Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1900-11-13
A REAL MANAGER
ny MORRIS WADE.
IN scollard, in S. s. Times.

eyes, Maria Kent was a real man
ager, if ever there was one in this
world"
Old Mrs. Todd helped herself to
another spoonful of mashed pota-
toes, saying as she did so:
81 declare if your mashed potato
don't have taste | don't find in any
one else's mashed potato, Maria
Reese"
Mrs. Todd was spending the day
with Mrs. Reese. She was having
what she called "roal visit" They
were at the dinnertable, and Mrs
Todd's nimble tongue ran as she
ate, so that some of her utterances
were thick and mufiled.
GAS l was saying she resumed,
as she poured a spoonful Of brown
gravy over the potato, "Maria Kent
is a real manager. You know she
married Harvey Kent when he hadn't
thing but the little old farm his
father had left him, and it was all
under mortgage, and all the build
ings were run down and Harve him
self was a good deal run down. l
will say for Maria that she straight
ened Harve out mighty quick, if
she did boss him all his life after
ward. She made him hustle from the
day she married him. That was a
part of her managin'. La, she was
driver, Maria was. Up before day
light in the mornin' and on the go
until she tumbled into bed at night.
There want no time wasted on that
place, nor no money, either. Maria
managed both time and money so well
that it was no wonder that she and
Harvey was the best off of any of
the farmer folk around here when
they died five years ago. And they
died in the harness"
81 never knew them very well, !"
said Mrs. Kent. "You know that
they died soon after we came into
this neighborhood to live"
$50 they did. ! was thinkin' that
you knew them. l knew them both
from the day they were knee-high to
a duck, and l said when Maria mar
ried Harvey that no one need worry
about them not getting along for |
knew that Maria was born man
ageT, and it want a month before
things begun to look mighty dilf'rent
around the old Kent place, and ]
reckon that Harve did more work in
that one month than he had ever
done before in any one year of his life.
And Maria made him keep up. She
took right holt of the reins and she
drove the rest of her life. They had
bought so 0acres Of land joinin' Harve's
place before they had been married
two years, and when they had been
five years married they owned an eX-
try hundred acres of ground and had
begun to build a big new barn. Mebbe
it didn't take managin' to do that"
GLOW did they do it?'
"Well, they just shaved and saved.
Never spent cent they didn't have
to, and made ev'ry cent they did.
spend go as far as other folks two
cents go. Never wasted no time.
You never caught them at picnics nor
celebrations, nor goin' visitin' nor en-
tertainin' company, nor buyin'
thing they didn't really need. When
they had been married seven years
Maria's best dress was the one she
had walked bride in, and Harve's best
suit was the one he had been mar
ried in. They had four children by
that time, and there Want no money
wasted on them. Most mothers viii
have something kind o nice for the
first baby il hey don't have for the
second or the third, but Maria's first
baby's best dress Wes perfectly plain
little white slip made out Of an old
petticoat of hers. | don't believe !
that she spent three dollars on that
child's whole outfit No ribbons or
laces or embroidery or tucking or in
sertion for her babies, She was man |
agin', and savin', Maria was. When /
her children got older an began to go /
to school they was such queerly
dressed little things that the other
used to laugh at them. Maria
would buy calico by the bolt, because
she could get it quarter of a cent