Life — June 27, 1895 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BRAVE. A MOUSE ran by. She did not scream Or wildly raise her head. ** T do not mind such animals With bloomers on," she said. WHEN POLLY MAKES A BET. S* DOLLY,” said 1, “ I'll bet the ice cream sodas against a box of cigars that you can’t tell me why I loved you.” She stopped playing “ The Garden of Sleep,” and swung around. “Tl bet you!” Let me explain, parenthetically, that Polly would have accepted the wager with as much promptitude had it been a stick of gum against a residence onthe Hill. Debts never trouble Polly, I settled back in the chair. “ Begin.” Polly looked at me musingly, turning a ring around on her finger. This is an in- fallible sign that she is thinking deeply. One may always judge of the workings of Polly's brain by observing the rapidity with which she twists her ring. “ Because I'm pretty?” “ Wrong; so is Minnie Scott and Ethel— in a way,” | added as I caught a warning gleam in Polly's eye. “ Because—because I never quarrel with you?” Polly looked demure. “True,” I answered with commendable gravity, “but that’s not the reason.” She played softer a few bars of a charming rcise for Five Fingers. “ Because—because—I loved you ?” “No; I loved you first.” “OFF ON A TEAR.” “Pooh! Only a half minute.” It has ever been one of our pet delusions to imagine that we fell in love with each other at first sight. As a matter of fact our appetites were unimpaired for fully twelve days after our first meeting.” “ Well—why ?” she asked. “ Because "—I lighted a fresh cigar—" because you never asked me to give up smoking.” Polly made no answer, but showed her contempt for this explanation by dashing into an ear-splitting arrangement entitled, “ Spirit of Evening ; a Nocturne.” Richard Stillman Powell. TAKING NO CHANCES. “ O, sir,” said Charon, positively, “ you can’t get in here.” As the disappointed shade moved away from the gang-plank, one of the passengers remarked : “It seems too bad to discriminate against anybody in that way.” “IT know it does,” Charon replied, “but I have to dovit. He's the blooming idiot who rocked the boat in the other world.” H ACKET (gloomily): 1 tell you, Charlie, this is a hard, hard world. SACKET (¢nterestedly): So you have bought a bicycle, have you ?