Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1894-02-02
A MOTHER TO THEM.
AN INSTITUTION FOR THE BEN
Eft OF BACHELORS.
A Story Which shows That Men
Are More Susceptible TO Sentt.
ment Than Women.


ment Than women.
Nothing in Philadelphia is more
quaint than sign which extracts a
smile or sally from every passerby on
Locust street.
In rain and in sunshine, at the
dawn of day and after the shades have
fallen, there it waves, beacon light
to all who may be in need of such an
estzbIisnment as this, which welcomes
the stranger in these words:
"Gentlemen, we'll be mother to
you"
The man who conceived the word
ing OF that sign was inspired, without
doubt.
There is ring about it which
touches that spot in human nature
which makes the whole world kin.
Recollections of the long ago loom
up unconsciously.
Thoughts OF the time when your
linen was carefully looked over by
kindly eyes and burned matches had
not yet been called into rcquisition as
toilet articles crop up until you
positively form an attachment for the
proprietor of the shop and the author
OF the sign, who, by the way, has had
it copyrighted.
Women are popularity believed to
attach more sentiment to articles of
apparel than men-a fact, however,
which is entirely overthrown by the
flourishing trade done by this little
shop.
In motley mass, flung on one of
the counters, are crowded together
shabby cravats, disreputable gloves
and hats whose brim and binding
seem crying out for sponge and hot
iron.
The surgeon in his ward of the
Hospital for the Relief OF Run Down
Garments" says that these self same
dilapidated looking specimens reap
pear at regular intervals to be cleaned,
pressed and patched, and that their
owners spend more upon rcnovating
them than new ones OF the same
quality would cost.
Suspenders which to the eyes OF the
uninterested person would appear
absolutely worthless aud fit to be
relcsated to the ash cart. are sent with
the injunction, "To be mended with
care"
Surely the associations which these
things carry in their wake alone make
them OF so much value to their owners.
1t cannot be from the principle of
economy, for the outlay is far beyond
that which their actual value would
warrant.
Yes, man must confess to being a
creature OF sentiment when he orders
his socks to be darned in blue wool be-
cause this was the color his mother
used, and at Christmas time he
bankers once more for the homely
feature of his boyhood days.
That the male biped luxuriates in
the aesthetic trivialities OF dress has
been here exposed as we'll. Recently
well dressed gentleman-a swell
from Rittenhouse square-brought in
a perfectly new liverpad and requested
his monogram embroidered upon it in
terra Gotta floss.
An old Irish dame walking along
Locust street spied the sigh not long
ago, and after spelling it out with
great difficulty calculated: "Oh, its
home for the poor little orphans.
Bridget and Mamie I'll see what
they'll do there for youse." And
forthwith the elderly washerwoman |
seized the two puny youngsters at her
side and hurried them into the shop, |
when she unfolded tale of woe to the |
proprietor.
Unfortunately, he could only abe a |
mother TO them" in so far as giving
them vigorous wash, which PROPOSE
tiOn was met with demur from all sides.
and they beat hasty and uncere-
monious retreat.
When ! asked the manager what
manner of things he had been called |
upon to look after he cited everything
imaginable, from grip and an UNI
breila to wristbands and half-soles.
"We've attempted everything" he
added, facetiously, except the patch.
ing up of blackehed regulations or the
cleaning of besmirched characters"
The kitchen in which the mending
cleaning and dyeing processes go on is
one of those great barn-like rooms
which always reminds one of the living
room of farm house, with its useful
array of odds and ends standing about,
yet homelike withal.
Mother-looking women preside over
the different tables, and their cherry
words and good Offices 60 long way
toward reconciling the bachelor to his
lonely existence, and if the truth be
known, this latest institution for cas-
ing the path OF the unmarried man is
largely responsible for the dearth of
matrimonial engagements in Phila.
delphia.-New York Herald.
THERE is Q church war in Kettle
al Iva H.,