The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-23
ONE ABsENT-MINDED MAN.
A Commonly Prodtloss Trait mat

A Commonly Profitless Trait That
 Brought Great Good Fortune.
 Absent -mindedness, said a man of whom that trait constitutes the most conspicuous characteristic, lis, l know, not commonly considered as conducive to success; but it is neverthless to that trait that I owe the greatest good for tune that has evr befallen me.
 Tn the select boarding house in which I lived at the time of the incl dent I am about to relate, dwelt also the charming young lady who is now my wife. At that time she seemed far removed from me.
 From the distance of another table I worshipped her from the day my eyes first fell upon her, which was the day went there to work. For nobody could be insensible to her beauty, nor body could be in the same room with her without being drawn to her insen- sibly; and once seen she could not be forgotten.
 "So from the distance of another ta- ble l worshipped her, but that short distance, slight as 1t was, seemed a broad and impossible chasm, For her eyes never rested upon me, indeed she seend unconscious of my prsence, and, fondly as I wofshipped her, I seemed to awaken in her heart nomore thought than if had been really in the Congo valley, or even In far Cathay,
 Cold, she seemed, and likely always to be far removed from me, but singu- lar as it may seem we were at last brought suddenly and unexpectedly to- gether by a display of my absent-min- dedness.
 Going down to breakfast one morn- ing and taking my place at my table Fin my accustomed manner, l was con- scious presently that something had happened to cause all the boarders at all the other tables around me to smile. Something had happened, obviously, that amused them all greatly; and in a minute my next neighbor at my table, young man with whom my relations were friendly, leaned toward me ana whispered:
 Old man, I guess you forgot to comb your hair this morning, didn't you?'
 And in truth I had. There was a mirror over a mantelpiece on the op- posite side of the room from my table that I could look into when I raised my eyes, and looking into that now smiled at the sight revealed to me.
 "Yes, indeed, had forgotten to comb my hair. After my morning ablutions had rubbed my head drywith arough towel and then l had left it and now my hair was tangled and twisted and standing up and leaning over in irreg- ular tufts and scattering spikes, as mixed up a head of hair as one could ever hope to see.
 And, as l said I was obliged to smile myself, when I saw it, and glancing around at the boarders at the other tables, looking at me, my eye fell finally on the lovely girl whom I had thought so insensible to me, but whom I now found looking squarely at me and smiling with the rest
 True, it may have been my hair alone, and not me at all that she was 1 smiling at, but there she was smiling She was not the cold and naughty beauty that, in my despair, had long fancied her; she had heart after all and even while those smiling eyes were beaming on my tangled head I silently vowed to win her and I did
 "So my greatest good fortune in life I owe to my absent t-mindedness, bu she looks out now to see that l never repeat that display of it.'