The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-05-14
REAL 'MRS.WIGGS'
Her cabbage Patch" Has Been
Invaded by Strangers.
Annoyed Her Until She Drove
Them Away.
THEY ARE DRENCHED.
1nquisitive Intruders Forced to
Retreat From the House.
Mrs. Mary Bass Turned Against
Author of Stories.
THEY ARE DRENCHED.

Behind the closed shutters of her
humble home Mrs. Wigs of the Cab
bage Patch in Louisville, KY, stands
today awaiting the arrival of the next
pilgrim. BY her side-in fact, all over
the house-are great buckets filled to
the brim, and the sudden downpour OF
the contents is to be Mrs. Wigs greet
ing. 1t matters not whom it may be-
the stout, charitably inclined person
with an offer to adopt the fictitious
Lovey Mary, the angular gushing visi-
tor who does so love to know noted
characters, the autograph hunter-as if
Mrs. Wigs has anything to do with the
autograp h-the relic hunter, the souv-
enir fiend or the amateur camera fiend.
For the last named Mrs Wigs inri-
mates that she has particularly large
buckets containing undiluted carbolic
acid.
All this because the law has said she
can escape the persecution of publicity
in any way she chooses. 1t upheld her
when she used this method on Mrs.
Frederick Guy Smith this week, and
she viii stick to it. Mrs. Smith, wife
of a very estimable citizen of Hazle~
wood, determined that she would see
the cheerful, charitable. uptomistic resi-
dent of the Patch, and she went there.
She didn't see Mrs. Wigs until they
met in the court room. Before that
Mrs. Smith had worn home a new gown
drenched by large bucketful of water
thrown from an upper window of the
Wigs home. Mrs. Wigs simple and
forceful narration of the trials of a
heroine of d popular novel was such as
to win instant acquittal from the judge.
The Cabbage Patch is not unlike GER
tain other portions of Louisville, and
there are sections of almost any Amer
lean city which bear general resem-
blance. The cabbage patch of today
bellies its name A few years ago it
was a cabbage patch, to be sure That
section of the city lying along Twelfth
street Just south of SITS. Mary and
Elizabeth hospital, beyond the point
where five railroads cross, a, few years
ago was a cabbage patch, doing its
snare toward supplying the city with
Its garden truck.
As this city grew the land became
more valuable. Factories sprang up
along the lines of the railways which
skirted it, and the industrious truck
farmer who owned it sold it to q
shrewd investor at a good price and
bought new tract some miles further
out.
Streets were laid out from Tenth to
Fourteenth and cottages began to APP
pear. They are not the patchwork cot
tages of the story. For this part of her
book Mrs. Rice chose the now fast dis
appearing Tintown-that city dump Of
years gone by on the river bank fast
giving way to coal elevators. In the
Cabbage Patch are cottages, all frame
some of two stories, mostly in the
Queen Anne style, and all built in the
last few years. The rents are cheap,
and here live that poor but Industrious
class of citizens who go to make UP
such large part of our urban popula-
ton.
Has Another Name.
Mrs. Wigs has another name-Mrs.
Mary A Bass. She is a widow with
two children. A few years ago she
had a struggle for existence, since her
girl and boy were then small and I'M
able to earn a livelihood. Then she
was more or less an object of charity
and in accepting this charity she be-
came known to Mrs. Rice, who was
accustomed to visit the Cabbage Patch
on missions of love. Thus it CHANGED
that Mrs. Bass came in later years to
be the Mrs. Wigs, although that char
acter is composite. Though not so.
philosophical, Mrs. Bass answers for
Mrs. Wigs in many other Ways and
is as near the original as one might
expect to find. In fact, she is far too
near the Mrs. Wigs of the book for
her own comfort, and that is the cause
of this story.
Mrs. Bass is rough and somewhat
uncouth of manner, but she has good
heart, but she is lacking in the patience
of Mrs. Wigs. Yet it must be admit
ted in her defense that her patience
Hats DEG4A o0AGAS AAACA SlLGC the DOOk
achieved its great popularity. Her
modest home is fairly furnished, and
instead of having the two rooms of
the story, she has two floors, for Mr..
Bass, in his life, was a good provider.
He was one of the few residents of the
Cabbage Patch who owned his own
home, though 1t took him many. years
to pay for it at a rate not greater than
he would have put out for rent. 1t
has two stories and is one of the best
in the Patch. It is located on Twelfth
street and faces west