The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-12

CWalt Mason in the Chicago News.)
 E'I have been sewing all day. said Mrs. Janaesworthy, tand I must say that it would be true economy to buy a new sewing machine. The old one is simply worn out. have had it ever since we were married, and l think it should be on the retired list MT. -Crickety, the sewing machine man, says hell allow me $2.75 on it if I buy a new One.
 Yes, and then Crickety would put 8 coat of varnish on it and sell it for $47,'' commented JamesWorthy- There isn't a thing the matter with your sewing machine except it's age, and that doesn't hurt it any. Sewing machines are like wine; they improve with age And, anyhow. you should have some respect for gray hairs. If we are going to send things to the junk heap because the paint on them is a little worn, there will be no es- cape from the penthouse for your un- fortunate husband.
 See this old sheet iron watch of mine, Mrs. Jamesworthy I have been carrying it ever since grew up. Do you suppose I like to carry such a graven image and consult it in the changing mart, where all the mer- chant princes can see it? I'm bitter ly ashamed of it, and for twenty years
 
 those filled case watches which are mistaken for gold ones by the unso- phisticated, but I never felt able to spare the money. Whenever I had a plaster I put it in the building and loan, only to draw it out next day to buy something you happened to be suffering for.
 "If you will drop into my office some day when you're downtown and look at my typewrfting machine per haps the sight will melt your hard and stony heart. It is the first type though Noah might have written hts weather reports on it. It is all tied together with string and wire and it works like a corn sheller, but strug- gle along with it, year after year, be- cause I want to save $540 if possible to sustain me in my old age. And after making such sacrifices, come home to hear you grumbling over a perfectly good sewing machine, a ma chine fit for the crowned heads of Europe
 ''I should think, Mrs Jamesworthy, that experience would teach you a few things. You should know by this time that you are not always improv- ing conditions by getting rid of old and tried things in order to get new ones. When we were married I gave you the best kitchen stove that money
 
 ing stove. It wasn't all swelled up with false pride. It wasn't covered with dofunnies and modern improve ments- But you know full we'll that a more satisfactory stove never came down the boulevard.
 For many years you presided over it, and your cooking was a delight to one and all, both great and small You were wise to all it's little eccentrici- ties, and could make it lie down and roll over at the word of command "But one day you found that I had a few pieces of eight in the strong box and you insisted upon having a modern range. It was a shame, you said, to expect wife and mother to wear out her live over such a relic o1 the Dark Ages as that old stove. ] | remember as though it was vest how I argued and pleaded with you I put on the mantle of prophecy and predicted that you would be sorry ii you got rid of that venerable stove But logic made no impression upon you and so went and bought a range as big as a piano.
 Tt was all covered with ginger bread work. It had a thermometer or the oven door and ffty-seven kinds o1 Hampers and back spacing devices and all sorts of safety appliances And you ruined everything you cooked or 1 that range, Mrs. Jamesworthy You never did get next to its curves We traded stoves four times, giving boot every trip. before you got one that you could handle successfully and yet you learn nothing from such an experience. And then you remember ''I remember that my grandmother l used to sew with a needle and thread same" sighed Mrs. Jamesworthy I