Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, December 10, 1905, COMIC SECTION, Image 38

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UK wedding Is announced of Howard Coop
er of Sheridan Turk and Miss Bdna Bul
ger of Hyde Park, Chicago. Behind the
simple announcement of the wedding there
In a story of one of the oddest courtship
ever recorded.
They fell In love with each other, con
ducted the courtship for over a year, he
proposed and ehe accepted him. and they set the date
for the wedding hefore they ever spoke a word to each
other or were Introduced. It Is true that they may have
spoken to each other but If they did they did not
know, or were not sure. At least, Mlse Bulger did not
know to whom she was talking, for the conversations.
If they ever took place, were held over the telephone
during Cooper s frantic efforts to get acquainted with the
girl to whom he was engaged.
The story of the courtship reads like an Imaginary
romance. Cooper was and Is assistant manager ot
big brokerage house with offices In one. of the great
office buildings In La Salle street. Miss Bulger was
confidential stenographer ' for the manager of another
bond brokerage firm that had offices on the opposite
side of the building. His office was on the seventh
floor of the building and hers on the ninth. His desk
was at the window facing Into the courtway and her
typewriter was at the window exactly opposite, only
two floors higher up.
J J
Suitable Hero for a Romance.
Cooper Is 24 years of age, tall, athletic looking, and
has black, curly hair. He graduated from an eastern
school two years ago and. starting In the office In which
Ms father was a stockholder, he fought his way upward
rapidly, winning favor and position by his cleverness
as well as his happy disposition, which added friend
to his retinue at every turn.
He became assistant manager a little over a year
ago, and for the first time was given a private desk.
The day of his promotion he worked hard. I.ta In
the afternoon, tired, yet confident that he. had made a
good start in hia new position, he tilted back In hla
chair, lighted a cigar, and sat gating across the wide
preaway Idly, thinking of the work of the day and of
his new duties and responsibilities. He became aware,
suddenly, that he was watching the window on the
ninth floor, where he could see the contour of a face
and a crown of brown," rippling hair. He codld not eee,
but from the attitude he knew that the possessor of
the beautiful brown hair an the flushed cheek waa
bending over a typewriter pounding away earnestly at
the keya. He watched Idly for perhaps a quarter of atr
hour, smoking comfortably and half dreaming of hla
future.
. .
Girl Realizes Youthful Dreams.
He confesses now that ever since he was old enough
to think of such things ha alwaye dreamed of a brown
haired, brown eyed girl sitting at the head of his table.
But at that time he aimply watched with ourloslty until
the figure at the typewriter arose, stretched Itself Into
erectness, alowly doffed a black apron, smoothed down
the waist line, and disappeared from view.
He noticed that ahe waa tall, slender, willowy, and
as far as he could judge from that distance dis
tinctly pretty. After aha disappeared from view he
found himself wondering what she was like, what her
voice sounded like, whether she pompadoured her hair
and kept powdar rag In the drawer of her typewriter
like his own stenographer did.
The next day when he reached his desk he found
himself unconsciously gaslng across the courtway
towarda the window In the ninth floor. He kept gaslng
In that direction until the brown head appeared again,
bending over the typewriter as If copying something.
He watched the head Intently, r.nd. perhaps half an
hour later, he turned his gaxe In that direction and
caught a glimpse of a beautiful oval face. The girl waa
gaslng out Into the courtway as if stopping to think
In the midst of her work. He felt, almost, aa If she
were looking straight at him, and he smiled, and then
like a flash the face disappeared and he could see n th
ing but the brown hair and the tip of a pink ear above
the coping of the window.
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Dailj Target tor His Cyej.
Every day after that hia gase turned naturally
towarda that window. Twice be caught a glimpse ot
the face but they were only fleeting glimpses and
strangely each time that he saw the face he had an
Idea that the owner had been watching him, because ahe
turned her face back to her work so suddenly.
Cooper, after six weeks, became so Interested In
the brown hair that he determined to make an effort
to see the owner at closer range. He went to the ninth
floor and attempted to locate the window which he had
watched. There he met with an obstacle. He discovered
that. Instead of being one office, aa hla own was, there
were Ave offices on that courtway on the north aide of
the building, that part of the building being divided Into
small suites. Using different pretexts, he, visited the
two offices In which he thought the window waa located,
but he met with another difficulty. The private office
In each of these offices was separate, and each private
office had one window.
Besides, he felt mean at having tried to spy upon
the girl, and be dealsted, telling himself It was mere
Idle curiosity that prompted him.
The day after this attempt he looked up from hia
work suddenly and discovered the girl standing at the
window. Almost before he realised that she was watch
ing him she flashed a brilliant amile across the area
way and disappeared, and all that day he saw nothing
but her head as ah bent over her work. He aaw her
arise from her typewriter about :1B, and, closing his
desk rapidly, he hurried down the elevator and stood
watching the elevators on the other side of the build
ing, expecting to see her descend. He was debating
within himslf whether or not he would dare speak to
her If be met her but he did not meet her. In fact, he
never caught a glimpse of hor.
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Smile Thai Made Him Feel Cuily.
But the next day he was rewarded with a smile that
made him feel guilty almost as If she were smiling
mockingly at him because he had tried to flirt with her.
That sort of thing continued for nearly two weeks.
Every day Cooper was greeted with a smile and that
waa all. He made half a dosen attempts to meet the
girl at the bottom of the elevator, but never could see
any girl who answered the description. Twloe he made
excuses to visit the offices In one of which, he knew,
she wa employed but neither time could he get even
a glimpse of the girl. He did not dare ask either of the
manager about their secretaries, so he was forced to
retire, baffled and puzzled.
After five months during which he received an
average of one amile every two days warm weather
came and the windows were opened. Then he began
averaging about two smiles a day from the girl at
least he Imagined the smiles were meant for him. Hen
came near quarreling with Hendricka, who had a desk
the second window from him, simply because he caught
Hendricka grinning Just after the girl smiled.
Finally he resorted to the telephone. He called,
both offices. A man responded to the first call and was
told that It waa the wrong number. A girl answered
the second call. It may have been Mis Bulger, but If
It waa they never will know, for after he got her on the
phone Cooper didn't know what to aay. t
.Seven months sfter tli odd flirtation commence.
Cooper one morning hit upon a new Idea. He begar
studying the deaf and dumb alphabet, and one morning
when he caught the girl with the brown hair looking
out of her window he raised his Angers and said " Good
morning." She gave no sign that she saw him. Two
daya later he thought she was looking at him again,
and again he said "Good morning" and waa electrified
when she raised her ffngers and made answering algna
Then be cursed himself because while learning to eay
"Good morning" he had forgotten to learn anything
else and did not know what she said.
But ha tried again. He bought a book containing
the deaf and dumb sign and commenced making signs
cross the courtway.
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Beginning of the Wireless Courtship.
' That waa the beginning of the wireless courtship.
They exchanged " Good mornings " for weeks. Then
they began longer conversations, but every time he
began to get personal everything disappeared but the
brown head. He began begging for a personal Interview,
pleading with her to meet him at the bottom of the
elevator.
One afternoon when he saw her leave the office be
hurried down and waited, but he did not see her. The
next day. however, she told him on her Angers that
if he attempted to play unfairly again she would atop
speaking to him.
Week after week they talked across the courtway
by sign language, as both were becoming expert He
begged her to tell hor name, but she only shook her head.
Fall came, and the windowa were closed down again.
A dread seized Cooper a dread that frost would cover
the windows. He became more and more Insistent,
pleading and begging for an Introduction.
One evening in October he studied hla code book
hard, and standing before the mirror he practiced.
The next morning, when they signaled the morning
greeting, he commenced to talk with hla Angers. The
girl, standing by the opposite window, stood perfectly
still, aa If Indignant, pussled, distressed at once
He was proposing marriage.
He finished and she disappeared, and for two day
all he could see was the top of a brown head that waa
bowing Industriously over a typewriter.
-!
"Is It Yes or No," He Asks.
But on the third morning he caught a amile and
a well fingered " Good morning." He returned the
greeting, and then said, with hi finger: "It It ye
or not "
"I am thinking." cam the answer, and he saw
no more.
The next morning he spent half an hour pleading,
until Wallace came into his room and interrupted. And
the following day, Just after the "Good morning," he
saw the girl standing at the window. Suddenly she
raised her hands, moved them an Instant, said "Yes,"
and then disappeared.
For two days he lived In doubt and hope, happiness
and despair. Then he saw her again and with hla
Angara begged for a meeting.
"Meet me at the bottom of No. I elevator at 4:80,"
she said.
That afternoon they met. That evening he called
on her at her mother Aat In Hyde Park, and after
meeting they sealed the engagement In the proper way
And it waa not until then that Miss Bulger explained
to him how she knew that he was trying to meet her at
the bottom of the elevators, and, by crossing over and
coming down on the aam side that he came down, she
had eluded him.
That la all except that she ha quit her position
and they have been married.
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NEW AQUATIC SPORT.
PRE TT CARD TRICK.
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CARTS DRAWN BY CAMELS.
THE FOUR BICYCLISTS.
FIRST SE WING MA CHINE.
Can you do this pretty card trick, which
made Miss Bertie Millar of the English
vaudeville stage celebrated aa a taknted.
queea of hearts T
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" ":,XtViL Dopper at fifteen miles an hour. They
" v, , " a iV TJ agreed to ride until all should meet to-
' getner for the third time at the oenter C.
in mm in . .a a, 1 il i- The distance round each circle Was a third
The circles In the Illustration represent
four cinder paths. Four cyclist started
together from the center C at noon for a
run, each going round and round his own
circle. - Atkins went at the rate of six miles
an hour. Brown at the rat of nine miles
an hour. Cook at twelve miles aa hour, and
In southeastern Russia carta drawn by oamcla are a familiar eight.
of a mile. Wbea did they finish their ridet
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE.
FERRIS' WHEEL OF INDIA
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The sewing machine was Invented la
1790 by Tbomss Saint. It was of the chain
Hitch type, working with the single
thread, and was specially designed for
tewing leather.
POSTMAN 100 YEARS AGO,
.ma.. II. II. I II I II 1 1 I 11,111 MMHIII I I'll II ' ' lU' I I ' l,
Th. nirtnr at the Uft shows cure coffee, aa It aoneara under the microscope
Pushball la a new English water game, ths players In canoes try to make goals In the center is chicory mixed; the one t the right show other thing mixed with
ss In the gymnasium sport
CIGAR ROLLER.
coffee, such as dandelion rook
HOUSES BUILT OF MAHOGANY.
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LUTHER'S FAREWELL
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The clever cigar roller of Seville have
rival la the Insect world. By the aid of il
tiny feet the Wevll rolls vine leaves iota
a cylindrical ahape and bides iulf All of thess houses In a poorer quarter of Honduras' capital are ot mahogany, io l hie little church la the Eugudine
l"0- . which wood coat less than pin there. Luther ptmobmi hi tasti sermon
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At It Coptio fairs in Egypt one eaa s littte lauily group diaoortlng thenuehrea
In the primitive wooden forerunner of the Ferris wheel.
The mail man of 1U0 years ago waa one of
the Important personages of a city or town.
Hs not only was collector und distributor
of all letters, but acted th role of new
vendor, filling the place of the modern
newspaper In circulating uews, gossip,
and Information from door to door. His
coming were Imporunt events In each
household, and he waa greeted everywhere
as a welcome visitor.