The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-16
ABOUT THAT BRUTE
THOMAS SIMMONS.
From the Pail Mall Budget.

NOAAAGAA AAdAA oil dAUA46 res 81 uEu MN d.
model husband, and certainly Mrs. Sim
mons was a most conscientious wife. She
Joiled and saved for that man, as any wo-
man in the whole street would have
maintained, far more than any husband
had right to expect. And now this was
what she got for it. Perhaps he had sud
denly gone mad.
Before she married Simmons Mrs Sim
mons had been the widowed Mrs Ford
Ford had got berth as donkeyman on a
tramp steamer, and that steamer had gone
down with all hands off the Cape; judg-
ment, the widow woman feared, for long
years of cOntUmaCy which had eliminated
in the wickedness of taking to the sea,
and taking to it as a donkeyman-an i'm
measurable fall for a capable engine fit
ter. Twelve years as Mrs. Ford had left
her still childless, and childless she re-
manned as Mrs. Simmons. AS for Sim
mons, he, it was held, was fortunate an
that capable wife. He was moderately
good carpenter and Joiner, but no man of
the world-and he wanted one. Nobody
could tell what might not have happened
to Tommy Simmons if there had been no
Mrs. Simmons to take care of him. lie
was q meek and quiet man, with a boyish
face and sparse limp whiskers. lie had
no vices (even his pipe went from him
after his marriage) and Mrs. Simmons
had engrafted on him sundry exotic viz
tues. He went solemnly to chapel every
Sunday under a tall hat, ana put al penny
--one returned to him for the purpose out
of his weeks wages-in the plate. Then,
Mrs. Simmons overseeing, he took off his
best clothes. and brushed them with solicit
tude and pains. On Saturday afternoons
he cleaned the knives, the forks, the
boots, the kettles and the windows pa
tiently and conscientiously. On Tuesday
evenings he took the clothes to the manS-
ling. And on Saturday nights he attended
the parcels.
Mrs. Simmons own virtues were native
and numerous. She was a wonderful man
ager Every penny of Tommy's thirty
six or thirty-eght shillings q week was
bestowed TO the greatest advantage, and
Tommy never ventured to guess how
much of it she saved. Her cleanliness in
housewifery was prodigious to behold.
She met Simmons al the front door when
ever he arrived, and then and there he
changed his boots for slippers, balancing
himself painfully on alternate feet on
the cold flags. This was because she
scrubbed the passage and doorstep turn
about with the Wife Of the downstairs
family, and because the stair carpet was
her own. She vigilantly supervised her
husband all through the process Of clean
ing himself after work. so as to come
between her walls and the possibility of
random splashes, and if, in spite of her
diligence a spot remained to tell the tale,
Nshe was at pains to impress the fact on
Simmons memory, and to set forth at
length all the circumstances of his I'M
grateful selfishness. In the beginning she
had always escorted him to the ready
made clothes shop, and had selected and
paid for his clothes, for the reason that
men are such fools, and shop-keepers do
as they like with them But she presently
improved on that She found a man sell
ing ClPaD remnants at q ar
and straightway she conceived the idea
of making Simmons clothes herself. De
cision was one of her virtues and a suit
of uproarious check tweeds was begun
that afternoon from the pattern fur
nished by an old one. More it was finished
by Sunday; when Simmons, overcome by
establishment at the feat, was indued in it
and pushed off to chapel ere he could re-
cover his senses. The things were not
altogether comfortless, he found; the
trousers clung tight against his shins
and when he sat it was on a wilderness of
hard folds and seams. Also his waist
coat collar tickled his nape, but his coat
collar went straining across from Shout
der to shoulder; while the garment it.
self bagged generously below his waist
Use made a habit of his discomfort but
IT never reconciled him to the chaff of
his shopmates for as Mrs. simmons elab-
crate successive suits each one modelled
vi VIC ldSlt lHe primal dcclueulS OF nef
design developed into principles, and grew
even holder and more hideously pro
nounced. 1t was vain for Simmons to
hint-as hint he did-that he shouldn't like
her to overworl1 herself. tailoring being
bad for the eyes, and there was n new
tailor in the Mile End Road, very cheap,
where. ''Ho, yus," she retorted
you're very eonsidrit, I dessay, sittin
there actin livin' lie before your own
wife, Thomas Simmons, as though
couldn't see through you like a book. A
lot you care about overworkn' me as
long as your turns served, THROWN away
money like dirt in the street on lot O.
swindlin' tailors, an me worzin an slav-
in ere to save q 'apenny; an this is my
return for it. Any one 'ud think you could
pick ND money in the 'orseroad: an 7 be
lieve I'd be thought better Of if laid in
bed all dav, like some would-that I DO"
So that Thomas Simmons avoided the
subject, nor even murmured when she re-
solved to cut his hair.
So his placid fortune endured for years
Then there came a golden summer even
ing when Mrs. Simmons betoolI herself
with basket to do some shopping, and
Simmons was left at home. He washed
and put away the tea things, and then he
fell to meditating on new pair of trous-
ers finished that day, and hanging be-
hind the parlor door. There they hung,
in all their decent innocence of shape in
the seat, and they were shorter of leg
longer Of waist and wider of pattern than
he had ever worn before. And as he
looked on them the small devil of original
sin awolSe and clamored in his breast. He
was ashamed of it, of course, for wen he
knew the gratitude he owed his wife for
those same trousers, among other bles-
sings. Still there the small devil was;
and the small devil was fertile in base
suggestions, and could not be kept from
limiting at the new crop of workshop
gihes that would spring at Tommys first
public appearance in such things.
pitch 'em in the dust bin!" said the
small devil, at last 'it's all they're fit
for"
Simmons turned away in sheer horror
Of his wrecked self and for moment
thought of washing the tea things over
again by way of discipline. Then he
made for the back room, but saw from the
landing that the front door was standing
open, probably by the fault of the child
down stairs Now a front door standing
open was thing that Mrs. simmons
would not abide; it looked low. SO sim
mons went down. that she might not be
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