Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1895-03-02
scribed by Claude Melnotte, with the

found themselves on a platform where
some rough-Iooklng men were loung-
ing about under the canopy OF pro-
iectlng roof that was sheltering them
from dreary rainfall.
They seemed to recognize the mem.
Der of Congress, despite his disguise,
for he worea fashionable overcoat and
u close.roled umbrella, though he
had exchanged his silk hat for II
derby. After some whispering the
knot of loungers gavitated toward
them.
"Dog my oats, Bill, called out one,
'ir this amt Smith Brownlee. Hello,
Smith; got bock, have yo'?" slapping
him on the back. my, but yo' look
putty! Come ere, Jim, look at i'm.
Would We know i'm eff yo' met i'm on
n dark road? Say, Smith, yo' must
a.struck it rich when we sent yo' to
Congress. When yo' left var yo
didn't have an overcoat to yo' back,
an I'll leave it to the crowd, now,
did 'e?"
Smith tried to take it as n joke. He
laughed softly and introduced his
wife in the ill.lighted waiting-room,
whittier the delegation of his constitu-
ents had followed.
They took off their hats and stared
at the lady; but this diversion CON
tinued only until the most loud
spoken constituent could think OF
saying something that was intended
for a compliment to Mrs. Brownlee,
but which ricochetted upon her hus-
band in the form of another rude
sally at the metamorphosis of his con
dition, when they all haw-hawed in
chorus.
Mrs. Brownlee was beginning to get
shocked. The smell of the coal oil
made her i'll, and she pinched her hus-
bands arm as a signal to break away
and HE to the bosom of his family.
Brownlee cursed himself and the
crowd, and for the first time in his
life felt sorry that he ever married.
Outwardly, however, he gave no token
of his chagrin, but smiled and cracked
Jokes and clutched at every straw that
promised him relief from the merci-
less persihage of his ill.bred constitu-
ents. He finally managed to get his
wife and himself into Il fOulsmelling
little bus that carried passengers;
and hoarse shout that sounded half
dcrisive to the wel-trained percep-
tive faculties OF Mrs. Brownlee went
up from the platform through the
darkness and rain as they drove
away.
Brownlee told the bus driver to
stop at the hotel He did, but the
owner was tearing down that part of
the building where the rooms for
guests were located, to rebuild, he
said, "agin court time" and there
was no place there for them. So there
was nothing to do but what Brownlee,
in the desperate calculation of his
chances, had never contemplated
even as last esort-stop Mt his
home
"Daisy, said he. in n hoarse voice,
as the bus splashed through the mire
of the road; "Daisy"-softly taking
her hand in his-''are You prepared
to make u sacrifice for me; greater, |
hope, than any | shall ever ask you
to make for me again in all our
lives?"
She said Eyes" YEARLY, with her
head swaying loosely on her shoulders
like a sick child's; "what do you ask
me?"
"That You will not hate or despise
me when I introduce you to my father
and mother" he said, teuderly.
"rhey are poor, then?' she asked in
that same weary tone.
"They are the commonest people in
the State; they are SO common that
when everybody in town had the
cholera it passed them by as not worth
noticing"
"My! !" she exclaimed, chow did you
ever get into Congress-
"By my own efforts, and not with
the help of anybody in the world, l
just simply hustled for it,
"Well, she said, "let it come"
What is meant by 'let it come" is
something that must be left to the
solution of the reader, but the resigned
tone in which she uttered the dictum
implied that as nothing worse than
meeting the commonest people in the
State could come to her, it was as
we'll to let it come then as any time.
The parental Brownies lived in a
plain, yellow, frame house, colonial in
style, in that it shot upward on four
sides like big box, but without any
ornate adornments under the caves
without even veranda, except small
one that afforded Il view of the cab
bage patch and pig sty i'll the far
ther perspective at the back of the
house.
Brownlee's mother smoked corn
cob pipe. Brownlee's father ate hi
supper in his shirt sleeves, and wore
cowhide boots outside of his pant!
while he was eating it, The wonder
is that he didn't go to bed with them,
The furniture was scant, and they
rented the house; that is, they rented
it, but Brownlee, NJ. c., paid thu
rent
The greeting that the Brownies
first edition, extended to the Brown
less, second edition, was cordial t.
demonstrativeness. The materna
Brownlee was something of cook
and soon had repast steaming on tn,
table.
1t wasn't bad supper, but Mrs
Brownlee didn't have her Washington
appetite with her, and her slight head
ache had grown worse, and she asked
to be shown to her room.
The room had no comforts except
patched carpet, pine bedstead an,
an upright packing box with curtail
drawn around it for washstand, an
a portable mirror of the species Otter
seen ut cheap auction stores.
And this was what her Lake Com
illusion had shrunk to!
When she arose the next mOrniu