Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 308, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1913 — An Opprobrious Epithet or a Delicate Compliment? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

An Opprobrious Epithet or a Delicate Compliment?

PHILADELPHIA. —Michael Madden, patrolman No. 23, is in trouble. Michael was loosening the roots of a trolley feed wire pole by leaning his 230-pound bulk against it, and furnishing-inspiration for an admiring small

boy carrying a dead kitten by the tail, who was trying to imitate the neat, professional way in which he was juggling his club. Meanwhile he was discussing with a friend of the female persuasion the state of health of his friend her husband, Dennis FlannigaiT, since a little affair that had taken place in McGraw’s place around the corner. To him came, as abruptly and vivaciously as a setting hen routed from her nest, another lady who shattered the surrounding atmosphere with an account of how she had just been robbed of her purse by a man whom she pointed out scurrying into the crowd on the other side of the street. Michael calmly surveyed her in the detached, aristocratic way Impossible to all save policemen and members of the British nobility,

and when she stopped to get her breath he sententiously and authoritatively informed her that she was “talking through her hat.” What Lady No. 2 then told Patrolman No. 23 is not,set down, but probably it was interesting. Anyway, Michael Madden has been summoned to appear before the board of police commissioners. And the board doesn’t quite know what to do. It is trying to find out whether “talking through your hat” is equivalent to an opprobrious epithet or is a delicate compl’ment to the language of a queen of the hearts of men. »