The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-24
OBSERVATIONS OF a DAY.
By the Amateur Philosopher.

Child in Public disturbing !
the peace of every one else /
in the parloF car. His |
mother, a beautiful woman |
fashiOnably dressed. paid |
no attention to him. although this sort
of mother usually has model children, /
conventional theories to the contrary
Notwithstanding. It IS the child Ordi-
narlly whose mother fuses and both |
ers with him all the time, arranging
his clothes, correcting his manners, /
don ting threatening and worrying
him whose behavior is such as to cause
every woman who sees him to say, 4
wish he were mine for about five min
utes." But in this case, although the
mother sat serenely cutting the pages
of a new novel or looking out the WIN
dow at the autumn landscape Whirling
by and never so much as glanced at
her son, her indifference did not have
the customary effect, except to this ex-
tent, that he didn't bother her, but
confined his attentions and annoyances
to the other passengers.
The train was late, and the dining
car had not yet been put on so dinner
was necessarily delayed. The boy was
not the only one on the car who was
cross about it, but he was the only one
who voiced his sentiments, which he
did in a tone of angry complaint to
any one who would listen to him. He
probably knew from experience that
his mother would not so he didn't try
her. But in the section across the
{
one of those large, plain girls, of fiat
surfaces and no high lights" as Edith
Wharton would say. whom their
friends praise extraVagantly whenever
their names are inadvertently brought
up, and forget the rest of the time.
You could know for a certainty at
glance that the married women she
knew, feeling themselves perfectly safe,
were always saying that she would
make some man a splendid WIFE
This is almost as bad as to be called
"gOOd natured" or wholesome or any
of the other terms of praise which are
awarded women when nothing else can
be said of them.
The girl was plainly and neatly"
dressed, as such girls always are, in
/ dark-brOWn shirt-Waist suit Brown
was not especially becoming to her but
she did not have the gift of making the
most of herself. In addition to being
unattractive naturally, it was evident
/ that she was also poor. This was
shown by her goOd-nature, her willing
ness to serve, her anxiety to please.
/ She was the only one in the car who
| listened to the boy. talked to him and
/ tried to amuse him. She told him
stories and she knew so many in prose
and rhyme that one felt sure that she
was a kindergarten teacher, and when
/ his hungry lamentations grew unbear-
| able she drew out from under the rest
! of her luggage neat wicker lunch
/ box, blushing a little, because she had
/ intended waiting until the other pas
] SeEgerS had gone into the diner be-
| fore she opened it. Besides, she had
| wanted the porter to get her a cup of
! tea. But the boy was so hungry and
so cross that she asked him to share
/ her sandwiches and fried chicken and
/ deviled eggs and cake and fruit, to
which he agreed with more avidity
/ than pOliteness- The porter brought
| them table and she spread spotless
] luncheon cloth upon 1t and arranged
/ the contents of her box and for fully
fifteen minutes the boys fellow pas
sengers had a much needed rest.
When it was all over and the lunch
! con had been cleared away, the boys
/ lonely mother sitting. across the aisle
/ looked UP from her novel and said in
| a beautiful voice, of delicious modUla-
| lions and artiStocratic infections, THAT
was very kind of you, I'm sure. And
if you're going into the toilet room,
would you mind washing his hands %
The girl smiled and bowed, evidently
/ elated a. the notice of so radiant a
creature, and taking the boy with her
| withdrew to the toilet room. There
she continued that sort of kindergar-
ten talk and tactics warranted by
/ F'roebel and his confreres to make the
most hopelessly Spoiled Child come up
and eat out of the hand while she
| washed his cherubic face-he was al
most as easy to look at as his mother
and his dimpled hands and brushed his
thick mop of red-brOwn hair. And
the DOY, mute ana nOIl-COulIllIlldi dlLGl
the fashion of the Spoiled Child in
the face of Establishment and cajolery,
WriggIed away from her abludOnary
attentions digging the toe of his little
brown sandal into the carpet and look
ing up at her with big, brown, serious,
angelic eyes, fixed his eyes upon the
mole which disfigured her left cheek
and observed politely, Gee, but you've
got Whiskers!'
All of which goes to prove that pa
tience and virtue are their own reward.
When you come to think about life
abstractly, to look upon it in the pure
ly impersonal light of one who might
view it for the first time without pre-
ViOus acquaintance. is there any phase
of human endeavor that is not mex
pressibly drOH2 Imagine a higher
type upon beholding the mOnarchs. OF
ster in his professional capacity is the
this planet for the first time. Wasn't
it Robert Louis Stevenson who knew
/ d woman who was certain she could
go crazy just wondering at the human
eyebrow Well-here's d problem ii
mental arithmetic-if one eyebrow
would make one lose his mind what
effect would a whole tenor have2 Fol-
of all the funny things in life, the
strange, wild, inexplicable things,
sometimes think the human male song
, funniest-that The Tenor has the star
a part in this human comedy. See him
!, standing at the front of the stage
), drawn up to his full six feet two OF
three, irreproachable in evening dress
his thin hair combed carefully over his
bald spot, folding and unfolding th>
b concert programme in his white-glcveC
hands, debonair or self-conscious
easy or distressed, in good voice Of
: bad, care not what, his is a. picture t
4 drive you mad if you happen to be il
j, one of those moods when you regard
, every phase of human activity as ''w'
watch the bees"
It is a fact that although men exec
women in all the arts, women appea
more natural in their pursuit. A prims
donna somehow seems better suited t.
her role than a man singer. one feel
as though. even If one saw her for thl