Just Like A Man

1895

And It Cost Him a Sealskin Cloak to Patch Up a Peace.

This is the sad story of two absentminded men. One of them told it last night with tears in his voice.

"Jennie Allen," he said, "was one of my wife's girlhood friends. Her father is a rich man who lives in central Illinois.

"When we came back to Chicago to live, my wife had not seen Miss Allen for three years. One day I went down to Mr. Allen's home to see him on business. After we had talked that over Mr. Allen asked me if I knew that his daughter was married. Naturally I was surprised.

" 'Jennie has been married more than a year,' he said, 'and she is living in Normal Park, just outside of Chicago, you know. Tell your wife to go out and call on her.'

"I told him my wife would be delighted and came on back to Chicago. When I got back home that night, I told my wife about it, and she smiled.

" 'So Jennie Allen is married, is she? She lives out at Normal Park, and I'm to go out and call on her, am I? Of course, you brainy man, you did not remember to get the present name of the Miss Allen who was?'

"Well, I hadn't thought of asking whom Miss Allen married, and I wrote to her father in a day or two, telling him that my wife found his direction rather indefinite and asking him for further particulars.

"His answer came by return mail. 'It is easy enough to find,' he wrote. 'Their house is only two blocks from the depot at Normal Park, and everybody who lives there can point it out. Do tell your wife to call as soon as she can, for Jennie is the mother of a little boy, and she is simply dying, she writes me, to see her old friend.'

"I took that letter home and handed it in triumph to my wife. 'I guess that will settle your difficulties,' I ventured to remark.

"She read it through in silence. Then a superior, pitying sort of smile gathered about her lips.

" 'Oh, Jennie's house is only two blocks from the depot, is it? Anybody can point it out to me, can they? All I've got to do is to go out there and ask the first man I meet, is it? Well, will you be kind enough to tell me whose house I am to ask for when I get off the train at Normal Park? Shall I ask for the house of the husband of Jennie Allen, or what shall I do?'

"I called a messenger boy and sent this telegram:

" 'James Allen, Woodville, Ills.: What is the full name and address of your daughter's husband?'

"One hour later the answer came. I finally succeeded in making peace in the family, but it took a sealskin cloak to do it." — Chicago Mail.