Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 140, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1910 — TRUMPING A PARTNER’S ACE. [ARTICLE]

TRUMPING A PARTNER’S ACE.

Normal Function on the Part of the lady In. Neighborhood Whist. I wouldn’t waste an evening on a game of nice, talkative neighborhood whist unless some beautiful woman, clad In cheerfulness as a garment, trumped her partner’s ace and then, noting his blank gaze, remarked: "Oh, what have I done? I didn’t mean to do that. That was a mistake.” A Kansas City woman engaged in a game of whist and her partner was her husband’s friend, says a writer In the Minneapolis Journal. He threw an ace and she trumped it and he cursed. And her husband sat right there and heard it and didn’t resent it! The lady promptly sued for a divorce and It was granted her. It is not to complain of the husband that I write, but to express astonishment at the lack of self-con-trol of the husband’s friend when that really most jubilant of events took place, namely, the trumping of the ace oy somebody’s wife. Taking conditions as they were, ought not the trumping of his ace to have brought the husband’s friend to light and cheerful laughter, not sarcastic, but just good natured and bubbling like? The event made no great difference In the world’s history, or would have made none, had It been properly received. And It may be laid down as a rule of the game never to “rear up” and holler “Fire!” when the lady who trumps aces performs her normal functions In neighborhood whist. How They Bathe in Japan. The bath In Japanese Inns, Miss Vera Collum says In the Wide World Magazine, was often something of a difficulty. Once we were Invited to "bathe in the kitchen, where the steaming bathtub stood amid a little group of men who gathered in the room In the evening to gossip and smoke! Very often the bath shed had no door, and when Jt had It was not Infrequently a glass one. Much as thp country folk In Japan stare at foreigners, they do not, however, take advantage of these defenseless bathrooms, so that the anticipation was always worse than the event Very often at the busier Inns two t persons have to bathe together. I have often been Invited to share the bathroom with a Japanese lady guest. To avoid this awkward necessity Z and I usually went to the bathroom together, and it was bn these occasions that our little dog proved himself so useful. It is Impossible to take anything but a cotton ukata to a Japanese bathroom, as there Is scarcely ever a dressing room attached to the bathrooms of country Inns, and the room Itself Is wet everywhere e»id' conains neither peg nor shelf—ln fact, all Japanese guests divest themselves of their garments outside the door! So we generally tied our money bag round the dog’s neck. He was a most little watchdog and never allowed anyone to enter our room in our absence without a noisy protest. Had we left him loose he would not have permitted anyone to enter without getting bitten.