The Irish standard., 1915-01-16

"Oh, yes there was" said the other,
"a young fellow that kept to himself in
a corner of the car. But he isn't any,
body that you know, Miss Carrie" be-
cause the speaker had noticed that
the one he alluded to was stranger.
But the next mornings paper an
nounced the marriage of Miss Carrie
with the young stranger who had ar
rived later than when first expected.
The bride had never seen him till he
came to marry her. They had become
acquainted as fellow telegraph oper-
ators and he had proposed by wire.
AS far as known, the marriage was
happy.
We often hear, humorously and 9TH
erwise, of people becoming engaged
through matrimonial agencies. A sur
prising instance was that of a man
who lived alone, but who was far from
helpless. Although wealthy he lived
in one room and did his own house
keeping, cooking his meals at the open
fireplace in his room. He was given
to taking nap in his chair near the
fire after his meals and once when do.
ing SO he slid out of his chair and fell
into the fire, seriously injuring one of
his hands. Anybody might have in
ferred that the accident would have
taught him two things-to get himself
a cook and to refrain from mapping
near the fire. But he learned neither
one lesson nor the other. He was not
a misanthrope and was we'll known in
the place he lived in and, like all rich
people, he had influence. But he pre-
ferred to live alone and some time
after the hurt to his hand people were
surprised to learn that he had fallen
in the fire again from the same reason
as before, sleeping in his chair. There
after he was lame, besides having a
crippled hand. Even this did not make
him confess helplessness. He con-
tinued to be his own housekeeper and
to go out to be his own marketer. This
is chronicle of actuality, otherwise
what followed might seem like exag-
geratfon. But, strange as it may seem,
Mr.. Nathaniel-that was his name
found it impossible to learn from ex-
perience. He was living instance of
how poor teacher experience can be
with the wrong sort of pupil. So Ma
thaniel actually went to sleep in his
chair by the fire again and actually
fell in the fire third time. The ply
stefan who was regularly summoned
for these fiery escapades even grew
humorous and said his patient was try
ing to do all of his burning in this
world. But on recovering from this
third mishap with the loss of an eye,
far from being daunted by fate, it's VIC
tim was more self-helpful than ever.
It was both pitiful and ridiculous to
see him returning to his home room
supported by cane held by his sound
hand while with the other arm he
would hold together lot of little par
GELS of groceries, directing his steps
with his remaining eye while his miss
ing one was covered with large, con-
spicuous green patch. But how can
you help people who insist on helping
themselves? Mr.. Nathaniel might
have continued his periodic dips into
the fire until there was literally moth
ing left of him, each time leaving less
and less of himself to provide for and
making more graceful and piece
meal retreat from the world than tho
abrupt way most people choose. But
fire of another kind interfered and
consumed all the rest of him. Mr..
Nathaniel grew romantic. He an
swered the advertisement of lady
living elsewhere who wanted to cor.
respond with a handsome man. She
received his answer favorably and
he continued to correspond. But
herein, too, he was completely self
helpful. His one remaining hand
could write love letters and nobody
knew what was brewing till people
began to miss seeing him and his
green patch and cane and armful of
groceries. Somebody asked where he
was. The answer was astounding.
"Mr Nathaniel hoe oono ou,o, ,,a