The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-20
Dolly Hears c Discussion On
 Unrealized Dreams Of Life Work
An
   Happiness vast andNe to Tire

Funny, isn't it." said Nancy to Billy Bunting the other day. T was coming down from New York and the train we were on got mixed up-the engine or something behaved badly-anyway wo were all dumped out and
 "Who?" asked Billy Bunting indiffer- ently.
 "Why, the people who were In the train. of course" added Nancy. We had to go to a little hotel in the town. Up to that time I didn't know any of them, but after we were stranded in the woods two hours waiting for teams to come and haul us to the nearest village, why, I felt like every person in the train was a long-lost broth er or sister. I could almost call the peo- pie by their first names"
 "Wellas'' interrogated Billy Bunting. and waited, because. man-like, he thought that whenever a woman stops just as she's started, that it a sure sign she's getting ready to go on.
 Billy Bunting said she presently, "do you believe way down deep in your old hardened, tobacco-soaked heart that there's a single, solitary person In the whole world who is doing the thing that they want to?''
 | He didn't seem to know what she meant.
 T began to think about 1t after that experience" said Nancy.
 Tn that motley conglomeration I heard things I'd never heard before. There was 6 theatrical team; it seems they'd been doing a turn" in some of the vaudeville houses; there was a minister of the gos pei; of course, the inevitable drummer was there; there was a school teacher, an old man from the Soldiers Home; a lady from Chicago. who had been visiting her in Nirqinia and a a thick as hops before the game was over"
 Tt all started" resumed Nancy. "when the minister of the gospel began conver- sation with the drummer and rerna rlied that he had always wanted to go on the road. He hadn't always intended to be a minister, and the amazing part was that the old man from the soldiers nome said that he had always meant to preach. bu: life had somehow diverted him into other channels. He went to the war and when he came back he had his widowed mother and his sisters to take care of and he had gone into the hardware business. Then the school teacher began to strike up an acquaintance with the actress, and heard her say that instead of teaching she had always dreamed of going on the stage. The actress confessed that she hoped to make enough money soon to live in the country and start a chicken farm. And do you know. Billy, somehow when chickens are mentioned people be- gin to reach out after one another. believe one chicken feather makes the whole world kin. Haven't you noticed how nine out of every ten people have bee buzzing in their bonnets to the effec, that some day they'll go into the chicken raising business?'
 What was the lady from Chicago say ing all this timer" asked Billy Bunting presently.
 "She was telling the drummer that all of her life she had cherished secret de- sire to keep boarders. The drummer nearly fell out of his chair when she said 1 it. He asked her if she was in duty bound
 to earn .her living. and she said she had l 6 home and enough to live on, but she
 had two small children that she wanted to
 do things for and besides she said board | CTS were so much company.
 l Your experience with all those people
 must have been highly diverting," srowled Billy Bunting sarcastcally. l More than diverting," said Nancy. Tt
 was an illuminated page from life. I went
 on thinking after that how few people T
 know of all my acquaintances, are doing
 the things they really want to do. When
 I got to my destination, the first evening.
 at dinner, I told my hostess of the expe- rience I had had. and what it spelled to me, and she said she believed I was right. that nobody is doing precisely what they want to-
 For instance said she. There I am happily married to settled. reliable man, when I've always cherished a most im- possible dream of marriage with some gypsy, and living in a tent, and cooking things in a pot. And there's John. i1y
 husband, who Is happy as can be, and yet nell tell you himself that he always want ed to be a miner and dig things out of the ground. In fact, every time he goes to New fork he buys couple of gold bricks ln mining properties in the west: that is the nearest he can get to it. Then one of the daughters spoke up and said she'd always been wild to live in a hall bed room in New York boarding house and paint for living. She said that Q. Hem rvs stories of life in cheap boarding house inspired her with desire 60 make beef stew over gas jet, and know all the interesting people she'd meet going ID and down the four flights oe stairs"
 Now that you speak of it." said Billy Bunting, warming up to the subject. T remember how my sister always said she wanted to marry a man who didn't have money enough to hire somebody to take Up the ashes. She had a sort of passion for ashes and she hasn't outSrown 1t yet"
 Don't you know how Annie Riley is always saying she'd give, anything if she had married a bell boy in hotel" asked Nancy jubilantly. and Tessie Daly, who