Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-04-30
MR.. CLIPSHAMS CALENDAR,
copyrighted, 1886, by s. S. McClurc)
PART l.

Tor a man at his age, not an unpleasant
one. His professional duties were not
oppressive, and he had entered into ca
reer which made it almost sure that they
never would be oppressive. He had a very
comfortable suite of rooms in his sisters
house, and always breakfasted with her
family As will be seen they did not often
expect him mt dinner, but nieces and
uephews, Sister Prue and her husband
Wjntergreen were all glad if he did look in
at that meal. For the rest, Clipsham was II
general favorite in Tamworth, where he
lived, and If there was not german every
evening, or a progressive euchre party on
his list, why there was the Thursday Club
and the Whist Club and the Chess Club
and the Union and the Association and
the pretty new rooms of the Harvard
Club. "As to that" said Clipsham truly,
ifyou asked him how he spent his even
ings, 81 am never so happy rs am with a
novel or with the newspaper at home"
But it was to be observed that he seldom
enjoyed The acme of his happiness, at the
-top-notch of his'life's tide
The one thing of which Clpsham' S
friends were sure was this, that he would
never go into public life. True, lhe always
voted, he even voted for the school com
smittee, which most of the people in Tam
worth generally forgot to do. But it was
also true that he didn't attend the primary
meetings. And it was by a series of rath-
er curious circumstances that the public
was led TO place that confidence in him
which has now lifted him so far out of
the line of machinery-run politics. 1t Is
the business of this story, to tell for the
first time, rs far as | know, the way those
circumstances followed on each other.
Clipsham was man of iron memory.
And this iron was not all pig iron. One
might say steel memory, or memory of
watch-sprlngs if we understood better
than we do, the action of the mechanism
of the memory. BY this mean, that he
recollected what are called little things at
the right moment, as well as he remem-
bered the big things all along his life. He
remembered that the national debt was
Sl9S, i65, 1872 10 when it was at that precise
amount, but he also remembered that he
had told the waSherwoman boy to come
round at a quarter past Friday even
ing and he would give him ticket to the
circus. On such Il combination of which
| call the pig-iron memory, and what
call the watch-spring memory does much
n the good-cheer and success of a happy
life depend.
tEtlt on a fatal day-after Clipsham was
IS yeas ofl-he thought he forgot some
thing. ! do not myself believe he did.
If he aid, it was before breafast-when
no one ought to be asked to remember
name Of IN empress or Il toad -stool. But
he thought he forgot something. And so
it was that ne went down to Mr. Backup's
shop, and bought this calendar of which |
am to tell you the story.
There it is. He gave it to me on the
day of his Inauguration. You see it has
y.he days OF the week on one scroll and the
avs of the month on another. Then you
urn this cog at the beginning of the
month and you are ready for thirty-One
Il. t ttnnra ,.,.1
defect in the machine is that you might
suppose there were thirty-one days III
February. But as Judge Marshall said
''The court is supposed to know some
thing"
Now Cipsham is a charming public
speaker. He tells IA story well-in partc
uar he tells with great good humor Il
story to his own disadvantage. He re-
members well-that has been said He
passes by Il sudden change-what do sing
ers Call it, meditation from grave tC
gay or from gay to grave. Best of all he
never says one word about himself. Their
he never pretends that he does not like tC
speak. y man would be an ass who die
not like 10 speak if he spoke as well a,
Clipsham does. He makes no introduc
ton to his speech. When he has done he
makes no conclusion" Just when you
are hoping he Will say more, he sits down
And he never maks Il long speech. These
are all sterling qualities and thy are no
often united in one handsome, graceful
intelligent young man of 80 years of age.
So it is that Clipsham is much invited
20 public dinners. AS for that, we all are
But generally the invitation is accompa
MED with request that, in accepting
.'0u Will pay for your ticket-a dollar ant
half, or three dollars-or 1ine-or ten
according as the honored guest of tn
evening is a college professOr-a doctor o
divinity--an agent from Japan, or a trav
cling English lecturer. Now, as most o
us can buy our modest dinner of mocl
turtle fried oysters, charlotte russo an
coffee at any eating house, even the mos
fussy, noisy and SNOWY, for less than tn
lowest of these prices-our invitations ar
not SO attractive. To Clipsham the invi
tation always came with Il ticket Tha
is quite different thing, and Clipshan
who was In good many college SOcitie,
was the great grandson of a Cincinnatu'
and grandson of hero of Lundy's Lane
son OF the man who stormed ChapultepeC
and held the block house at Cannon
Three Corners-Clipsham, say, who wa
Letters and the Consolidated Sodality {
N4OW:rs of Art-Chpsham whose goo
humor and good fellowship had relate
him % pretty much all the associations
TamWorth, and, indeed, in that who
State, found that he was hidden to pu
lie dinner almost every day. Indee
sometimes, the bids" as his childls
nephews called them, overlapped eat
other.
This was the reason why he dined so st
dom with his sister On the other han
it was the reason you met him SO seldo
at a restaurant or public table.
You would generally find him, if "
went upstairs to the great dining room
whichever Delmonico, or Wormley,
Parker, or Young, or Tamworth ha
pened on that day, to entertain 'rhe So
of the soldiery," or the brothers in A
versity," or the "Nu Kappa Omega"
whatever sodality happened to be holdil
its annual dinner. And if you looked
at the right moment. Clipsham would
making speech, and very good speec
too.
Clipsham's little niece Gertrude, is t
first heroine of this story And it is
her that the plot turns more than
Elinor May, who is the other heroil
Gertrude has the run of the house b
never ought to 90 into her uncle's roc
unless he asks her.
And tins Gertr1da knows Darfpc