The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-04-20
AN EXPERIMENT

ne commission man nad remarked
that most of the evil manifested in
mans character resulted from an i'm
perfect realization of the defect on the
part of the man himself He had
habit of throwing off little gems of
thought like that.
You mean that conviction of sin
must come before repentance" said
the patriarch, whose weakness was
telling people what they meant THAT
reminds me of an old neighbor Of mine
back in Iowa." he continued. Did
ever tell you about Zephaniah Com.
stock?"
Yes" answered a chorus Of listen
ers. The commission man added
Very often"
Then I'll tell it to you again for
fear you might forget" said the patri-
arch. "Zephaniah Comstock. as said,
was neighbor of ours; that is to say.
there were only three farms between
| us. He was one of these men whose
| mouths seem to be drawn across their
faces in straight line with fine
nibbed pen, and he had what you might
| call the financial nose
He was wealthy for those days and
by the community's standard of wealth.
and there wasn't better-appointed
farm or fatter and better-cared-fo
stock than his in three counties. but
he was about as stingy mean as they
| ever make 'em to his womenfolk
They didn't have q decent dud to their
| names hardly, let alone any sort of
convenience for making the Homework
easy or anything to make the house at
tractive. There were just the two OF
'em-Mrs. Comstock and her daughter
Sarah-and they did the cooking,
,, churning. ironing, washing baking and
| sewing for the whole layout. including
four small kids and two hired men
! But if Mrs. Comstock wanted a patent
churn. dress pattern. a bolt of sheet
Ing or anything beyond the barest ne.
cessities, it was like pulling teeth to
get EN- out OF Zephaniah. Those
women just logged it from early till
late with makeshifts and WORKOUT ma
terials. but if there was any late i'm
proved farm machinery on the market
or new food for cattle Zephaniah
wasn't happy till he got 1t.
| 1T had gone on that way for years.
when a certain Mrs. Waterman
stopped off there one morning and
| stayed to dinner She was an old
schoolhlate OF Mrs Comstock's and
had just moved into our section of the
country. VOL, she naturally expected
that there would be what they call a
| company dinner. but there wasn't.
There was fat fried pork and potatoes
and boiled greens and all the dessert
was squash pie. This was set out on
an old, fraycd red-and-white checkered
tableclOth, and there wasn't piece of
plated ware on the table. 1t seems to
me that Mrs. COmstock wept about 1t
on her old friends bosom when the
men had gone out to the fields again.
She said that Zephaniah wasn't stlngy
at heart, but that he didn't quite real.
lie how the house looked, being as he
never visited
Mrs. Waterman went away with
the firm intention of bringing Zepha.
niah to a realization of his cussedness.
She brought the matter up under the
head of general business at the sewing
circle the next week. They had quite
a discussion over 1t and the result of
1t was that Mrs. Waterman made
second visit to Mrs. Comstock
She got there about two O'Clock
and found Mrs. Comstock over her
tubs AS soon as she had got her
breath she impaired the cheering in
formation that the whole blessed sew
! ing circle was going to break in on her
about supper time with its husbands,
as little surprise party. Mrs. Com
stock turned pale and fell back into
a rocking chair-a thing she didn't
often do
my dear. there isn't thing to eat
in the house except just what we al
ways have she said. Not so much
as a glass OF jell or anything Not
| decent white tablecloth, even. Zepha-
niah always says he doesn't believe in
fixings and foolishness and
| Cheer up, says Mrs. Waterman, I
know just what to do ! was all fixed
for some company that didn't come
today and I'll just drive back and bring
over what I've got and a few dishes
and things at the same time. IL won't
take me more than an hour
| 1T didn't, for the reason she had en-
all packed and ready AS soon as she
got back she turned up her dress skirt
and rolled up her sleeves and pitched
in. and by the time the surprise party
! arrived supper was ready for EN-
| THAT table was a sight. II groaned.
| Tho sewing sircle had been busy, and
there were seventeen different kinds
! OF pies. cakes and preseryes all in
the gayest and most glittering china
and glass dishes. There were two of
the fanciest lamps blazing their light
over cold sliced ham, beef. chicken and
heaven knows what; there were dec
GRATED plates. snowy damask napkins
and tablecloth; there we're pickles and
beaten biscuit and balls OF butter and
! shining silver. II was about as gaudy
and mountaineering a show as ever
happened And just as they we're sit
ting down Zephaniah came in from the
field In his shirt sleeves. II he didn't
come TO a realization OF his shortcom-
ings them"
Reformed. did he?" said the COM
mission man.
Reformed nothing!" said the patri.
arch. lie Just sat down and ate like
hog