Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1896 — THE MASHER AND THE LADY. [ARTICLE]

THE MASHER AND THE LADY.

He Came,. Saw, and Carried Home for a Lady Two Flower Rota. «, Like aJI big cities, Paris has its mashers. They annoy the ladies often, enough, but, as a rule, they are harmless fools, after aIL Here !* the latest little storyiof a masher and a beautiful lady, which the Paris papers are printing and which the translates: . At the Qua! aux'.Fleurs on marjkpt day, k beauty arrived on foot. So Aid a masher. He fixed -hip loving eyes upon. She paid no attention to him. He persisted, and vainly endeavored to engage her in conversation. Finally, she purchased two big geraniums. “Do yotj live far from here, rnadam?” asked the dude. The- lady made no answer at first; but after an instant’s reflection, prompted by the size of the geranium pots and plants, and the necessity of employing a commissaire, she replied, sweetly: “Rue du Louvre, 99.” “Oh,” exclaimed the masher, “you can’t carry such a burden so far!. Allow me to help you.” She smiled, but, in the language of the duelists, instead of “abandoning to him the choice” of pots, she pointed to both, and smiled again. The masher put a pot under each arm, qnd, equipped in that way, went off "with the lady. When they came to the Rue (Ju Louvre, 99, she stopped, thanked the .dude, and stretched out her beautiful little hands for the flower-pots. But the masher politely insisted upon carrying them Up to her apartment. “The trouble is,” said the lady, “I live on the toil floor and there is no elevator.” , “I would not be, surprised if you told me that you lived -way up in heaven. Angels live there,” said the enthusiastic masher, “Well, come, then,” said the lady, in the golden tones in which the Divine Sarah in “Cleopatra” addresses her Tony. , Sp up they went until they came to the abode of the sorceress. She rang the bell. Heavy footsteps ( were heard Inside. The door was ripened, and a fine-looking man appeared. “Allow me to introdude you to my husband, sir,” said lady. “My dear,” she added, addressing-her infe'ibis gentleman has been kind enough to carrye these plants for me all the way frritn the flower-market and up the stairs, too, as you. see.” “Good enough,” said the big fellow. “Here, my man, here is a twenty-cent piece. Go and get a drink!” The dude started down the stairs at a lively rate, without waiting for his pourboire, and, as lie was going down, he could hear the ringing laugh of the lady and tin? hoarse “ha! ha!” of the happy husband.