The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1904-11-21
CHARM or THE
strang Fascination Of Remarks Not
Meant For Our Ears.

strange Fascination Of Remarks Not
Meant For Our Ears.
Why Is 1t that the legitimate CONVEX
sations of our associates. TO which we
have hardened from the beginning and
which we are predestined to follow
slackly to the end. should so often fail
to interest US. whereas the interrupted
remarks we overIIear and which were
never meant for our ears, fill us with
the liveIiest curiosity and concern? The
breaking off of a serial story is a trial
to most mems minds. But we know
that another month will bring another
number The inevitable breaking off
of IL causerie in which we have no
share fills us with d sense of hopeless
and irremediable loss. I once over
heard an old English lady say. with
Slow emphasis. to a friend: 1T is a
charming book. a charming book. 1t
is just the kind of a book you would
Want to give to your dressmaker." And
for fifteen years | have speculated in
ain as to what that volume was.
Apart from the manifest indiscretion
of giving any book to one d~ressmaker
and thus withdra wing her attention
from oue'S clothes, the only a%ppropri
ate literature can think of is the in
~structive history Of Ananias and Sap
pllira. and that has ceased to charm.
\ man waiting patiently at the glove
counter of a New York department
store heard one young ~shopwomaD say
to another as she handed down a box
of gloves. Maria told him downright
Shn'I h1 va nnthinQ moro tn 6O with
him. and she called him a poison faced
adder, he gripped her in the waltz
that So8IndalOus.'
This was ALL Customers clamored
for attention. and the confidence ceased
at this point. But the force and rich
ness of the language, the livelinesS OF
the a~lluSion. captivated the hearers
soul. He confessed that for years aft
erward. when lie was waltZing, with
decOrOuS reluctance under the compel
ling eye of his hostess. memories of Ma
ria's partner would aSsail him and he
would find himself envying the adder
the mysterious nature of his enthusi
assn.
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 cannO we'll help hearing, goes on
as TRANQUILITY in Il railway carriage or
on 4 steamer deck as though we were
not in close and helpless proximity
English travellers are particularly eA
haustive in their condolences and par
ticularly Indifferent to their surround
ingS. In one hour on a Como boat !
have learned a whole family history,
full of purely domestic fPatures-hOw
Dan had been sent to school at Lau-
same because he was so troublesome
ME ca siSter-in-law. | think made the
castle" IA 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. inconvPnient, and
how the trouble between Harold and
his wife lay entirely in the bringing up
of the children. Al this point the de
tails became too intimate for repeti |
ton. though there was no question of |
withholding them from my ears. II
felt like a fellow countryman who once
travelled 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.