The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-18
Printed ~ Special Arrangements copwisaied.l
Mr.. CLIPSHlN1S CALENDAR.
BY EDWARD EVERETT HALE.
PART I.


sered into acareer which made it almost sure that
they would never DO oppressive. He had very
comfortable suite of rooms in his sisters house.
ard he always breakfasted with her family. AS
wi! Dt seen they did not often expect him at
Hinnar, but nieces and nephews. Sister Prue and
to- husband Wintergreen were all glad If he did
iook in at that meal For the rest, Clipsham
was a general favorite at Tamworth, where he
lived and if there not german every even
ins. or progressive euchre party on his list.
why there the Thursday Club and the Whist
Club, and the Chess Club, and the Union, and the
Association, aud the pretty new rooms of the
Harvard Club. "As to that said Clipsham,
srny if you asked him how he spent his even
tncs, i am never 20 happy as ! am with novel
or with the newspaper at home But 1t was to
be observed that he seldom enjoyed the acme of
his happiness, at the top notch of his LIES tide.
The thing of which Clipsham's friends
were sure was this that he would never go into
public life. True. he always voted. he even
voted for the school committee, which most of
the people in Tamwortn generally forgot to do
but it was also true that he did not attend nri-
snary meetings. And it was by series of rather
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 machine-run
politics. Il is the business OF this story to tell
for the first time, as far "a ] know, the way
those circumstances followed on each other.
Clipsham was a man of iron memory. And
this iron was not all pig-iron. One might say
steel memory, or memory of watch springs
If we understood better than we do the action of
the mechanism of memory. BY this mean that
be recoleeted what are called little things at the
right moment, as we'll as he remembered the big
shings all along his life. He remembered th at
the national debt was So, 1873 7G5, 432. 10 when it
was at that precise amount, but he also remem
bered that he had told the washerwoman's boy
20 come round at quarter past Friday even
Ing, and he would give him a ticket to the cir
Gus. On such a combination Of which call the
pig-iron memory, and what call the watch
spring memory, does much of the good cheer and
success of happy life depend.
But on d fatal day--after Clipshan was thirty
three years old--he thought he forgot something.
do not myself believe he did. If he did, it was
before breakfast-when no one ought to be asked
10 remember anything--not whether Semiramis
b the name of an empress or of toadstool But
be thought he forgot something. And SO it was
that he went down to Mr.. Backups shop and
bought this calendar of which am to tell you
Aha story.
There it is. He gave it to me on the day of
his Inauguration. You see it has the days Of the
week on one scroll and the days of the month on
another Then you turn this cog at the begin
ming of the month and you are ready for thirty
one more days, if there be so many. The only
defect in the machine is that you might suppose
that there were thirty.one days in February.
But, as Judge Marshall said, 1.-THE court is ex
pected to know something"
Now Clipsham is charming public speaker.
great good humor story to his own disadvan
tAge. He remembers well-that has been said.
He passes by sudden change-what do singers
call It, moduation7--from grave to gay or from
gay to grave. Best of all, he never says word
about himself. Then he never pretends that he
does not like to speak. He does like
TO speak A man would be an ass who
did not like to speak IL he spoke as well as
Clipsham does. He makes no introduction to
conclusion" Just when you are hoping he will
say more. he sits down. And he never makes a
long speech. These are all sterling qualities
and they are not often united in one handsome,
graceful, intelligent young man of thirty-three
years of age.
SO it is that Clipsham is much invited to pub
lie dinners AS for that. we all are. But gem
orally the invitation is accompanied with a re-
quest that, in accepting, you will pay for your
ticket-a dollar and half or three dollars or
1--WE. or ten, according as the honored guest Of
the evening is a college professor doctor of
divinity--an agent from Japan. or travelling
English lecturer. Now. as most Of US can buy
our modest dinner of mock turtle, fried oysters,
charlotte russo and coffee at any eating house,
even the most .fussy, noisy and snowy. for less
than the lowest of these prices, our invitations
are not so attractive. To Clipsham the invita-
ton always came with o ticket. That
is quite a different thing. and Clipsham,
who was In a good many college
societies, was the grsatgrandson of Cincin-
natus. and grandson Of hero OF Lundy's Lane,
son of the man who stormed Chapultepec, and
held the block at Gannon's Three Corners
Cipsham, | say, who was member Of the
United Guild of Men of Letters, and of the Con-
seciated Sodality of Lovers of Art-Clipsham,
whose good humor and good.fellowship had re-.
lated him to pretty much all the associations in
Tamworth, and, indeed, in that whole State.
found that he was hidden to public dinner al
most every day. Indeed, sometimes. the .'bids, /"
a. his childish nephews called them, overlapped
zach other
This was the reason why he dined so seldom
with his sister
On the other hand it was the reason why you
mot HIM so seldom at a restaurant or public
table
You would generally find him. If you went
up stairs to the great dining-room of which
ever Delmonico, or Wormley, or Parker, or
Young of Tamworth happened on that day to
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