The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-06-25
HIS HARD LUCK
BY ADA TURBOT.

dence," said the lawyer.
OF course, what the group had real
~ been discussing was the war. But
that didn't make any difference. Ev-
erybody knows that the man who looks
out of the window is not paying the
least attention to the topic under dis
CUSTOM
I'D never convict man on circum-
stantial evidence" continued the law
yer.
What's that got to do with the
atomic theory of the universe?" asked
the man who had been calculating |
General Nivelle's tactics.
You know my first name is Ivan,"
explained the windoW-gazer. And |
that is rather an odd name in this |
country-perhapS one in q hundred |
thousand. The chances are if you
would go out on Main street today and
stop every man you met and ask him
II his name was Ivan you would work |
week before you'd find one. And yet
there was an Ivan here once, some |
where, who came near getting me into
peck of trouble. He laid the foun-
dation for my disbelief in circumstan-
tial evidence"
well, tell it to US, brother, before
we leave the church,
Il ought to tell you also that my
wife's name is not Laura, SOS you'll
get the fine points of the story. Please
bear that in mind. Well, it happened
III u
gold watch for a long time and |
had been promising her one for just
as long time. A day or two before
her last birthday an old client of mine
came in and paid me hundred dollar
fee that ! had given up as lost, and
so | determined to crafty my wife's
long cherished desire and get her a
gold watch for her birthday. So /
began window shopping as a prelimin-
airy to the final transaction, and | was
standing looking in at some fine bits
of chronometrical bijouterie-''
"All together, boys-beg pahdonY
in a jewelry store window when
friend of mine who was in the pawn
brokers' business came along and laid
his hand upon my shoulder and asked
me what l was looking for in the jew
elry line. | told him. Well, he says,
you come on down to my place. l have
| got several peck meaSurefulS of
| ladies' watches. Why pay a hundred
dollars when l can sell you one for
twenty-five, just as good, and give you
fine case to put it in and nobody will
| be any the wiser? Wei, you know
| economy is the mother of inventions.
or something of that sort, and we had
| potatoes to buy as well as watches for
| the hQme-7-qnyWay, ! went along u It
/ looked like he had bushels of them
/ all styles. | fumbled them over and
| picked out a handsome little full-jew-
| eled, self-starter, with q little diamond
in the center of the lid, and put it in
| one of those rich-looking purple velvet
boxes with SWanSdOwn on the inside
| and brought it home and presented
it to my wife on the morning of her
birthday and all went as merry as q
marriage bell, as John L. Sullivan used
to say.
THAT is to say, for about ten min
utes, during which time my wife, with
gushes of feminine rapture, examined
the gift inside and outsider, rather
outside and then inside. And when
she got clear into the yitalS of the
peSky thing, | saw a change come over
her countenance. But she didn't say
anything-not just at that time She
went ahead thoughtfully eating hel
grapefruit-the event occurred a
breakfast-while l slipped my coffee
and read the sport page. Then
heard my wife ask, with gentle purl
in her voice:
Ivan, who is Laura?'
Laura? What Laura? Don't know
any immediate party by that name
"'Then tell me what this means,
she says, and she handed me over tht
: birthday gift with the inside lid, mex
; to the machinery open. Would you be
lieve it, boys"
Chorus: mo, we certainly will not.
Engraved on that inside lid, in let
tiers of fire, they seemed to me, wer,
the words: From Ivan to Laura
Christmas, 1873 l tried to explain
owned up to the truth about getting i
by chance in a pawEbroker'S shop.
talked fast and earnestly, but, say,
L had some job putting it over that tina
n wasn't a watch that l had given ant
G got back from another girl. Just thin
: OF my landing on that particular waite
out of several bushels of them in tina
: pawnshop-juSt think of the mer
: chance of that pawnbrokers happen
= ing along just as l was about to ste
d into that jewelry store to buy one
T why, the chances are one in q miilio
0 that I'd land on a watch with tn
IS name Ivan in it. Just fancy-an
that's the reason that I'd never cOnviC
Il a man on circumstantial evidence.
! = But, say. IVAN" said one of tn
= group, don't you remember that gil
. that was cashier in the Pink LObste