The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1916-06-22
AN EXPERIMENT

The commission man had remarked
that most of the evil manifested In a
mans character resulted from an i'm
/ perfect realization Of the defect on the
: part of the man himself He had a
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 l
ever tell you about Zephaniah Com.
stock?"
Yes" answered 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 ratri-
arch. "Zephaniah Comstock, as l said,
was neighbor Of ours; that Is to say,
there were only three farms between
u.s. He was one OF these men whose
| mouths seem to be drawn across their
| faces in a straight line with a fine
nibbed pen, and he had what you might
call the financial nose.
HE vas wealthy for those days and
by the col1munity's standard of wealth,
and there ' .sn't better-appointed
farm or fat er and better-caredfor
stock than his in three counties, but
he was about as stingy mean as they
yDnn fn 10 npf al II
They didn't have 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
sowing for the whole layout, including
four small kids and two hired men.
But If Mrs. Comstock wanted patent
churn, dress pattern, a bolt Of sheet
ing or anything beyond the barest ne
cessties, it was like pulling teeth to
get 'em out Of Zephaniah. Those
women just logged 1t from early till
terials but If there was any late i'm
proved farm machinery on the market
or a new food for cattle Zephanah
wasn't happy till he got 1t.
1T had gone on that way for years,
when certain Mrs. Waterman
stopped off there one morning and
stayed to dinner. She was an old
schooimate Of Mrs Comstock's and
had just moved into our section of the
country. Well, 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, frayed 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 it
on her old friends bosom when the
men had gone out to the fields again.
She said that Zephaniah wasn't stingy
at heart, but that he didn't quite real.
ize how the house looked, being as he
never visited
Mrs. Waterman went away with
the firm intention Of bringing Zepha-
niah to 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
Trc
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 It's husbands,
as little surprise party. Mrs. Com
stock turr ID pale and fell back into
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-
nah always says he doesn't believe In
tiXings 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 few dishes
and things at the same time. 1t won't
take me more than an hour
1T didn't, for the reason she had 'em
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 'em.
THAT table was a sight. 1t groaned.
The sewing sircle had been busy, and
there were seventeen different kinds
of pies, cakes and preserves; 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 were pickles and
beaten biscuit and balls of butter and
shining silver. 1t was about as gaudy
and mountaineering show as ever
happened. And just az they were sit
ting down Zephaniah came In from the
field In his shirt sleeves. IL he didn't
come to realization of his shortcom.