Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12
MODERN LUXURIES

TT was drizzling the other morning whef
my youngest boy-he's ten-was ready ts
go to school" observed Portleigh, and his
mother was on hand, of course to see thai
he didn't make any mistakes.
It's wet out this morning, son. she
said to him. and you must put on your rub.
bers.'
And the kid. Of course, put 'em on-thai
Is to say. he permitted his mother to heir
MIN on with them. Then she helped him
into MS nice warm raincoat with the new
Tangled ulster belt at the back. and handed
him his stack Of books--and by the way
I'm in fear of my life half the time that
that youngster'u be asking me to answer
questions propounded In some of those
deeply learned and mysterious books. Then
he stroiled cut into the hall, took his pick
of the umbrellas In the rack--he took the
best-iooking one in the bunch, you'd better
peAeve-and out he went, whistling and
ready for any old kind of weather.
Gosh, but that boy looked trig and com
Portable! And it pleased me to see the lit
tie tike that way, too But as he strutted
down the street. perky with the knowledge
tnat things were about coming his way, and
that there weren't any problems outside of
his lessons for him to solve for good
many years to come-well. 1 looked the
shaver over and I got to thinking of the
snap that boys got compared to what drift
ed my way out in the queer little old west
ern town when was his age.
The only overcoat that ever owned as
boy. or, for the matter Of that, that I
ever owned before I began. to buy over
coats for myself. was Hike that one that
Simeon Ford, the New York Boniface-hu-
mortst, was telling about a while back-that
Is to say, it was whitfield down from my
DADS old Army Of the Potomac overcoat.
It was an heirloom in the family. and 1t was
also holy show. Every boy that appeared
In our family had to take his regular crack
at wearing that overcoat, and the boy that
showed a contumacious spirit about wear
Ing 1t, on account of the ridicule Of his
schoolmates, as shown in their boots Of
'Sojer! and Coffee cooler!-well, that boy
had to go without any overcoat at all.
And goloshes for boy! Well. I'd like
to've seen the expression on the faces Of
the Old folks II any such crazy suggestion
had ever been made to then-rubbers for
the feet OF a boy going to school! We wore
top-boots Sometimes they were boots ap
proximately Of the size of our feet, but not
often. I don't remember ever having had
pair OF boots that were originally devised
designed and intended solely for my own
wearing. As a rule. the boots that wore
to school were generally about four sizes
wary, in walking in muddy and sticky
paths. lest I pulled my feet right. smack
out of my boots and land In the mire in my
stocking feet! 1 had that dismal thing
ed the necessary skill that finally enabled
me to take chances even on wading in a
duck pend without being in any danger of
losing my boots
that came my way when I was a little
school like, they were pretty hard to get
into when they were frozan stiff during the
Geld weather. used to try to use this fact
as an excuse for staying home from school
on extremely cold days but nev.,r managed
to get away with that-thered been a lot of
boys In the family before I got along. you
see. and my mother had all of tho little
hrlYr dnf7x fl,nk r f,,5 H.,
the world to spring any new ones on her.
It's foolish, by the way for boy to per-
init himself to be born into family In
which number Of other boys have pre-
such a situation. The other fellows have
given his mother too much experience
mo. l never managed to stay home from
school on account Of my boots being
frozen. When I'd try that On my mother
would say to me, calmly and placidly: I
know your boots are frozen, son-but
there's plenty of mutton tallow, you know
And knew what that meant. of course.
fore going to bed that night. My mother
I'D put lump of tallow on the back of the
kitchen stove-the receptacle for the tallow
was usually the lid of an old tin shoe-black-
ing box. Then she'd see to it that all of us
boys placed our boots near the stove, to
sort O. thaw EN- out. Then we'd take
turns dipping into the tallow dish with our
fingers, and then it 'ud be case of each
pOy using MS own elDOW-greaSe TO get the
kinks and dents and contrariness out of
those boots. We'd have to rub, and rub,
and rub the taIlow into the leather our
mother standing by with her hands on her
hips. and a kindly, Interested expression on
her face. watching to see that we did the
work well. and then we'd plant the boots
alongside the stove, in a row. so to keep
them sort o warm during the night and not
let the tallow cake on them-and thus we'd
settle our own chances Of being able to
crawl out OF going to school on the follow
And umbrellas A boy of my day and
date going to school of morning under the
shelter OF an umbrella Why, he'd have
attracted just as much attention that way
a. no would have II he'd gone to school on
the back OF q camel OF the desert There
was only ono umbrella in our family any,
how. and that was huge, greenish, para
chut1sh AFFAIR, that looked suspiciously like
1t had been eribbed from a wagon Won
know those big front-seat-of-a-waeon nm
brellas-aad that one umbrella was strictly
sacred to the old folks-us yonkers would
nave as soon thought of taking it out. to
Schoot or anywhere else, as we would of
taking tho old daguerreotype of our grand
father out In the rain.
oh, we just plugged along, and got wet
ana then dry again. and caught colds and
got over EN- again. best we could, and GER
tainly as well as the old folks could afford
ana mere l am. at that. sound enough, and
glad enough, when 1t comes to that, to see
my own youngster a-saiIing along to
school In a his-own-size-rain-coa and rub
Ders bought especially for him, and anv
Old umbrella he durn pleases to take out
OF the rack-only wish the self-contained
little tike wouldn't take 1t all as such q
oead-strafght matter-of-course"