Norwich bulletin., 1912-07-03

"WaW!'
 Diliins had cut himself-and with safety razor. He glared al the offend ing piece of cutlery while he mopped his chin. Anyhow, he reflected furt- ously it was enough to make a fellow chop himself into bits to be irritated by such a noise
 From the windows above the noise loated to him. Or, rather it dashed and shot and streamed-for there was no doubt about the superior lung ca pacity and energy of the young wom- an who was cutting vocal capers Wlth the aid of a piano If one had not roomed below her and been obliged to listen whether or no one might have been properly impressed with her de- votion to her work, but it is one thing to give admiration of ones free will and another to have it dragged from one forcibly
 All his friends knew what Dilkins thought of the vocalist in the apart ment above, for he was so filled with sense of his injuries that much of his conversation was composed of dla- tribes against her. Dilkins said that he was. he hoped. a broad minded man who naturally had only good will for his neighbors and was imbued with the spirit of live and let llVe-but he would be dad -binged if he believed fair jury would ever indict him If he swatted with a brick the woman who sang or mailed her d box of poisoned candy.
 At thls point his friends usually led him away and applied soothing bever- ages and kind words and distracted him with arguments about baseball and the best place to buy summer neckties But his dislike grew in spite of all
 Most of the singers work seemed to be scales and arpeggios and long drawn out single notes that she at tackled from every possible angle, beat to frazzle and hurled out finally 10 languish and die upon the disturbed atmosphere. Force of gravity dragged them down and into Dilkins windows. Then he would rush to those apertures and shake his fist wildly at the relent- less heavens and VOW vows-which he never carried out, because he was al- ways getting ready for dinner or a party or something and had to hurry
 Just why fate should so torment him, he said, he could not imagine. He liked the apartment building and he liked his room ana the ]aOltOr ana the elevator boy and he approved of the cafe where he ate his meals and the framed pie lures Of the folks at home just fitted in nicely between his dresser and the bookcase and the wallpaper harmon ized with the sofa cushions he had ac- cumulated during various sentimental episodes-one never sends back sofa pillows with letters and Christmas scarfpins-sO it was particularly eXas- perating that what would otherwise have been a happy little home was made place of anguish by this thorn in his side-the woman upstairs who sang.
 The people with whom Dilkins lived said the name of the people upstairs was Benks, but they did not know the Benkses. ThereupOn Dilkins asked in withering sarcasm why any person of common sense should have the remot- est shadow of a desire to know indi- viduals who inflicted such blight on the neighborhood as a woman with a voice that had the edge of a crosscut saw and the force of piledriver. When he got started Dilkins could say things like that for fifteen minutes straight without taking breath.
 His friends said that Dilkins' trials were aiding him to develop a marvel ous vocabulary which might land him somewhere yet among the mighty. They used to gather about him in a circle and listen respectfully when he