The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-10-26


III fate takes to even things
up-there are cases in which
man, the Individual, gets far the worst
of it as compared to woman I am
bound to say that the individual man
who thus pays up fate for the short
/ conlings OF mis- sex in nine cases out of
ten is married. The bachelor hardly
ever does pay.
There was Willing, who defauited
| Wibling was manager of great com
merciaI house. He was the most trust
ed, most respected man in the business;
had been with the firm twenty years
when they found that Wibling had stol
en- $4,000 from the house, $4,000 for
each year he had been employed. The
partners were themselves the last to
believe it. Forced to do so, they set
tied down to the conclusion that 1t
must have been the innate deprav1ty 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 shabby,
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, hosts of friends. Yet today
Willing is wearing stripes behind bars.
This is the reason: His charming wife
refused to live in the style of $4,000
year, but insisted on "splurging' at the
rate of $4,000 a year. When tucked
chiffon hats came in, requiring 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
I,.o n
not only a fox and a toy Pom, but also
a blue Devonshire terrier, a little rat of
a creature over which her lady friends
went into ecstasies. The three togeth- |
er, with their keep, their bells, blankets
and ribbons and taking them to dog
shows, cost a third of Vikings annual
wage. Wibling could deny his 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-
inously began to pity his poor. sweet |
wife. Wibling tripped because of his I
wife's extravaganza and vulgar social |
Many time the faults of a wife re-
suit in the defaulting of her husband.
There is Skopley. Szopley 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 o1den
isles of Greece. His spirit burned with
in him and 1eaped 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 I'M
stable, torturing nervous system, a
man struggling under debt and disap-
with little happiness in the
and less hope for it in the flu
ture. The flying Pegasus is harnessed
to a plow. 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 f1ickers feebly
but goes not quite out.
Skopley's productions are very I'M
even. Sometimes they are brilliant,
and his artist friends say, Look what
Skopley can do when he triesl" Again
Of something he has done, in the Ian
suage which they understand, they say:
Look at thatl It's rotteni SkopIey's
got one of his lazy fits on The truth
IS Skopley never had slazy fit in his
life. Since he married the plump, live
~ girl existence to him has been a
grind of work. Mrs. Slxopley's view of
natrimony is that 1t is husbands
1uty to give his wife everything in life
hat she wants, and not only that, but
she wants for her children.