Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-03-10
. A Bachelor S Diarv
By MAX

II EB. 19-Diary, permit me to IN
II trodune to your blank page of a
mind Miss Sarah Rae Hartman.
Her hair is carroty red, her eyes gray,
sharp and shrewd. her face is specked
with freckles, and she is as thin as
buggy whip that has been on a months
diet. Indeed, if Miss Sarah Rae Hart
man were to go walking without pro-
lection and a hungry dog came along,
he would mistake her leg for a soup
bone and carry it off.
Let me hastily add, Diary, that Miss
Sarah Rae Hartman is eleven. Were
she five years older l would not know
she had legs even if she fell and broke
both of them. | may be a bachelor,
Diary, but I am at least a gentleman,
and would not have seen the legs of
even one of her advanced years did
she not twist them around the porch
railing in front of my chair, and risk
breaking both them and her neck in
her desire to keep espionage of me.
For wherever the widow and l put
our chairs on the sunny side of the
porch to get warm, or on the shady
side to cool off, or on the beach, there
appears Sarah Rae actuated, appar-
emily, by the same motive. l have de-
cided that she does not like the widow.
If she likes me, or not, l do not know,
but this do know: That my guardian
angel is not a heavenly vision of moon
light dreams, but a carroty- headed,
gray-eyed, freckle faced girl. with the
rest of the description withheld be-
cause Of my modesty.
Mrs. Jack Spencer.
Sarah Rae is here with her grand
mother-in-name- only. Were she real
grandmother her hair would be the col
or the Lord intends the hair of old
ladies to be-a frosted silver, as if it
were the first touches of the light fall
ing on her from above. She would
take no account Of her wrinkles, and
her form would be that of woman
who has devoted her life to others, of a
gracefulness apparent only to those
who see the grace of sacrifice.
Sarah Rae's grandmotherin name
only has bronzed hair, her face is en-
ameled and her eyes, through looking
so defiantly at Time, have become hard.
Her great ambition through life has
been to keep her figure. She reads
Robert w Chambers, and compels the
child to call her Aunt Marie" The
child's father, Aunt Marie's' son, is
hopelessly i'll in some health resort in
Germany, and the child's mother is
with him. She hasn't seen her mother
for four years, and in the meantime
her Aunt Marie" leaves her to her own
devices. which ara mot like those of
any child I ever knew.
This is a sample of what this car
roty -headed guardian angel of mine did
for me today:
The widow and I were enjoying the
afternoon shade on the porch when she
asked a question she has asked many
times before. always showing eager
interest in my hitherto non committal
replies.
"Who with SMILEY is this Mrs.
Jack Spencer you quote so much? She
must be a wonderful woman
"She is" L responded heartily Then
l launched into praises of Mrs. Spencer
and Jack, beginning with the day when
l brought Elizabeth and Manette to my
home I told what q friend she had
been before, but that / had never
guaged the depths of her friendship
till poor little Elizabeths long illness
and death.
"Since then" I added, "she practical
| ly has had charge OF my home. She
chooses my servants, and Manette
hasn't a garment that isn't of her Sc
! lection"
Then, because talk too much, any
way, I added. "She is also to have the
problem of choosing my wife"
! Every man, Diary, is in need OF q
7 Coat Tail Censor, enc who is delegated
to pull him back when he has said just
| enough Think what terrors would be
eliminated from hanquets II behind
| every speaker there sat his Coat Tail
Censor, watching the faces in the au-
| dience as closely as physician
| watches his patients temperature
When the Coat Tail Censor saw a yawn
! he would give the coat tail of the man
| he is saving from folly q gentle witch
! The second yaWn in the audience would
cause a decided pull, and the third evil
! dence of boredness would send the
speaker sprawling into his seat
How He Was Saved.
| In like manner, the Coat Tail Censor
would show a preacher his first good
| stopping place; he would accompany
! the man who isn't in position to marry.
| but who regards lOve-making as good
| sport. and In innumerabe ways he
would prove the greatest blessing the
world has known.
| l had no Coat Tail Censor sitting
behind me. No one gave my coat tail a
gentle pull when I said that Mrs. Jack
! Spencer was to have the task of also
| CO fitoer