Evening star., 1905-08-26
sUBCoNsCIoUs STATE

There il q certain Washington man who
doesn't take much stock In that mental
state known as the subconscious. He Is
willing to admit that there may be such q
thing. but he has a reason behind his decaa-
ration that there isn't any money in It.
l. state Of subconsciousness made him
s140 poorer and his wife just that amount
| richer a short time ago. That's the rea-
son he is now going around expressing the
| conviction that II subconsciousness has any
genuine assay value. that value generally
reverts to the female sex.
This citizen. taxpayer. and normally Sc
date Washingtonian reached home from
little poker seance, pulled of at the homo
of man whose wife was away with the
children, one morning not long ago, quite
a lot to the good. His winnings. to be
act. were $780, He had picked d up something
else at the poker Soiree, and that was
upon the termination of the game, a Plim-
soil load line of mammoth proportions. He
found himself able to navigate all right
enough. but when he got home he felt con-
siderably twisted.
But he had. on getting into the house. one
uppermost, subconscious idea, which is al
legged to be peculiar TO some married men
under certain conditions. He wanted to
get his winnings under cover before his
wife had chance to do the regular search,
at getting-up time. of his clothes So he
which he intended to make an effort to
square himself with his wife at breakfast
| for staying out so late.
His idea was to slip her the forty In an
onhand sort of way, and tell her to get
herself few little neck ribbons. before
she had a chance to open up on him for
| his failure to come home to dinner the
| evening before and for delaying his return
| to his home until nearly o'clock in the
morning. He looked around the dmly light
| ed paror for place wherein to secrete the
remaining $40 of his bank wad. and finally
chose little Japanese potpourr jar stand
ing at one end of the mantel He stuffed
the wad of bills into the jar. grinning idiot
| ically 10 himself he reflected upon his
craftfness. Then he concluded to make
| little shorthand note on his cuff giving the
| location of the money in case he should
| forget about where he had put 1t before
morning. But he had lost his pencil, and
| so he. had to give up the idea of making the
chart on his cuff.
He turned in. and when he woke up he
vaguely wondered how he had contr.ved to
get home. He had completely forgotten Of
course. what he haG done with the money.
He furtively got up and went through his
pockets before his wife had a chance to
ask him about things. and he found only the
two crump!ed-up twenties. He remembered
that he had won quite a lot of money, and
he was mystfed He reached the conclu-
sion, however, that he had been touched
by somebody or other on the way home.
and he had other things to think about be-
colossal proportions of his head.
When his wife opened up on him he man
| aged to take the keen edge off her wrath by
stuffing the two $40 bills into her hand and
| telling her that he had seen a pongee suit
| the day before that he was just bughouse
| to have her get-he thought she'd look
great in it.
When he started for his office that morn
! ing he had only little silver change in his
clothing. AS soon as he got downtown he
met a couple of the men who had been in
| the poker game with him, and they began
| to slap him on the back Immediately over
| the great luck he'd had. He made gloomy
replies to their Fluctuations. He had just
| about lunch money in his clothes, and that
was all.
He left his office early that day. knowing
| that he'd probably find his wife out when
| he got home. His surmise correct. He
| took off his coat and looked in every corner
| of the lower floor of the house for the miss
| ing money, for he had hidden Sleeper
bank rolls from himself before
He lifted the cover of the piano, gaZed
| into the black depths of the unused latrobe.
felt behind all of the pictures on the walls
| and examined every nook and Granny which
! he thought he might possibly have utilized.
| in his state of subconscious foXiness of the
| night before In which to stow the money
| which he now felt sure he had brought
| home with him from the poker seance.
| But he didn't look in the japanese pot
pourri jar.
| His wife came home-she had corraled the
| pongee suit-while he was still searching.
| and when she asked him what he was doing
home so early he replied that he had missed
| business receipt at his office and had
| come home to look for 1t. He hadn't found
| It, however, and concluded that it must
! have been lost.
| Whereupon, his experienced wife's orbs
were illuminated with a great and glowing
| idea, although she didn't say a word. She
| had not been married for six seven years
| for nothing. She had on several previous
| occasions had the fun of stumbling upon
1
! alleged missing receipt was enough for
| her, and when he went to his Office the
following morning she instantly got busy.
! Her feminine intuition enabled her to find
| the money after scarcely five minutes
| searching Her eyes bulged when she
the size of the neat little bundle. and she
| decided to say nothing whatever about it to
| her husband until he had lost his first acute
| sense of misery over the fashion with which
| his best poker winnings of the year had
| disappeared.
| 1t was only a few morning ago, in fact.
that she said, after he had had his morning
| coffee. and was consequently in a pretty
| amiabie frame of mind:
| II suppose findings are still keepfngs in
| this house. as usual?"
Sure thing" he replied. offhand, not for
| the moment apprehending just what she
| was referring to.
"Well." she said. I've found a few dol
| lars here In the house-maybe you lost the
| money, and maybe lost 1t myself-but, as
| need few little things, why, won't
| bother you for the money, but shall use the
money 1 found"
How much did you find?" f1abbily In
quired the man, certain in his mind that
! his wife had uprooted the poker winnings.
! but in no position, Of course, to come out
| hatfootedly with the question as to whether
| that happened to be the case.
"Oh, just a few stray dollars" his wife
replied, as she cast her eye over the bargain
| announcements In the papers. Enough to
| get me the few little things l need"
The department store delivery wagons
| have been hauling up in front of that abode
every ten minutes or so ever since that
| morning, and the raids which the mistress
of the establishment is making upon the be-
tween-seasons bargain counters are max
| ing her women friends scandalously jealous.
''The so-called foxness of the man-par-
| ticularly the married man-in what they
call the subconscious state, this married
man is saying nowadays, lis all moonshine
and rot. There never was any old SUBJ
conscious game yet. especially If 1t had
money end to it, that a married woman
couldn't penetrate and solve with both
hands tied behind her back