Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1879 — Packing a Trunk. [ARTICLE]

Packing a Trunk.

“ The man who takes over ten minutes to pack a trunk is a dolt 1 ” said Mr. Bowerman, as he slammed down the lid and turned the key. Mrs. Bowerman had been at it just seven days and seven nights, and when her husband went up stairs at 10 o’clock she sat down before the open trunk with tears in her eyes. “ You see how it is,” she explained, as he looked down upon her in awful contempt. “ I’ve got only part of my dresses in here, saying nothing of a thousand other things,' and even now the lid won’t shut down. I’ve got such a headache I must lop down for a few minutes.” She went away to lop, and Mr. Bowerman sat down and mused: “ Space is space. The use of space is in knowing how to utilize it.” Bemoving everything, he began repacking. He found that a silk dress could be rolled to the size of a quart jug. A freshly-starched lawn was made to take the place of a pair of slippers. Her brown bunting fitted into the niche she had reserved for three handkerchiefs, and her best bonnet was turned bottom-up in its box and packed full of underclothing. He sat there viewing sufficient empty space to pack in a whole bed, when she returned, and said he was the only good husband in this world, and she kissed him on the nose as he turned the key. “ It’s simply tho difference between the sexes,” was his patronizing reply, as he went down stairs to turn on the burglar-alarm. When that wife opened that trunk! But screams and shrieks would avail nothing. A Canadian girl carried a twentyfoot ladder 100 yards, placed it against a burning house, and —well, she did not put out the fire. She fell backward on a man and nearly killed him.