Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1910 — WHAT HABIT WILL DO. [ARTICLE]

WHAT HABIT WILL DO.

"It was a cold, misty morning in Liverpool, and urgent business required my presence in Sheffield at once, so I was in a hurry,” sa£s a young American girl who lately returned from England.

“I expected the unavoidable delay of the custom house, and sighed resignedly. An official opened my suit case, ran his hand hurriedly about, closed it with a snap, and returning it to me, said politely, ‘Thenk you!’ All in about two minutes! Joyfully I hailed a cab, and was driven to the railway station. As I paid my fare the cabman said distinctly, ‘Thenk you!’ with emphasis on the ‘you.’ When I bought my ticket, the man at the window said emphatically, ‘Thenk you!’

“This time I noted the oddly rising Inflection and long drawn lingering on the last word. The guard who examined my ticket closed the compartment window with a bang, but I caught a faint “Thenk you!’ as the train started.

“Arrived in Sheffield, I registered at the station hotel, and the young man at the desk said ‘Thenk you!’ as I signed my name. I took a tramcar up-town, and gasped In amaze as the conductor collected my fare. ‘Thenk you!’ he said, earnestly, as he punched a little ticket receipt for the half-penny which I gave him. ‘Let me off at High street, please.’ ‘Thenk you, I will,’ he "replied. Presently I thought he nodded as he looked at me, and as I started to my feet, I asked, ‘High street?’ ‘No, thenk you,’ he answered, ‘not yet.’ “I Inquired the way of a passer-by, and as he directed me he said, ‘Thenk you, good afternoon.’ This was really making me dizzy, and my mind reverted to an entertaining habit of my childhood, when I would repeat the same word over and over until It lost all meaning to my brain. “As 1 stepped out of the creeping thing which they call a 'lift' over there, the elevator boy fixed me with a penetrating eye. ‘Thenk you I’ he said softly," and I hastened onward.

“In the shops it was horrible. Entaring a draper’s, the tall man In a frock coat who stood by the door would pounce on me and thank me before I could noeslbiy ask for what I wanted to buy. I don't know what I was being thanked for, much of the time, but those two words were thrown st me so often that it finally got on my nerves, and I felt like shouting, ‘Don't—don’t say it!’ -4 “The salesgirl ‘thenked’ me before I made my purchase, and ‘thenked’ me afterward: the cash boy ‘thenked’ me as he passed me by; and If, as

I hurried out, Fijollided with any one walking down the narrow aisle, I might beg their pardon in the clearest tones, yet ever~tEe’answer giyen to me you!’ “It was beyond analysis or explanation, and questioning was utterly of no avail. Once or twice I ventured to inquire as to the wherefore of the thing, but the answer made me shudder, and caused me to forbear. ‘lt has always been the custom, thenk you!’ And coming back across the sea I found relief at home, but sometimes even yet I toss feverishly in my sleep, and waking with a start, I think I hear, as if from some dim •cbo, ‘Thenk you!’’’