Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-25
At the End Of the Rainbow.
CONCERNING CUTTERS.
BY Walt Mason,
BY Walt Mason.

II have great admiration for Bob
Samovar." observed the assessor. Hes
still running his meat market, although
he has had more bad luck In it than
could be printed in a book. 1 asked him
why he didn't sell out and try some
thing else. and he said that he's no quit
ter. and I guess he's right
"Samovar is a chump," said the VIII
lage patriarch. He should take his head
to tinsmith and have it repaired. He
has been fooling away time with that
meat market for two years, and If he
had any sense he'd realize by this time
that nature intended him for some other
line Of industry. He thinks he should be-
generally admired because he isn't a quit
ter, and there seems to be a general dis
position to indorse the man who doesn't
know enough to let go, but tell you, my
friends, the man who knows when to quit
and then quits is the one to tie to.
'Samovar might make a good milliner
or school teacher but he hangs to his
butcher shop when he can't distinguish
mutton from rooster, and considers him
self highly meritorious because he doesn't
quit. One of these days he'll have to quit
ly call. and then perhaps he'll sit down in
a shady place and convince himself that
he needs a guardian.
'It seems to me that people look at
everything wrong. They praise the man
who deserves denunciation and denounce
the man who deserves praise. The other
day Tom Pulsifer and Ben Cribbage got
into a row in front Of the livery barn and
presently they began smuggling each other.
Pulsifer was knocked down and Cribbage
sat on him and started pounding his head
against the pavement, and Tom an
nounced in a loud tone that he had
enough. Since then he has been ostra-
cized by the best society. People call him
coward and poltroon and other dis
agreeable names. and even the children
respect for him than / ever had before.
He showed that he is a man of sound
Judgment. Rather than permit his head
to be caved in he cast aside false pride
and candidly confessed that he didn t
want any more. He recognized the prop
er time to quit and took advantage of it.
The people of this town should cOngratu-
late him upon his sound sense instead of
making him pariah.
People getting themselves into
trouble and harvesting humiliation every
day because they don't know when to
quit. man writes a book, putting into
il everything he ever knew or ever
thought, and it makes a hit and he finds
himself the biggest thing on the land
scape. II he had sense he would quit
right there and people would admire him
as long as he lived and when he died
he'd have two or three pages in the ency-
clOpcOld. but lie Is SO Iull OF vanity tnat
he hasn't room for victuals, or, perhaps
he is anxious to increase his bank ac-
count. so he gets busy and writes an
other book Having exhausted himself in
his first one, his second is nothing but
fiapdoOdle and the critics jump on him
with spiked shoes and the plain people
say he was but false alarm after all.
and in a few years We see him selling
peanuts at the base ball games.
Il remember an actress who used to
take the part of Ophelia in Uncle Tom s
CABIN. She played in this town several
times and everybody was enthusiastic
about her. She was willowy and beauti-
full and she could sing till a man couldn t
rest. That woman made a fortune and
and her admirers would have had fond
memories of her After a while her face
became corrugated and her weight in
creased at sinful rate and her best
friends begged and implOred her to quit.
but she thought the people couldn't get
along if she retired from the stage. The
last time saw her she weighed so much
| that the stage creaked under her when
she walked. and her voice would take the
bark off an elm hitching post, and sew
| eral of her old admirers broke down and
wept like children when they saw her
So now she's joke. just because she
didn't know enough to quit.
III bet that Jim Jeffries would give all
the alfalfa he raised on his farm this
year il he had stayed quit when his mis-
guided friends urged him to save the re-
public. And about 10000 statesmen who
persisted in running for Office this year
when the signs all indicated that they
| they had quit
Believe me. my friends. the extern
poraneous gutter is a credit to his race
| and sex"