The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-05-16
faction for tale OF joy.

faction for tale OF joy.
Old Tom knows every Elk in the
| state of Kansas that has been in To-
peka and he knows about a thousand
outside of Kansas. Men go away on
| trips and they may forget to write to
home or Office. but they always send
card to Old Tom. He has a collec-
ton that would stock a postcard shop.
He Is hurt when man leaves town
and fails to send him a card.
Men come to the club and meet
. friends and talk of many things. Old
Tom hears enough gossip of business,
pleasure, home, trips, successes. re-
verses and anticipations to fill the
seven volumes of the history of Rome.
But the grave is a babbler about
! these things compared to- Old Tom.
As a listener he is unrivaled and
| alone. AS a talker he is a craven
image with jaws set as stone.
The telephone goes ting-a-ling-g!
Old Tom shuffies over and takes down
the receiver.
This is the Elks' club" he says. in
| soft, polite drawl.
| Us Mr.. So and So there?" inquiries
| female voice with an insistent and
suspicious accent.
III see, man," replies Tom in
voice that would placate tiger.
| Mr.. So and So is not there, and
Tom goes back to the phone, after a
patient search upstairs and down. and
| tells the lady at the other end of the
| wire that her husband Is absent and
| not voting.
Then some high pitched feminine
conversation passes over the little cop
per wire. Old Tom listens patiently.
and when lull comes in the CONVEX
sation he opens his box of balm and
salve and talks over that phone like oil
| being poured out of a dfpper. The
| wrath that Tom has turned away with
| Coft
dashed the ocean from shore to shore
like q tempest.
| It is Tom this. and Tom that, and
Tommy, you galOot! but it's please.
sir. Mister Fortune, when the guns
begin to shoot.
| from the phone, calls for cigars, calls
for billiard chalk, calls to tell Bill
this and tell Jim that. Calls for a
husband, calls for q friend. Tom an
swers them ALL He carries truck
load of data to repeat to many men.
and some he forsets and some he
gets mixed up, but he tries to unload
it all. and he is forgiven because he
tries. and because no Elk could get
mad at Old Tom if he tried.
| Man. in his time. plays many parts;
Old Tom plays but one. and that is
would rather be a doorkeeper there
than to dwell In the tents of the
wicked. He is q fixture. They CHS
I eled 'B. p. o. E." on the corner
stone Of the building and they placed
Old Tom at the door. and they fig-
ured that one would last AZ long as
the other. and that ono was az neces-
sary as the other.
/ If an Elk II going to be married
he tells Old Tom about it first; il an
Elk is going to die Old Tom looks
sorrowful and feels worse than he
| looks. If an Elk is happy he pounds
| Old Tom on the back: II an Elk IL In
| sackcloth and ashes he pours his
! griefs out on Toms devoted head. II
an Elk il sore he says hard things to
Tom to relieve the strain. And the
smile on Toms face never fades, his
! drawl Is never broken, his legs are
never weary while he answers the
! summons of the phone and the door.
And his middle name? The news
paper man has not told that yet 1t
Il the best middle name in the world
{. Eaithfulne0. G.