Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 219, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1912 — HOW ONE AWKWARD YOUNG MAN WON OUT Sought Cure for Embarrassment in the Country and Found a Wife. [ARTICLE]

HOW ONE AWKWARD YOUNG MAN WON OUT Sought Cure for Embarrassment in the Country and Found a Wife.

By LAWRENCE ALFRED CLAY.

(Copyright, 1912, by Associated Literary Press.) In the world of today a young man who has been about is credited with a full share of self-confidence, and If he had any rough points to begin with to 'have had them polished down by contact with society. Franklin Graham was an exception. Nature had given him a handsome face, as it had many Grahams before Mm. His figure was good, too, but he went about in a continual state of embarrassment and awkwardness. Mischievous young women and the jokers at his clubs kept him on edge all the time. He realized his drawbacks. A man may realize that he has a backache, but that doesn't cure the ache. He would brace up now and then and try to be assertive, but the effort only made things worse. When a man is embarrassed and awkward and has stammer added to it and he steps on a girl’s train and sits down on a fifty-dollar fan and refers to Renfew as Jones, what’s the use ,of struggling further? s/*When I was your age I was just that way,” said a middle-aged clubman who liked the boy and felt pity for him. He lied when he said he was just that way, but he lied with good intent. If all liars had good intentions there would be no evil in tipping chairs back on their hind legs and lying for half a day at a time. “Did you see a doctor about it?” asked young Graham. “Certainly not. A doctor can cure the measles, but he’s got no remedy for your case.” “Then wh-what shall I d-do?” "Cut out the town for awhile and go down the country to some village and begin on the ground floor. Rub elbows with Tom, Dick and Harry. Mingle with the people. Talk, fish, loaf around. You’ve seen Europe, but there are villages twenty miles away you haven’t seen. You’ve attended functions and high teas, but you’ve never taken a straw ride. You’ve seen grand dames and angel girls in evening attire, but you’ve not flirted with the village belle. Go to, young man!” And a week later young Graham went to Harpersville. Nice little town, nice river, nice people, good fishing, nice air! He was surprised at find? Ing such a place in America. Somewhat embarrassed and somewhat awkward, but not so much as he expected to be, he found the old-fashioned inn,' but he had stopped at worse in Europe and felt the romance of it.There was Uncle Hiram Buzz to welcome him as he had welcomed every stranger for the last fifteen years. “Well, my son, come to stay a while?” he began. "I —I hope so.” “Glad to hear it. We’ll treat you right. Cost of living has gone way up, but we are not robbers here. Come from the city, I s’pose?” "Yes, sir.” “Folks there all well when you left?” “I think so.” “Glad to hear it. Some one has predicted that the cholera would be along this summer but we ain’t a bit skeered of it up here. D’ye like the looks of the town?” “Yes, sir.” * "Glad to hear that, because I know we shall all like you. You Jest pitch right in and be one of us. There’s dog fights every day or two—picnics, swimming, fishing, dancing, going after berries —oh, we’ll take keer of o you.” And there were three or four young men that wore very large cuffs and very high collars who called and invited the stranger to have a game of pool on the dusty old table, and the landlord’s daughter Introduced him to several girls, and within a week the young man was surprised himself. It seemed that he had never moved among real people before. There was no polish—no formality. The boys laughed loudly, and the girls chewed gum. Franklin Graham was learning something new every day, and he was rather glad of it He had been in Harpersville ten -days when he went fishing. A freckle faced boy guided him to a .spot behind the old sawmill, and before running away whispered to him that the girl sitting there with the pole and line was Miss Greenleaf. Mr. Graham’s bashfulness returned with a rush. He realized that the girl was superior to any one he had yet seen or met in the village. She didn’t call out to Mm that fishing was good. In fact, shb didn’t even appear to notice his presence. Was there a certain etiquette about fishing? What was it? Was a young man supposed to advance, hat in hand, and ask a girl if phrase might he fish in that river? He had been standing undecided for two or three minutes when the girl looked up and queried: | "Come to fish?” "Y-es.” why'don’t you fish, then?” /Thereupon, in bis excitement, Mr. Graham stepped on his own feet and fell down and rolled over on the ‘•Queer way to fish,” said the girl a« she hauled up her hook to rebal6 Mr. Graham got up and straightened out his tackle and baited his book. and threw it In. He wasn’t

fishing. He was thinking what an idiot he was not to have gone for a long walk. Suddenly the girl felt a bite and rapidly hauled in her line. There was a fish on the hook, but Mr. line had floated down and became entangled with the other. “You are a Very thoughtless young man, sir,” said the girl, as the fish flopped around and finally fell back into the water. “I—l beg ten thousand pardons!” stammered the young man, and then he did something worse. The girl bent far over the water to disentangle the lines from a log, and he thought her on the point of falling and made a grab and tore her shirtwaist and pulled off her hat. She didn’t fall She simply looked up and quietly said: ”1 thlnk you are the most careless young man I ever met!” “Yes’m—yes’m!” he replied, as he left his fishing outfit and walked hurriedly away; and he did not regain his composure for the next two’hours. “Well,” remarked Miss Ida Greenleaf, as she arrived at the house of her aunt, which had also been her home for years, “I have met that young man from the city. He was down fishing.” “And you spoke to him without an introduction?” “I felt obliged to. I had to ask him. if he had come to fish, why he didn’t fish and tell him he was the most careless young man I ever met. I admired him, though. Came from the city—about twenty-two—traveled, I should say, and yet he was as greatly embarrassed and blushed as hard as a girl. I think ” . “What, Ida?” “That we shall have a thunder shower before night.” Two days later, as he was coming out of the postoffice, Mr. Graham ran full tilt against Miss Ida and banged her up against the building, “A —a thousand pardons!” he halted to say. "Truly, the most awkward young man I ever saw!” she replied as she recovered her equilibrium and passed on. “Well, auntie, I’ve met the young man again,” said Miss Ida on reaching home. "He slammed me up against the postoffice.” “You don’t say! And you spoke to Mm?” ’Told him he was the most awkward man I ever saw. Say, I’m surely beginning to admire him. He’s got an individuality.” Much to his surprise the young man didn’t depart from the village. That was why, three days later, as he caught sight of some one struggling in the water he leaped off the bridge to the rescue. Firstly, he Couldn’t swim a stroke, and secondly, the, struggler was Miss Ida in her bathing suit, and she had to rescue him. She had to do more. He was carried to her aunt’s house in a halfdrowned condition, and it was hours before he had the strength to say: “Really, now, I —I—you know ” “Ypu are simply delicious,” smiled Miss 5 Ida. 1 A month later Uncle Hiram Buzz was explaining to a knot of idlers at the inn. "Yes, the young city feller went to town this morning, but he’ll be back —he’ll be back. And think of th® prestige it gives Harpersville. Feller from the city comes out here —feller who could have had his pick of Fifth avenue —and falls in love with one of our gals! Oh, he’ll, be back sure nusf —he’ll be back.”