The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1908-03-24

flock to our house-it was entirely und
explainable,
Essemere is such frightfully ex4
elusive suburb that each new arrival
runs regular red Indian gantlet BEL
fore he is either admitted az reaA
"belonger" or dropped
The first evening met DR.. Billt
conner was impressed with his broad
"as'-one simply can't fail to be a
bit respectful when new man says
"oahnt" instead Of cant" and doea
it as If he was in the habit Of saying
it always before breakfast instead Of
just saying 1t for evening land 1t did
not take more than ten minutes before
he had very skillfully dragged in tha
fact that he was born and bred I'M
Worcester, Mass, and that to him all
the rest Of the earth was composed Of
waste places.
Just as if we're hypnotized, found
myself murmuring that could quite
understand his feelings because my
mother came from Boston stopped
before / added that she was three
years old when she left that sublimatl
ed city.
OF course that remark led on to the
subject of families. It seemed that
he had a relative who was in the fax
nous tea party. / responded promptly
with the story of my ancestor who
killed hundred men, more or lessi
with one glance of his eye In the revo1
luton | couldn't recall that ] had
dragged out that greatgrandparent
before in years, but / did it breatht
lessly for Dr. Billcomer's benefit. IL
was awful.
The evening that ! managed to
mention the chancellor and then at his
murmur to stop with a little lift of
my eyebrows to say that of course hd
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 l won the cup at golf.
Afterward / sputtered to Grifith, my
older brother, because had to get rid
Of my mental tumult somehow.
"Dr. Billcomer would be all right" 1
told Grin, If he wasn't such a fright
full snobl What is worse, he makes
me be snob, tooi With other men
can carry on a sustained conversa{
ton on intelligent topics, but when he
and talk all we do is try to cap each
others boastingl
Griff confessed that he felt the
same way and, what was more, alA
the other fellows did, too In the pres
ence of DR.. Billcomer they lost theiE
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, a
perfect epidemic Of boasting in Essei
mere. We all grew more languid In
our speech and resurrected all our good
points in pedigree and acccmplishf
ments. Above the tumult DR.. Bills
comer's little song still rose trit
umphant, calling US on to still greateH
heights Of snobbery, and we followed
Each time was in his society I hated
myself worse-and otherwise he would
have been so NICE
Some weeks after DR.. BiIIeomer bA
gan to have this dreadful effect on
Essemere Griff came to me one day
with the light of a great discovery i1
his eyes. He looked happy.
what do you think?1 he said
"Billcomer is all right What we've
suffered is nothing to him. We've
got rather chummy lately and ha
confded tonight that never in his
life had he struck such snobbish
place ais Essemere. Fight against ID
as he would, he said, he had to Cd
the pace himself to keep his head
above water. He said he had worn
himself out with boasting in order tc
prove that he was on par with the
i 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 elsel
He wasn't that way really at all
was in such a 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 Irealized afresh how use
ful really intelligent brother can be
in the scheme 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 Il Is. Anyhow, I'm glad it isn't
Dr. Chicago pailv Nawa