Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-09
GAVE HIM A LESSON

"a recent article in one Of the magazines
about children of the stage. illustrated with
a lot of pictures of the forward and I'M
mannerly little tads. recalls to my mind an
incident in which one of them figured in
Atlantic City during the early part Of the
season." said a Washington physician who
put In his vacation at the Jersey resort
During the bathing hour one morning a
lot Of ladies. most of them mothers OF chill
dren. were seated on Boardwalk pavilion
watching the bathers. when a fresh young
ster OF eight or ten. exaggeratedly but
richly logged out. appeared and started in
to have fun with them.
THE ladies were all sitting facing the
sea. and it struck the fresh kid that 1t
would be q mighty diverting thing for him
to sneak up behind their chairs and tug at
their loose wispS Of back hair.
The unmannerly kid probably didn't
know that women are mighty sensitive
about their back hair, and that those little
wisps are called 'scolding locks
He started in to have whole slathers OF
larks with the married women, anyway.
sneaking up behind them, one after one.
yanking their heads back by grabbing hold
of their back hair and pulling 1t. and then
darling away in his merry little giggling
way.
The annoyed women glared at the impu-
dent cub, but their glares had no erect
upon him. He would merely wait till they
had auletedi down and forgotten about him.
and then he would sneak up and take
grab at some other woman's back hair.
but he finally picked loser, as every
body does who sticks to one game too long.
He made a grab at the back hair Of
square-jawed woman with steel-rimmed
spectacles. who had large grown family
OF her own in bathing out in the sea in
front of her and the square jawed woman
was just waiting for him.
He didn't get within a foot of catching
bold ,PL l.~i. a
about in her seat and had him in a grip in
which she'd had plenty of practice when
she was raising young boys herself years
before.
Now. the square-jawed woman re-
| marked to the squirming kid as he strug
ged to break loose from her powerful
grasp, what kind of fool monkey are
YOU anyhow, that you can't behave In
stead Of making such miserable little nui-
sance of yourself?'
The spoiled theatrical kid tried as best
he could-for the tight grasp upon him was
never relaxed-a silly theatrical attitude.
obviously thought was enormously high
falutin and effective, but which was simply
depressing:
You let go O. me! You don't know
| name of a Well-known kid actor whose por-
trait appears in the magazine article about
stage children that I've mentioned and I
play leads with F'rohman.'
THE specialized woman with the square
| jaw looked at the foolish whelp sternly for
moment.
"Oh, you do. do your she remarked.
Then she deliberately placed him over
her knee.
of that's the case she went on. then
you need to be taught. for about two min
utes, that all of the world is not a stage,
| in spite Of what Mister Shakespeare had
| to say about it. / don't play leads for
Frohman or anybody else, my fresh little
| friend, but 1 imagine l haven't forgot how
| to play the kind of tattoo that you need
| more than any boy I ever met UP with
And, despite his frantic struggles and
walls. she proceeded, with her business
| like and expert right hand working like a
| fall. to teach that too-previous youngster
| Of the stage more about the need for good
manners than he'll ever know till he has
grown up-for It's about 100 to / that he'd
| never felt the heft of a punitive hand be-
| fore in all Of his mollycoddled and spoiled
young life. The other women looked on
joyously. and the men who had watched the
performance from the beginning clapped
| their hands approvingly.
knuckling his eyes, and all of the fresh
ness for the time warmed out of him when
| the sensible woman with the square jaw
turned him loose and set him on his feet
| with a jolt that must have started some Of
his milk teeth.
Ten minutes later the youngsters wild
eyed and utterly unreasonable mother came
farng and frothing down to the pavilion,
| but the square jawed woman had gone
down to the beach to join her family. and,
| of course, nobody pointed her out to the
theatrical tykes foolish maternal parent.
| / think we all had more than a bunch
| that had we done so the square-jawed
woman would not have hesitated, had 1t
come to that, to spank the mother just as
| she had spanked the young one