Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1875 — Capoul’s Dilemma. [ARTICLE]

Capoul’s Dilemma.

A good story is told of an adventure which recently happened to Capoul in St. Petersburg, showing that one should never be negligent in correspondence on business affairs. One day as the young tenor was leaving his hotel to attend a rehearsal a stamped paper, printed in Russian, was put into his hand. He placed it in his pocket without reading it and straightway forgot it. ' Four days later a similar paper was handed him and this shared the fate of the first. Yet a few days thereafter, as Capoul was about leaving his apartments to take the train for Vienna, two gentlemen clad in fur pelisses called to see him. He invited them in, and, holding out a cigar-box with hospitable intent, was horrified to see one of the gentlemen put the cigar-box under his arm and likewise to hear him demand his watch. Capoul was about to spar the men out of the room when one of them informed him that he was a “huissier," or bailiff, and had come to take possession. It seems that Capoul had indorsed a note for an artist friend in France who had not paid it, and it had been sent on to Russia for collection. The first printed paper was a notice to Capoul to come into court, where he had been condemned by default; the second was a command, and as neither were obeyed the “huissier” came. Capoul’s trunks had gone on to Vienna, so the deputy stripped the tenor, leaving him, as the French papers say, “just enough to go to bed with,” simply because he refused to pay the note. By morning Capoul thought better of the matter, and, after giving security, was allowed to take his effects and depart for Vienna.

The following are said to be infallible signs of married couples: If you see a lady drop her glove, and a gentleman by the side of her kindly telling her to pick it up, you need not hesitate in forming your opinion; or if you meet a couple in the field, the gentleman twenty yards in advance of the lady, who, perhaps, is getting over a stile with difficulty or plucking her way through a muddy patch; or if you see a lady whose beauty and accomplishments attract the attention of every gentleman in the room but one, you can have no difficulty in determining their relationship to each other—the one is her husband. “I sat, Uncle Reuben, you ought to settle as much money on your pretty young wife as you can.” “Why so, James?” “Becauseher second husband, poor feligw, may not have a dime.”