The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-05-14

Mrs. Bass is at home alone most of
the day, since her two children are
now at work True, she has neighbor-
hood callers. answering IN general
way to the Miss Hazy, Mrs. Schulz,
and Mrs. Eichorn of the story, and
there are troops of children.
At first she did not mind the visitors
who came to see her. They were town
folk, who, having read the story, called
out of mere curiosity Being town folk
! they knew that Mrs. Bass was not the
! prototype of Mrs. Wigs in the full
| sense of the word, so they simply in
spected the house and neiighborhood,
and, with a pleasant good day to Mrs.
Bass, went back to the street cars. or
entered their carriages.
But, after a few weeks, the interest,
| instead of dying out, as Mrs. Bass had
expected it would, increased. In addi-
1 tion some misguided lover of the story
placed a copy of the book in Mrs.
Bass hands. She read the story. saw
drawn the composite character, and
her whole being changed. Had Mrs.
/ Bass been the clever and philosophical
woman that Mrs. Wigs is, she would
have received her visitors gracefully,
and would have had for sale souvenirs
that might be carried back to Boston,
Kankakee, and Kingdom Come. But
she wasn't. and she didn't.
Instead, Mrs. Bass refuses to see Wis
itors. Knocks at the door she will not
answer, yet she keeps an eye on the
front of the house, trying to save a
few pickets of her fence, for much of
1T has already been carried away for
souvenirs. When visitors first came
they begged for souvenirs. When they
could not gain admittance to the house
they stole whatever they could lay
their hands upon in the yard. Her rose
bushes disappeared, as did her shrubs.
A few shells that surrounded the little
flower garden went one by one, and so
did other things until the yard was
I " ~
fence palings. Perhaps the gate will
go next.
Louisville citizens have long since
ceased to trouble Mrs. Bass. Yet it
must be said of Mrs. Bass that she is
really mild hammered, and if assured
that her visitor is not a mere curiosity
seeker will cheerfully chat with him
But she will not allow any more pub
licity. She refuses absolutely to have
her picture taken, and she spurned
tickets offered her to go to see Mrs
Wigs on the stage because she knew
the reporter who offered them to her
had retained in his pocket the coupon
for an adjoining seat. Mrs. Bass is
nobody's fool, if she is a. trif1e hot tenn
pered at times.
Mrs. Bass has turned mostly against
Mrs. Rice, the author of the book. If
she had been permitted to share even
one-fiftieth of MES. Rice's prosperity as
the result of the liberties taken with
her home and some of her pecul1arltleS
Rice is not even a visitor at the Bass
home. At this late day she would
meet a hostile reception Mrs. Bass
intinates very strongly that MRS rice
sh%uld have paid her something Tor the
tZouble she has brought upon her. ana
therefore it makes her more indignant
than ever when she reads that Mrs.
Rice and her husband are about to
take a trip to Europe on the pronts
reaped out of the book
Visitors Now Are Strangers.
Mrs. Bass visitors have during the
last year been almost exclusively con-
fined to strangers in the city, and if
they have met with hostile receptions
few have become public in Louisville.
Any hack driver will tell you that he
has carried hundreds of fares to the
Cabbage Patch, and the hotel clerks
say they daily give directions how to
reach it. Tourists passing through
the city en- route to Mammoth cave
and generally have the book in their
hand, going along in a manner not
unlike an American tourist in Paris,
with his ever present Baedeker.
Since the dramatization of the
stories of Mrs. Wigs and "Lovey
Nary the interest among the visitors
to the city is even more acute and
this applies with equal force to .theat-
ricaf folk. When the Mrs Wigs"
company first appeared in Louisville
it's members drove in a tallyho to the
Cabbage Patch. But Mrs. Bass had
heard of their coming and the blinds
of her house were closely drawn. The
visitors Knocked, and knocked in vain.
Early efforts of Mrs. Bass to drive
away her visitors were confined to
refusal to answer the door. The
knocks being unanswered, the visitors
began boldly to walk in and Mrs,
Bass usually resorted to a broom to
drive them out. But in March she
adopted sterner measures, and one
that brought her into the police court
last week. During the third week of
March the company was playing His
Last Dollar appeared in Louisville.
Among the members of the COM
pany was Miss Isabel O'Madigan, a
great admirer of Mrs. Rice's stories.
Accompanied by Mrs. Jean Caffrey of
Louisville, they drove ont to the Cab
bage Patch one afternoon. Their
knock at Mrs. Bass door being un-
answered, they opened the door and
quietly walked in. Hardly had they
got well inside the door than they
were visited with the contents of
bucket of slop water hurled by Mrs.
Bass from her bedroom at the head
panied by a torrent of abuse at the
invasion of her home.
Ruined Their F'roclxs.
The women beat a hasty retreat.
Their frocks were ruined. and it was
fortunate that they went in a cab, for
they were so drenched they could not
This incident-the first real act of
hostility on the part of Mrs. Bass to
become publicly known-did not OBJ