young shopwoman say
| to another as sic handed down box
of gloves, Maria told him downright
she'd have nothing more to do with
| him. and she called him a poison faced
adder. lie gripped her in the waltz
| that scandalous.
This was ali. Customers clamOred
for attention, and the confidence ceased
| at this point But the force and rich
| ness of the language. the liveliness of
| the allusion. captivated the hearers
! soul. He confessed that for years aft
. erward. when he was waltzing. with
decorous reluctance under the compel
| ling eve of his hostess, memories of Ma
| ria's partner would assail him and he
| would find himself enyying the adde'
| 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 have no right to listen, but which
we cannot well help hearing, goes Oh
DIS IEdHHtllIly III a o.
on q steamer deck as though we were
not in close and helpless proximity
English travellers are particularly eX
haustive in their condolences and par
tfcularly Indifferent to their surround
ings. In one hour on a Como boat
have learned a whole family history
full of purely domestic features-hoU
Dan had been sent to school at Lau
Same because he was so troublesome
: and the school so cheap, and how Con
ME Ga sister-in-law, | Think made the
''castle" a most unpleasant place o.
residence, and how Laura, with hel
three children, came to stay weel
, just when granny was dying, which
was, to say the least, inconvenient, ant
how the trouble between Harold ant
his wife lay entirely in the bringing III
of the children. At this point the de
tails became too intimate for repeti
ton, though there was no question o
withholding them from my ears.
felt like q fellow countryman who ono
Travelled from Bordeaux to Paris in tn
company of young Englishwoman
, her sister, nurse and child. 81 entere,
that railway carriage" he said, IAN in
nocent American bachelor; left it ca
, pable of running day nursery, an in
! FAINT school or a mothers congress. -
Agnes Repplier in Life.