The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-09-12

- IVA A1a0J
I'm dead sorry, on the square, l
am"
Ten minutes late,' interrupted EN-
ma McChesney. I'm dishing up a SER
mon, hot, for one, and you've got to
choke it down. Whenever | hear a
travelling man bowling about his lone
some evenings, and what a dogs life
it is, and 40 way for a man to live, l
always wonder what kind Of a sum-
mer picnic he thinks 1t is for his wife.
She's really a widow seven months in
the year, without any of a widows
privileges. Did you ever stop to think
what she's doing evenings7 No, you
didn't. Well, I'll tell you. She's sit
ting home, night after night, probably
embroidering monograms on your
shirt sleeves by way of diversion. And
on Saturday night, which is the night
when every married woman has the in
alienable right to be taken out by her
husband, she can listen to the woman
in the fat upstairs getting ready to go
to the theater. The fact that there's
a ceiling between EN- doesn't prevent
her from knowing just where they're
going, and why he has worked himself
into a rage over his white lawn tie,
and whether they're taking a taxi or
the car and who they're going to meet
afterward at supper. Just by listening
to them coming downstairs she can
tell how much Mrs. Third Flats silk
stockings cost, and If she's wearing
her new lavalliere or not. Or maybe
you don't. There's SO much you've
missed"
Say, look here" broke from the
man beside her. But Emma McChes-
ney laid her cool fingers on his lips.
Nothing from the side-lines, please"
she said. After they've gone she can
go to bed, or she a sit up, pretend
ing to read, but really wondering if
that squeaky sound coming from the
direction of the kitchen is a loose
screw in the storm door, or If it's some
one trying to break into the fiat. And
she'd rather sit there, scared green,
than go back through that long hall to
find out. And when Tillie comes home
with her young man at eleven o'clock,
though she promised not to stay out
later than ten, she rushes back to the
kitchen and falls on her neck, she's so
happy to see her. oh, it's a gay life.
You talk about the heroism of the
early Pilgrim mothers! I'd like to
know what they had on the average
travelling mans wife"
NDa1. 1900 81 Al. -z.Asz GO
urday," he began, in feeble defense.
Matinee" scoffed Emma McChes-
ney. DO you think any woman goes
to matinee by preference? Nobody
goes but girls Of sixteen, and con-
firmed old maids without brothers, and
travelling mems wives. Matinee! Say,
would you eve hesitate to choose be-
tween an all-day train and a sleeper?
It's the same idea. What a woman
calls going to the theater is something
very different. 1t means taking a nap
in the afternoon, SO her eyes will be
bright at night, and then starting at
about five o'clock to dress, and lay
her husbands clean things out on the
bed. She loves it. She even enjoys
getting his bath towels ready, and put
ting his shaving things where he can
lay his hands on 'em, and telling the
girl to have dinner ready promptly at
six-thirty. 1t leans getting out her
good dress that hangs in the closet
with a cretonne bag covering it, and
her black satin coat, and her hat with
the paradise aigrettes that she bought
with what she saved out of the house
keeping money. 1t means her best silk
stockings, and her diamond sunburst
that he's going to have made over into
a lavalliere just as soon as business
is better. She loves 1t all, and her
cheeks get pinker and pinker, so that
she really doesn't need the little dash
of rouge that she puts on because
everybody does it, don't you know
She gets ready, all but her dress, and
then she puts on a kimono and slips
out to the kitchen to make the gravy
for the chicken because the girl never
can get 1t as smooth as he likes it.
That's part Of what she calls going to
the theater, and having a husband.
And If there r children"
There came a little, inarticulate
sound from the boy. But Emma's quick
ear caught it.
No? Well, then, we'll call that one
black mark less for you. But If there
are childrep-and for her sake l hope
there will be-she's father and mother
to them. She brings them up, single
handed, while he's on the road. And
the worst she can do is to say to them,
Just wait until your father gets home.
He'll hear of this But shucks! When
he comes home he can't whip the kids
for what they did seven weeks before,
and that they've forgotten all about,
and for what he never saw and can't
imagine. Besides, he wants his COM
fort when he gets home. He says he
wants a little rest and peace, and he's
darned If he's going to run around eve
nings. Not much, he isn't! But he
doesn't object to her making a special
effort to cook all those little things
that he's been longing for on the road.
oh, therell be a seat in heaven for
every travelling mans wife-though at
that, I'll bet most of EN- will find
themselves stuck behind a post"
You're all right" exclaimed Emma
McChesney's listener, suddenly. How
a omar like you can waste her time
OIL the road is more than l can see.
AndI want to thank you. I'm not
such a fool"
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