Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-16
At the End Of the Rainbow.
just a Few "Reminiscences.
By WALT MASON.
By WALT MASON.

Whom do you suppose ] saw down
town this afternoon Inquired Mrs. QuiS-
way.
Il don't know unless il was Capt
Loose replied Quigway. souriy. who
ever ii was. ] don't want to hear Il long
winded yarn about him. | have just set
tied down to read the evening paper and
don't want to be disturbed
That's porte way to treat the only
wife you have 1 must say. / went down
to the dry goods store to look II some
of the bargains they have been advertis-
Ing, ard as soon ats | went in l saw a
woman whose face looked familiar TO nc
but | couldn't recall her at first. You
know how eHasperatinS it is to be in such
Il position | couldn't take my eyes off
the wonan's face. ana I kept saying to
myself: Surely | know that long red
nose and that carroty hair and that
crooked chin
Il thin!, | must have inherited my
weakness for forgetting the identity o.
people for my father was just the same
One time he went to hotel and regis
tered and then, as he turned around, he
saw a man he was sure he knew. He
stood there staring at MN. Wonderln.
his name could be- and presently the man
left his seat and came walking toward
father, who naturally supposed the
stranger must have recognized him anG
was coming to shake hands. But when
the man came up he hit father on the
nose. knocking him half way across the
hotel lobby. saying that he didn't allow
any squarehead To stare at him by the
hour. / can remember how shocked we
all We're when poor father came home
;-1 in, audi 1inf
which had been soaked in arntca.
Father was always in trouble of some
kind because of his forgetfulness We
lived i'm the country when l was little,
and one day father rode our old horse to
town to get the mail. He Went into the
post office and got several letters and
read them, and his mind was SO occu-
pied with them when he came out that
he mounted the first horse be came to
without looking 10 see If 1t was his own.
and the. horse he mounted happened to
have swallowed an earthquake that
morning, and it Went leaping and buck
ing lip the main street as though ii hadn I
a lick of sense.
Father hung on 10 the saddle and
yelled. Then the owner of the horse
came along, and he thought father was
trying to steal his pony. He was a
coarse. rude cowboy, without the first
instincts of gentleman. He got on
another crazy horse that was standing
near and went after father and lassoed
him. jerking him off his runaway steed
and dragging him half way across town.
l wish you could have seen father when
he came home that evening. He looked
as though a road scraper had run over
him. and his language made the mercury
in the thermometer run up twenty -four
degrees
"Father was SO absent minded that il
wasn't safe to let him be alone. He bought
a recipe book once. and among other
things it told how 10 make guupowder at
about one-quarter the cost of the kind
you buy at the store. There was u quarry
on the farm, and lie. wanted to blast out
a lot of rock so he said he would save
money by making his own powder.
Mother had forebOdings that his expert
ments would end in disaster, Tor they al