The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-10-16
A FAMILY AFFAIR.

A FAMILY AFFAIR.
The Deacon's Son, and His Letter
to Tidy slocomb.
West Eden was electrified by the ap.
i. pearance upon walls and fences of q
placard announcing that the Cecilia
Club" would give concert at Haver-
ford (six miles away, and Saul Kit
redge was the "basso profondo."
West Eden was far. very far from the
madding crowd. and the entertainments
that came within its range were wont to
be of the burnt-cork variety. They
savored of the ungodly, and of very
humble social sphere. And Saul was
Deacon Kittredge's only son, and had
been expected to follow in his fathers
footsteps-to be a Deacon of the Church,
President of the Eden Bank, Postmaster
of West Eden (the Postmastership had
descended to the Deacon from his father
and grandfather undisturbed by politi-
cal charges. and the Deacon regarded
it as a respectable heir-loom), and for q
wife he was to take to himself Mary
Willett. the minister's daughter.
All these plans were waiting for the
baby Saul when he opened his astonished
blinking black eyes upon this trouble
some world. Alas! almost from the
day of their opening the black eyes took
quite different views of life. Before
their owner was five he had set little
Mary Willett down hard in q mud pie,
and run off to play with the disreputa-
BILE children on 1.-THE Flats"
"He's always been walkin' the down.
ward path" said Deacon Peters (of the
other church, as he stopped for
friendly chat at the undertaker's door
on the day when the placards appeared.
-'TO think of his thrashin' the school
master, who'was disciplinin' Tidy Slo-
comb, ono of them Flats children, and
then runnin' away with . circus when
he want but sixteen! And then he left
college against his fathers will, and
the first thing they knew he was playact-
in in theatre! And he's courtin' Tidy
,Slocomb, and means to marry her. They
say he promised his mother he'd give
up the playactin'. but don't know but
this is jest as bad. His father has cast
him off and forbid him the house. but he's
terrible broke down BY it. Well, he's
been a prosperous man, Deacon Kit
tredge has, and you can't expect to fly
in the face of Providence every way"
Deacon Peters seemed to regard Prov
idence as malignant power ready to
swoop down on mortals and take re-
venge for any happiness they might
have enjoyed.
saul want never what you could
call godly given" said Job Fisher, the
undertaken, fat and jovial man, who
was at work upon q willow baby car
riage. cradles and baby carriages being
cheerfully mingled with the legitimate
products of his craft all over his shop.
but he always seemed to me like a
skittish colt; there want nothin' really
wicked about him."
The Lords Judgment amt ourn."
said the deacon. stroking his stubby
chin lugubriously.
Materially He'd be more pertekler.
but it kind of seems to me as if He'd
know how to make allowances too"
The undertaken looked little alarmed
after he had given expression to this lax
doctrine, and fastened to add: Il s'pose
l be kind of soft-hearted about Saul.
You see. ham and me used to be great
friends when he was little curly-headed
teller; he used to fix up play houses
round here in my shop-in cradles or
collins, cry one, twas all the same to
him. can remember when be fetched
over his old cat and q terrible homely
batch of kittens. and kept in a coffin
that I'd got ready for old Mr.. Hollis till
they was old enough to give away. 1
was expectin' every day that old Mr..
Hollis would want his coffin, but was
anazin how long he hung on"
I'm afraid Saul never had any real
lin sense of solum things" said the dea-
con. But there is Deacon Kittredge
readin' one of the bills; it is certainly .
time to offer Christian sympathy"
1T amt playactin," said the under
taker to himself as the deacon departed.
eff basso profondo does sound like
swearin', and somehow put you in mind
of the bad place; and if nobody else
don't, Maria and I'll 60 over to hear
Saul sing"
When Deacon KittrGege saw the deaco n
of the other church coming toward him
he hurried away. 'Ican't talk about it
no, can't never talk about it to any
body but the Lord and LaviDy,' he muir
INJURED to himself.
The post-ofice was IN excrescence
upon the side of the large low-farm
house which Deacon Kttredge's grand
father had built; an ornamental excres-
cence, for West Eden was not after all.
so far from the madding crowd but
that hints of the new styles in architec.
ture reached it. and the post-office was
an aspiring work-box bedaubed with
iendish reds and yellows. of which the
solid, respectable old house looked
thoroughly ashamed. The family sit
ting room had been the post Office, and
the new post-ofice opened out of il;
Otherwise she would have died of home
Sickness after it was built, Mrs. Kittredge
declared. West Eden was social place,
and as many people came to the office
now by the way of the sitting-room as
by the legitimate entrance.
Mrs. Kittreds4 had become lame By
reason Of chronic rheumatism. and was
unable to get about Eluch. and If it had
not been for the post-ofsice she couldn't,
rs she often declared. have kept up so
with what was goin' on"
She knew whom everybody's letters
were from; she sometimes walked the
deacon in the dead of the night with
Ahrewd guesses as to their contents; and,
neyertheless, she had hailed with de-
light the advent of postal cards.