Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1895-08-02
LEAVING OUT WASHING.
What May Happen When There
Comes on a Blow in the Night.
Scenes That Are ramiiiaryto DweIlers In
City Fiats-An Early BEornibg Gail
to shorten san on the
Clothes Line. "


Whether to leave the washingout
doors or not, said Mr. 'Flatdwellel
to the New. York Sun man, may
easily be question of Importance
Why tits thought of leaving it.eu
is simple enough; it may have beer
a damp or drizzly day and the clothe:
may not be dry when night comes
they are to be left Quito blow DIR,
in the night. The question in the
suburbs or in the country, where
clothes would obeo left on lines
stretched between posts set in the
ground, is one mostlyof safety, for
there they must be left where they
could easily be stolen by anybody
that might take a fancy to them.
In the city ifayou live in fat the
principal question is: Will it be too
windyP For if it is the cothespins,
when they work off the line, don't
fall upon the grass but into the
fathomless abyss of the rear area,
and if the washing drops from the
line it goes there, too, or off over
some neighboring roof, or it whips
against the poles or the blinds
or the fire escape, or it winds
itself around the pulley line so that
theline won't bulge either way, and
there the. washing is out in. the air
and you wonder how you are going
to get it. So that it may easily be
seen that in a fat it is really
question of some Importance whether
the washing shall be left out or not,
and if the wind rises it is of still
more Importance to get it in.
=" What do you Think" says Mrs.
Flatdweller. DO you think it is
going to blow any harder than it
does now?'
"And you look out at the cold
stars and glance around generally,
and then you say no, you don't think
1t is, and after a little further
deliberation Mrs. Flatdweller de-
cides to leave 'em out. It's pretty
breezy and you can hear 'em now
and then swapping in the wind, but
i it doesn't blow up any more
r they're all right. So you leave 'em
out and go to bed. s- "
"And about four o'clock you begin
to dream of the sea story you had
read the night before. Off Cape
Horn is bowling gale in winter;
cold and snow and ice; rolling seas
and tempest and danger everywhere;
it's your watch below; suddenly you
hear somebody pounding on the
companion slide with a handspike,
and moment later you hear voice
shouting down the fo'cs'le ladder:
CAN starbowlines ahoyH
"'That means you; it's all hands
to shorten sail. AS you jump from
your bunk you feel somebody pushing
on your shoulder and you hear Mrs.
Flatdweller say:
EZRA, l guess you'll have to
take in the clothes.
you're awake now and are getting
into your boots and garments, not
forgetting your tarpaulin and your
sou wester, and minute later you're
on the fire escape, with Mrs. Flat
dweller standing inside to take the
things as you hand them in.
wind a-howling, sheets a-fap-
ping, shirts swapping, pillow cases
cracking, everything cast loose and
whipping itself into ribbons, or
getting ready to. Rain in torrents
and general uproar everywhere.
Whip! comes a sheet across your
face and away goes your sou wester,
but you grab the sheet and fist it as
you would sail until you come to
the line; you grab off the clothespins
and the Sheet and hand it in to Mrs.
Flatdweller. No foot ropes here,
30 you must bring the sail to you;
you overhaul the pulley line, blocks
a-creakin' under the strain and
adding to the weirdness. Sail after
sail you get in till you've got it all,
and she's just a.roarin' along under
bare poles.
"Clew garnets and rattliu' stuff
Topping lifts and bowlinesl In these
degenerate days of teakettles instead
of clipper ships, If man really
wants a sniff of the salty ocean let
him ship in a fiatN
Creased the Wrong End,