The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-18
INTERESTING NOTES BY GIRL IN BROWN She Attends Meeting of the
 Teachers Institute THE SPLIT lNFlNlTIVES Predication and subJunctlve Verb Also Discussed-Why Did the Man
 With Buff Vest Gaze at
 Girl in Brown?
E SPLIT INFlNlTIVES

as many women got together in the hall at 10 o'clock and kept together for two hours. The men came In and took seats on the Nineteenth street side of the room. The women, arriving in two's and fours, tiptoed up the aisle and sat them selves down on the other side.
 It wasn't a voluble company, to begin with.
 The man who managed the affair, with an air of importance let it out that these institute meetings weren't run on the CO., educationa. plan. That was the reason, he explained. why he made the men side step to the left when they entered the hall, and that was ths reason also why he told the women to glide to the right and get busy.
 T believe in the prayer: Lead us not into temptation, the manager-man went on Ut won't do to have the men teachers and the women teachers mixing up together in these meetings of the in- stitute. The mems wives wouldn't stand for 1t and besides 1t isn't necessary. What's the old saying about an ounce of prevention7' he asked.
 Search mel" said an unpedantic look ing chap from out near Who'd-A-Thought It. He wished the meeting would get under way. He wanted, he said, to tell all he knew about "the subjunctive verb" He said 1t wouldn't take him long to do it.
 While the Who'd Thought It man was talking fellow wearing gold rimm- ed glasses and a freshly pressed suit of cheviot clothes strode into the hal. He looked as though he had hopes of being state superintendent of education one of these fine days. A gold chain that would make him liable to arrest for carrying 8 deadly weapon fell in loops on each side of his buff-colored waistcoat and seemed to lodge somewhere in the neighborhood of his armpits Behind him came three or four spectacled gentlemen. their brows being sicklied over with the pale caste of thought or of indigestion. These took seats at the left. They held their hands ID to their faces and now and then peep ed furtively through their fingers at the women teachers who were sitting in an ''eyes front" posture on the right.
 The critical glances of these gentle men drew a frown on the brow of a pretty young woman teacher, who had an end seat across the aisle. She had come in demurely and taken L. chair quietly enough. Her appearance, how ever. caused a futter in the hall The buff waistcoat mans fingers began to tie his gold watch chain into all kinds of knots. sailor fashion and otherwise. He tried his best to look as though he wasn't looking at the Girl in Brown. He hoped that persons who looked at him wouldn't imagine from his looks that he really wished to look at the Girl in Brown. Though in looking toward the Girl in Brown he might appear to oe looking straight at the Girl in Brown, there wasn't. he would have all men believe, anything about the Girl in Brown that could interest him.
 What If she did have on a beautiful brown gown? What if that gown was stunning thing to look upon? What if her hat was as chic as chic could be and made every other man there thank heaven that his wife had never seen :? What if the blue veins in her transparent white skin were visible twenty feet away, and her nails were freshly manicured and the oval of her cheek was rich, and what if her eyes were lustrous and her lips stolen from Raphaeps cherubim?
 Was that any reason why a spectacled gentleman who wears b11 waistcoat. gold chain and an ambition to be state superintendent of public education should be diverted from the business of the in- stitute? Was that any reason why teacher in the public schools of Jeffer- son county should cease for one moment to think of the subjunctive verb, the predicate and the split ininitive?
 Nevertheless, notwithstanding, yet, and yet, however, and all the other diversi- lives of light or heavy shade in meaning crowded into Plato's "Crito," or Walter Pater's Renaissance" The Girl in Brown continued to be the exposure of all eyes.
 One woman in the back row said the girls get-up was on a 1902 pattern. It wasn't the vogue this year and never would be again. Whereat. The Girl in Brown got up and stood up and affected to adjust her chair more comfortably. To the rival school teacher In the back row 1t seemed that The Girl in Brown took a pretty long time to adjust.
 
 Then the ball began to roll It kept on rolling for more than an hour and half. All the while the Girl in Brown sat with tilted head, making stenographic notes in cute little blank book. She kept it up till the meeting was over. Then she got up and with half sad smile walked out as demurely as she had come in.
 As she walked down the corridor, notebook worked it's way out of her belt and fiuttered to the floor. A newspaper man, coming along, picked it up and made every effort to give it back to. her who had lost 1t. But the Girl in Brown had gained the elevator. Try as he might the newspaper man couldn't overtake her.
 The notes in the book were later trans lated and typed" by an expert stem ographer. It Is no violation of confidence to print them here.
 Principal Chastain opened the meet ing with prayer" the notes began. He didn't pray long.
 'I wonder why we open these insu- tutes with prayer? I always did wonder what they did 1t for long before I got to be a teacher I'm wondering yet.
 'I wonder, also why I ever went into school teaching? Elizabeth made me do it. She wanted to be a trained nurse. I told her 1t was lots nicer to be school teacher. She said she knew better. "Elizabeth got married last year. She married doctor in the hospital. I'm