The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1902-02-08
CULTURE IN MAINE.


IL Has q Singular Eject ON the Lauin.
3; 3 !, Aryaa., the Housem~id anAS
8 theCook. ~
i. The next time go to Maine, !" said
the girl, pausing to chat while she
unpackeq her trunk; relates the
New York Sun, II take with me
complete celluloid outfit, so as to
snap my fingers at laundry agents
and the like. With water, water
everywhere on the coast of Maine,
you'd think it would be easy to get
your washing done, but it isn't. ~
ION the island where I was stay
ing the first week all my things were
shipped off miles and miles away to
Portland, or Boston or Bath. The
laundry agent was most obliging
and delightful boy, a son of an
American ambassador or something
equally imposing, and a true, thrifty
Yankee. He was putting himself
through some university by this
clearly summer pursuit: And it was
q pursuit, if pursuit means hunting
for lost things.
"Well. he took my things Monday,
called at the cottage in person, dis
cussed affably the social news of the
island, partook of the ginger ale our
host brought out and then went off
with our bundles under his arm. Sat-
urday he brought back what there
was. 1t was very meager display.
A lot of my things didn't turn up at
all, and all the hooks had been ripped
off one of my waists, in an excess of
zeal, for fear they would rust. The
agent was very sympathetic. I de-
scribed the things I was shy on. It
did seem funny, but he never cracked
q smile; he just jotted down de-
scriptions of the missing things in
his little memorandum book and
promised to look them up.
"You see he went everywhere and
/ met him at every tack and turn. I
ignored his laundry career at dances
and clambakes and such places, but L
am told there we've girls who tackled
him boldly during the pauses of the
Boston dip, or when they were tipped
up on the edge of a catboat with
him, or anywhere, about things
trimmed with Hamburg and others
ruffled and edged with torchon.
II used to assail him on the wharf
when the express boat came in. He
was really such very nice boy and
took no end of pains. One by one
my things trickled back. He would
come up to me ON the wharf, bare
headed, his eyes beaming and his
teeth cleaning.
g "'Good morning, there's a petit
coat just in, looks like yours he
would say; or I've had letter about
that stock, it's been found. It will
be along in a day or two
: "Once he came up very confidently
to know if had pink ribbon run in
anything, as there was corset cover
seeking an owner and he thought
might be she, although he remem-
bered T never sent things without
taking the ribbons out! Nice as he
was, though, 7 couldn't patron1ze his
old laundry, so tried various other
evils.
.,"Speaking Of the polite little laun-
dry agent makes me think of the lot
of people down in Maine who work
at anything during the summer to go
to college during the other nine
months. The man who ran the trunk
delivery business was senior at
some university, a terror in Latin
and Greek, I suppose, and he certain
ly was a wizard with the trunks. He
didn't look at the checks until he got
to your house, and then he general
~. would find he had, mixed things. I
used to moralize to myself sometimes
as to whether educated service is as
good as the plain straight kind.
For instance, the housemaid at
the cottage where I stayed knew a
lot you didn't expect her to know,
but from one to two things my
hostess let drop I fancy Ida fell
short in the things she was expected
to know. One day at dinner one of
the children asked her. father the
French for crumb. He couldn't tell
her, although he was educated
wa os~~' wv Ola &NAACu UAt AOllc VI us
could recollect the word. After din
ner Alice, the little girl, came out and
asked her father if miette was not
the French for crumb.
"'That's the word I was trying to
think off, he said. Who told you?'
1T seems it was Ida who knew.
She got hold of Alice after dinner
and said: 'Iwanted to tell you at the
table, Miss Alice, but, of course, I
couldn't speak them Ida had studied
French for four years and German
for three in some New England high
school and had aspirations to teach
modern languages.
1.-THE cook, we, discovered, went in
for pure English. We overheard Ida
one day describing mans appear
ance to the cook.
Hes short, fat man, sunburned.
and generally he wears cap and
white pants he said.
"'Trousers,' the cook said, in q