Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1913-08-19
He Impersonates Another Brown,
but Never Once Fooled
the Girl.
BY DARWIN MAJOR.


any other John Brown who ever lived.
But am only human, although ]
have ideals; admit that And when
the gods thrust their best goods into
my very arms, / cannot find 1t always
in my heart to resist, albeit my name
Is so common and there are other
John Browns.
And 80 happened the greatest
drama of my life-a drama upon
which the curtain is not yet rung
down-in fact, upon which / sincerely
hope to curtain has only arisen.
II began with the letter l found on
my desk, addressed in the daintiest
OF feminine handwriting to "Mr. John
Brown, Care of A. T. Hunt & Co.,
New York" opened the letter and
a photograph dropped out. And such
q photograph! l never have been con-
sidered a particularly sentimental
man. Indeed, my strong proclivity
has been along business lines. But the
moment l saw that photograph / real
ICED that was a doomed man. was
deeply, madly, jealousy in love-and
with a photograph If you will look at
the photograph will lay wager that
you will not blame me. And the
photograph is only a faint shadow of
the original.
Nor had ever seen the original of
the photograph. There was letter
also inside the envelope, and read
it 1t said:
Dear John: We were so glad to hear
come east. We hope to see much of YOU
We are only fifty miles from the city,
and you can run out easily of a Saturday
afternoon and spend Sunday with us.
do not know whether l would recognize
you or not. Ii is so many, many years
since the old days when we used to play
together by the old oak. But feel sure
that Ne will be the same good friends and
comrades we used to be.
We owe you an apology for not an
swering this sooner, but Aunt Jennie has
been Ill. and ! have neglected IL from day
to day until nearly a month has gone by.
Please forgive me and write us again,
and then l will show you by a most
prompt answer that we appreciate your
letters, and love you as we always have.
Aunt Jennie sends her best love and
wants to know all about your mother and
the girls Your affectionate cousin,
DOROTHY DAVIS.
p. 81 inclose my photograph, that you
may know, sir, that / am no longer
child in pinafores. wish you would send
yours.
Clearly the letter was not meant
for me- / knew no Dorothy Davis.
had not come east because / never
had been west. / had no mother liv-
ing, nor any cousins. And Aunt Jen-
ME- was an entire puzzle to me.
But the photograph had taken entire
possession of my mind and heart and
imagination. 1t showed a dainty lit.
tie girl of seventeen or eighteen with
jaunty poise of lead and jet black
ness of hair and saucy occurrences
of eyes-a most inviting, bemitching,
tantalizing bit of femininity.
OF course l made immediate in
quiries regarding the John Brown for
whom the letter was intended. There
was no such person. A John Brown
had been employed few weeks since
in the furniture department, but had
gone west somewhere to accept bet
ter position.
Then it was that the tempter knock.
OA ~ NhC pr vi NY bOul anu i
hesitated-and fell. Why not, write
this bewitching Dorothy Davis and
impersonate the cousin she had not
seen or heard from for years? | did
so and received a reply which set me
nearly wild. Thus the correspondence
began and it occupied my thoughts
much to the detriment of my useful
ness of the firm. For, it was a most
embarrassing correspondence on my
part, full of pitfalls and nerve-racking
problems. BY some sort of luck |
stumbled by the troubles pertaining to
family matters. but always did feel
the volcano, rumbling beneath me.
But did not have the courage to
go to see her. was too much afraid.
OF Dorothy's memory or Aunt Jen-
mics" memory. And / could get no
hint as to how the real John Brown
looked
The peculiar conditions and the
wild passion ! had acquired for the
woman of the photograph led me a
most unsettled and restless existence.
Finally fate put an end to the situa-
ton. received a sweet little note
one day, announcing that Dorothy Da-
Wis had arrived in New York and was
domiciled with a friend in w. Eighty
second street, and commanding me to
call That settled IT, l simply had TO
go and face the music or turn tail
and run away. ] faced the music. |
went at once to w. Eighty-second
street, and after marching back and
forth in front of the house for some
thing like an hour or 80, summoned
courage to run up the steps and ring
the bell.
When the original of my photograph
appeared, ! realized that she was all
and more than the cold reproduction
suggested. The soft tints OF her flesh
and the lights in her eyes gave
warmth and color which made the
photograph a poor thing indeed. She