The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-27

~ and this may be the way
fate takes to even things
up-there are cases in which
man, the individual, gets far the worst
of it as compared to woman. / am
bound to say that the individual man
who thus pays up fate for the short
comings oil his sex in nine cases out of
ten is married. The bachelor hardly
ever does pay.
There was Wibling, who defaulted.
Wibling was manager of great COM
mercial house. He was the most trust
ed. most respected man in the business;
had been with the firm twenty years
when they found that Willing had stol-
en- $40 600 from the house, $4,000 for
each year he had been employed. The
partners We're themselves the last to
believe it. Forced to do so, they set
tied down to the conclusion that it
must have been the innate depravity of
human nature that made him steal and
that no man is honest. Wibling had
never played the races or gambled in
any form He was temperance itself.
He dressed plainly, almost shabbily,
stayed home evenings and went to bed
early. Wibling had everything to keep
him in the middle of the road, they
said-the most charming wife, the hap
piest home, nosts of friends. Yet today
Willing is wearing stripes behind bars.
This is the reason: His charming wife
refused to live in the style OF S5,0OO
year but insisted on "splurging' at the
rate of $4,000 a year. When tucked
chiffon hats came in, requiring a new
one every two weeks to keep them fresh
looking, Mrs. Willing was conspicuous
for her perfect millinery. When pug
dogs went out and fox terriers and toy
Pomeranians came in, Mrs. Willing had
not only fox and toy Pom, but also
a blue Devonshire terrier, little rat of
a creature over which her lady friends
went into ecstasies. The three togeth-
err, with their keep their bells, blankets
and ribbons and taking them to dog
shows, cost a third of Vikings annual
wage. Wibling could deny mis- wife
nothing. He was proud of her beauty,
he was fond of her he would have coin
ed his hearts blood to maintain her in
the style of wives whose husbands had
three times as much money as he. Be
sides, if he had not done so sweet Mrs
w would have made the house too
hot to hold him. He knew it, though
the world did not, and when he fell
that is to say, when the world found
out he had fallen-all the world unan.
imously began to pity his poor, sweet
wife. Wibling tripped because of his
wife's extravaganza and vulgar social
ambition.
Many a time the faults of wife re-
suit in the defaulting of her husband.
There is Skopley. Skopley is an art
list. Years ago, say twenty he started
out TO embody in material form the
fairest. brightest dream that ever lured
a gifted young soul upward. He saw
in America and in himself possibilities
of artistic development equal to, though
different from, that even of the olden
isles of Greece. His spirit burned with
in him and leaped forward beyond him
to realize his splendid dream.
Well, Skopley saw one day a plump,
lively girl with large eyes, waving hair
and a, white angel hand. He promptly
fell in love with her. Result, marriage
very early, a large family to provide
for before he reached his prime, an un-
stable, torturing nervous system, a
man struggling under debt and disap-
pointment, with little happiness in the
present and less hope for it in the flu
ture. The flying Pegasus is harnessed
to a pillow. SkOpley makes advertising
pictures He has never made so much
as a sketch that realized any of his
ideals. He does drawings and takes
them to tobacco houses, brewing firms
and fancy soap factories on approval.
Herein people who use soap and tobac-
co get the benefit of really artistic
work on advertising labels, but Skop-
ley, poor Skopley, is a light that has
done worse than fail. 1t fiickers feebly,
but goes not quite out.
Skopleys productions are very I'M
even. Sometimes they are brilliant,
and his artist friends say, Look what
Skopley can do when he tries!" Again,
of something hee has done, in the lam
guage which they understand, they say:
Look at that! It's rotten! Skopley's
got one of his lazy fits on" The truth
is Skopley never had a lazy fit in his
life. Since he married the plump, live
ly girl existence to him has been a
grind Of work. Mrs. Skopley's view of
matrimony is that it is a husbands
duty to give his wife everything in life
that she wants, and not only that, but
everything she wants for her children.