Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-07
THE WAY IT HAPPENED

1 e
| 1t happened down by the sea couple Of
years ago.
| The young man concerned In the case wa
from and Is of Washington So was and
II the girl
/ hardware store. and. a. a hustiinE. Aleri
| clerk. .thers' with the Misunderstanding
thing. he was paid $50 a week
| But he didn't look like SO week when
| he reached the seashore two years ago
| He looked like several different shades OF
prompt money. He had several very cute
pairs Of duck trousers. bunch of outing
shirts that were. as he himself well knew
and said. all the candy. and several other
\ things In the way OF wardrobe. More
over. he had some winning ways.
| He had two weeks OF with pay. little
| bank roll sailed In one OF the pairs OF
duck pantaloons and dead-set determine
| ton to have whole heap Of time while
| he was away from the Washington as
The hotel with which he had made pre-
| liminary arrangements at the seaside was.
| as he found when he got there, just lit
tered, cluttered, loaded up. damned, stun
| ed and packed with coolies and slews and
| slathers of pretty girls. Peaches. Look
ers every of EN-. Enough to cause a
| young hardware clerk on two weeks leave
| gers upon his first sight of them.
And, to match this tremendous assort-
| ment of pretty girls banked around the
| hotel. there were just four male beings. and
the hardware clerk didn't have TO be even
little bit conceited to see that he had
them all backed or the boards in every
respect They wouldn't do. The girls had
been tolerating them around. but the four
male beings already on the ground were,
as the hardware clerk quickly saw, mere
selling platers, and he didn't figure on any
trouble at all.
AS a matter Of fact. he didn't have any.
est care in selection, and it was all right,
He won. He didn't have the slightest
bother In getting introduced to her. There
wasn't any introduction. She was being
didn't figure at all. The hardware clerk
let his iordly choice fall upon this raving,
staving beauty. and all OF the rest, or the
girls Immediately began to knock her, OF
course, where they'd been parading around
with their arms wrapped around her waist
before the one presentable youth had shown
up.
The hardware clerk only meant from the
beginning to be gay dog and horrible
cut-up among the ladies, but he hadn'
been going around with this seaside girl
from Washington for two days before he
began to perceive as he told himself. that
he was 'n bad"
That Is to say. he found that he was
falling most hopelessly and blindly and
idiotically in love with the girl.
HopeleSsly and blindly because he couldn't
help it, but idiotically because it didn't
take him long to find out that the girl
really belonged to a very naughty and
moneyed kind of family.
And me peddling alligator files and mon
key wrenches for two sawbucks a week, !"
he had the sense to say to himself as ne
found himself falling so tremendously In
love with the girl. I'm fine iron butcher
to be thinking about asking girl like her
10 Ia I'M with / am
But after all, he didn't feel like spoil
ing his vacation. He couldn't make out
how he stood with the girl, though she
seemed to like to go around with him. But
he doped 1t out that the only possible rea-
son for this was that he was the only
practicable male person around the hotel,
and he was sure that this was the sensible
appraisal Of the situation SO rar as the girl
was concerned.
They sat out on the sand during the long
forenoons, under the shade of the big UNI
brella. listening to the monotone OF the
sea and throwing sand into each others
shoes. They paraded along the verge I'M
der the same old. big moon Of all the ages.
He didn't tell her anything about the state
of his feelings. but he couldn't heip put
his vacation drew to close. and once or
twice he fancied that she returned the
wistful gaze in kind. But he wasn't going
to take any chance on making the bad
break Of declaring himself unless he knew
positively that he had some show. So. after
the most delirtous two weeks of his life.
he returned to Washington the most mis-
cradle clerk in a hardware establishment
on the face of the inhabitable globe, as he
thought and felt himself to be.
I When he had parted from the girl IN
shadowy corner Of the hotel piazza on the
night before his departure he had been
sorely tempted to tell her all of the things
that were in his mind but he RETAINED by
gigantic effort-although he did pick a
long, golden hair from the lapel OF his
- rr,hnn ho GOT IN
at that
She invited him, that parting night, to be
sure to call upon her in Washington In
the autumn, and he told her that he sure
Now, II this were one of those uproar-
iously funny comic weekly yarns on sum-
mer resort subject, there's not doubt In
life that the average reader wouio e5 ,,.
Isn't It's a strictly veraclous narrative.
The professional funnyists would have the
world believe that young folks who meet
each other at the seaside never keep up
the acquaintance when they get back home
and that such meetings never by any
chance result in marriages. But they do
They result in whole lot of marriages.
The professional funnyist would wind the
story IN in this way: He'd have the girl
drop into the hardware store some gray
day of the following October to look at
pair of roller skates or to examine some
andirons for the hall fireplace at her rich
home, and she'd come face to face with
the young hardware clerk upon whose blue
serge lapel she'd left a couple, If not more
of her golden hairs at the seaside during
the preceding summer. The 5okesmith
would have the young clerk start with an
expression of acute pleasure to greet the
young woman, addressing her with the
phrase: .fOh Miss Gitgilt how well you
look Don't you recall our jolly meeting
at the beach last summer? And then the
young woman would draw herself upon to
her full height" in most freezing manner
and address him as If he were a horse
cake, asking him to be good enough to
show her coal scuttel. and that would be
the end Of the summer romance according
to the conventional screech-evoker's view
Of 1t.
But real life doesn't trot to pole with the
iokesmith's gags and this story didn't fall
out In the comic weekly way at all.
As Simple matter of fact, when the
young woman returned to Washington the
hardware clerk called upon her at her folks
handsome home almost Immediately. and
he got mighty pleasant reception from
her. and she looked extremely glad to see
him. She introduced him to her father and
mother and he made a prompt hit with
them by his frank manner. They may
have had all sorts Of other ideas for the
girl, but when she told them. three months
after her return from the seashore, that
the hardware clerk had asked her to marry