The Huttig news., 1908-05-02


flock to our house-it was entirely un-
explainable
i Essemere is such a frightfully ex
elusive suburb that each new arrival
runs regular red Indian gantlet be-
fore he is either admitted as real
belonger" or dropped.
The first evening | met DR.. Bill
conner | was impressed with his broad
"a's"-one simply can't fail to be a
bit respectful when a new man says
''cahnt" instead of cant" and does
1t as if he was in the habit of saying
it always before breakfast instead of
just saying it for evening-and it did.
not take more than ten minutes before
he had very skillfully dragged in the
fact that he was born and bred in
| Worcester, Mass, and that to him all
the rest of the earth was composed of
waste places.
Just as if | were hypnotized found
myself murmuring that l could quite
understand his feelings because my
mother came from Boston, | stopped
before | added that she was three
years old when she left that sublimat
ed city.
OF course that remark led on to the
subject of families. 1t seemed that
he had a relative who was in the ia
nous tea party. responded promptly
with the story of my ancestor who
killed a hundred men, more or less,
with one glance of his eye in the revo
luton. | couldn't recall that | had
dragged out that great-grandparen
before in years, but | did it breath
lessly for DIR. Billeomers benefit. 1t
was awful.
The evening that | managed to
mention the chancellor and then at his
murmur to stop with little lift OF
| my eyebrows to say that of course he
wouldn't know-it was stupid of me
but that my fathers uncle had been
! the lord high chancellor of that coun-
try at the time of which we were
speaking, / felt more set up than the
time | won the cup at golf.
Afterward sputtered to Griffith, my
older brother, because | had to get rid
of my mental tumult somehow.
Or. Billcomer would be all right"
told Griff, IF he wasn't such fright
full snob. What is. worse, he makes
me be snob, too, With other men
| can carry on sustained converse
ton on intelligent topics, but when he
and l talk all we do is try to cap each
others boasting!
&Laf ho f11t ha
same way and, what was more, all
the other fellows did, too. In the pres.
ence of DIR. Billcomer they lost their
heads and tried to live up to him.
Then behind his back they muttered
defantly that he was a lobster and
privately suffered under the conviction
that they themselves were becoming
Holsters also.
There was, | discovered at last,
perfect epidemic of boasting in Esse-
mere We all grew more languid in
our speech and resurrected all our good
points in pedigree and accomplish
ments Above the tumult DR.. Bill
comers little song still rose tri-
umphant, calling us on to still greater
heights of snobbery, and we followed.
Each time was in his society hated
myself worse-and otherwise he would
have been so nice!
Some weeks after DIR. Billcomer be-
gan to have this dreadful effect on
Essemere Griff came to me one day
with the light of a great discovery in
his eyes He looked happy.
What do you Think he said.
"Bilcomer is all right. What we've
suffered is nothing to him. We've
got rather chummy lately and he
confided tonight that never in his
life had he struck such a snobbish
place as Essemere. Fight against it
as he would he said, he had to go
the pace himself to keep his head
above water. He said he had worn
himself out with boasting in order to
grove that he was on par with the
supercilious residents-and he was
dead tired of it and sick and ashamed
of himself,
held my head down weakly while
the light broke over me also. Then
he hadn't meant in the least to have
that effect on me--or any one else,
He wasn't that way really at all.
was in such hurry to start in all
over again and get acquainted with
Dr. Billcomer normally that when
Griff added that he'd asked the doctor
up to dinner realized afresh how use
full really intelligent brother can be
;p the ccheme of things
But the worst of it is that there
must be one great and original snob
in Essemere to create such a situa.
ton and it is interesting to speculate
on who It is. Anyhow, I'm glad it isn't
Dr. Billcomer!-Chicago Daily News.