Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-16
At the End Of the Rainbow.
THE GOOD COOK.
BY Whit Mason.
THE GOOD COOK.
BY Whit Mason.

II.
Highway" announced the landlady. and
can't say much for his taste. really
believe she's the homeliest girl in the
neighborhood. She has muddy COM
plexion and crooked nose and her hair
looks like ju.e.
Yet / have no doubt, my dear Mrs.
, Jiggers,' said the star boarder. that in
the eyes of Lorenzo Spiffington she is
gem of the purest ray serene After all.
beauty is perishable freight and has little
value. man marries a beautiful wom-
an merely because she is beautiful and
the first thing he knows her complexion
turns yellow and her nose red, and then
he is so Disguised that he begs her to go
home to her parents and give him
chance to forget the melancholy past.
There is no greater tragedy than this.
and it is a tragedy that is being enacted
in countless homes even as we go to
press.
'.Mr. Spiffington's bride has the advan-
tage of knowing that she can't look any
worse than she does now. and the
chances are that she will improve in APP
pearance Homely women always have
that advantage over beautiful ones. LII
cretia is an eminently sensible girl. L
have known her ever since she was knee
high Early in life she realized that her
She knew that her sunny smiles and WIN
ming ways never would capture a BRIDE
groom, so she sat down in her boudolr
and figured on the best plan to make
herself attractive and fascinating She
concluded, after consulting her parents
and a few select friends, including my
self, that if she made herself a first-class
cook she would be irresistible, and her
rea soning was sound.
She took up cookery as other girls
take up water color painting or music.
and studied it diligently. She bought
cook books instead of the novels of Ber-
tina NJ Clay. She passed her spare hours
! in the family kitchen instead of swinging
on the front gate waiting for some hand
some young man to come along As she
grew up her fame began to spread. Peo-
pie who were invited to meals at the
Highway home devoted most of their
time thereafter to scheming for further
invitations
4 have eaten there several times my
self, and when L tasted Lucretia's dough-
nuts Mrs. Jiggers, L burst into tears
The idea of going back TO a boarding
house and consuming doughnuts which
tasted like handouts unnamed me for
the time being Only few women in
this country know how to make dough-
nuts as they should be made, and Luz
cretias name leads all the rest. The
doughnut, when properly compounded
and cooked. is the noblest work of wom-
an; when ii is fashioned after the board
ing house blue prints it is a crime against
society When / think of the doughnuts
Spiffington will be privileged to eat |
feel that he is the most fortunate OF
men.
'sLucretia excels in every branch of
cookery as she does in doughnuts. Her
pies are poems. Mrs. Jiggers. Every
thing she dishes up is calculated TO
make a man forget his troubles and sing
a roundelay. Yet you speak sympa-
theticaily OF her husband because her
complexion isn't the admiration of all be-
holders. In the short-sighted manner
of your sex you speak of her crooked
nose, forgetting the pancakes she knows
how to prepare. You point the finger or
scorn at her hair, overlooking the TACT
that she knows how to compound the
old-fashioned beefsteak pie, such as our
sainted mothers used 10 dish up In their
inspired moments.
You speak of her marriage as though
she We're fortunate in securing nus
band evidently unaware of the fact that
most of the unmarried men ana widow-
ers in this ward have proposed 10 ner at
one time or another. | was disappointed
in love in my youth ana vowed thdt
should never marry hut after eating
some of Iucretias pancakes / forgot my
VOW and proposed TO her. j proposed TO
her three times and was turned DOWN
with the regularity of clockWork. When
\ woman will reject such sutton as my
self II follows that she places a proper
valuation upon herself. The grocer on
the corner, after eating supper at High
WAYS house told Lucretia that he be
glad to get a divorce from ms VIE II
She'd marry him. Three prominent citi-
zens attempted to abduct her and We're
foiled. go
woman was far in excess of the supply.
vel Won speak as though she played in
oreat luck getting a husband. / gave
So,l credit for more intelligence, Mrs.
JiggerS.