Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-28
SUCH A DEAR HUBBY"

This is little story of resourcefulness.
the central figure OF the same being .
young married man whose life Is such q
| busy one that he occasionally feels It
necessary to tell little bits OF white lies
A month or 50 ago he had to go to st.
Louis on q business trip. to be gone for
about two weeks. His young wife hated
to have him go, On course, for they've
only been married about year. Not that
the length of time that couples have been
married really makes any difference in
| such cases. but-however, this is not
didatic discussion on the subject of con-
nubfality. but concrete story. This man.
when he started on business trips, always
pleased his pretty young wife immensely
by making great show Of taking her
picture along with him. and while he was
away Of writing to her about how the
photograph soothed his lonesome hours,
and all that.
The last thing that he always did when
packing his bag was to grab that cabinet
photograph of his wife. the only one of
| Its kind in the house, that stood on the
dresser, and stun 1t in his grip while she
! looked ON, pleased all over to observe him
| In the act OF doing such nice, thought
| full thing.
| 1t is necessary to remember, by the way
that the cabinet picture that he took
| away with him these business trips
was, as stated, the only specimen of its
| kind in the house, and that it always
stood on his wife's dresser while he was
at home.
Well, when he started for ST. Louis on
| this last trip he was in such a dead rush
| that in packing up he quite forgot the
photograph of his wife. He had to make
| the train in quick time, and he overlook
| ed it.
| His wife noticed that he had forgotten
1 10 v,tof .1xy re = 4
| she mentally excused him for forgetting
| 1t when she remembered what a great
| hurry he had been in.
| But
! couple of days after her husbands ar
| rival in st. Louis she received letter
from him that shocked and amazed her
| beyond expression.
| The letter from her husband said, among
| many other things not germane to this
1 narrative, that he was deriving all kinds
| OF solace and consolation from her pic
| ture. That he'd taken 1T out Of his grip
! just he'd unpacked in ST.
| was writing, the picture, standing there
| on his hotel bureau, was smiling and
| smiling away at him and making him
| suffer all kinds of inconsistencies and lone
someness for the dear little wee wife
| and all that; the average reader'll fill
| out the rest all right
OF course. she was shocked and amazed
| She was worse than that. She was griey-
| ed. To think that he. whom she had dur
| ing all her married life found SO per-
! fectly, SO Scrupulously truthful, should
! stoop to telling her a that is, that he
! should write her something that wasn't
| so!
| Wasn't that photograph of her right
| there on the dresser before her very eyes?
Oh it was a sad blow to her all right
| She didn't let on in her letters to him
| didn't say word about 1t. But it stuck
and it stuck deep.
Now. three or four days after he'd ar
LII, tx e. I, tfr,rr har
| other letter about how much joy and de-
| light he was extracting from her picture
| on the hotel bureau when a quick wave of
| remembrance overwhelmed and stunned
| him.
| He suddenly recalled that he didn't have
| the picture with him at all.
| And here's where the resourcefulness
! comes in.
He went right on and finished the letter
| to her about how much consolation he
| was finding in the picture of her and
| mailed the letter.
| He didn't calculate on being found out
| He is sort of an adherent to that elev-
| enth commandment which says that
| Thou shalt not be found out, and there
| wasn't any minted amount of coin that
| he'd take to have his wife catch him in
| even one of those tenchy domestic false
| hoods.
| His way out was this:
| He was well acquainted with the Wash
| ington photographer who had taken that
| photograph of his wife. And So that very
evening, he wired to the Washington pho
| tographer, instructing him to make, in
stantly, a print Of that photograph
which the photographer. knowing the
wife, too, could quickly identify-and
send it along, by special delivery, to the
| hotel in ST. Louis.
without any trouble, made a print OF it,
| mounted 1t and fired it along to the man
in St Louis, who, when he received 1T.
| went out and bought an elaborate oval
| IA fray ri a a
| great deal indeed while he put the photo
graph into the frame.
| He knew that his wife would imagine
that she had him when he got back and
| that she would have a little sadness about
her and so on. And he had that end of it
| right, of course.
| She had meant to restrain herself, but
| when he flung his arms about her on en-
terng the house upon his return she col
| lapsed from having worried SO much
about the little thing and fell to weeping.
| OF course, the brute. with a wide gaze
| OF utter innocence, asked her what on
| earth could be the matter.
"Oh, to t-t-think." she gasped. that you
c-c-could t-t-tell me s-s-story?
story said the man, winking at him
self in the mantel mirror over her shout
der. Say. little one. what's this all about.
anyhow? What story?"
why" she moaned between her sobs.
| about my p-p- picture-writing MINNIE
that you were l-l-looking at it every
| n-n-night, and you d-d-didn't have 1t
| with y-y-you at all-it's up on the b-b-bu-
reau t-tthis MN minute!"
| The unspeakable male person pushed
her gently away from him and regarded
her with an expression of the most lofty
| sadness.
my dear" said he. in that injured.
| abused tone that some husbands have got
down pretty pat MY dear. do you really
| mean to say that you could think me
capable of such a thing as that-me?
| "B- b but J-J-J-Jack, dear" she sobbed,
| the PIP picture Is upstairs n-n-now.
and"
For answer he put his grip on top Of the
| sitting room table. opened it, and there,
right on top of the clean linen. and beau
| tifully wrapped about in white silk
muffier, was her photograph in the fine.
heavy gilt easel frame
She gazed at it with natural astonish-
ment.
"B-b-but," she cried. "w-w-when did
| you"
Dearest he said to her, didn't tell
you that / had another print made just
for carrying away on business trips, about
| a week before l started for st. Louis, and
| that | got this frame for it, and that l
put it in the bottom of my grip as soon as
| got 1t SOS I'd be sure not to forget 1t?