The weekly soliphone., 1916-12-01
"(,hT.fEAR'' vIcTIM
HERE IS INDIVIDUAL WITH REAL
 TALE OF WOE.
Many Who Have Suffered Under Like Circumstances Will Extend Sym
 pathy, Since "Honey Boys" 1Ga. Are Quite Numerous.

Can anyone tell me at what age one is likely to become subject to cat fear? 1 wasn't born with it, for l have vivid recollections of being fool lshly fond of d homely, spotted old cat, bearing the musical name of Molly Cottontail, asserts a writer ill the Indianapolis News. Maybe cat fear, like honors, comes to the indi- vidual in various ways. If this should prove to be true, then I'm under the impression that it was thrust on me. Strange to say, all cats do not affect me unfavorably. 1 can even see a scrawny black cat shoot across my path without feeling qualm, and I've been known to warm saucer of milk to cheer some stray cat on it's back alley pilgrimage. If there's any hard CT lot than that of stray cats l don't want to hear about 1t, and I'm glad I've helped some of them a bit.
 It's the fine, family pet that brings on my attacks. Two people in the upper flat have an Angora, an im- mense black and clay-colOred chumD that gets on my nerves. It seems that this upper fiat was rented primarily for Honey Boy. The two people oc- cupY any chair, couch or bed that his majesty is not using. If he kept strictly to his own rented apartment 1t wouldn't be so hard, but he takes privileges with the whole building and surrounding grounds. He is partial to the downstairs front porch, and sprawling his long-haired self out on one of the posts at the side of the front steps, he waits, fondlY expecting every passer-by to eXclaim over his catship. And q lot of them do it-more's the pity! He also has his fayorite lounging places in the downstairs li- brary, one of them being the top of the book shelves, near a much-plized vase. but he has his uneasy moments when I fix my eye on him and mutter through clenched teeth: "You old lowbrow!N He knows 1t has a diff ferent ring compared with the pet names he gets upstairs. The two peo- pie up there call him Honey Boy, and BOO'ful Sing, and Child!
 He presumes that the back yard be- longs exclusively to the upper fiat, so he takes his morning airings down there and one wakens to musical sounds like this: "HOney Boy Honey Boy! Oh, 'oo bOo'ful sing! Is you wollin' in de gwass2 Des a wollin' In de gwass, des wollin' in de gwassw Wouldn't that be enough to counteract the effect of even good nights rest?
 At noon a gentle voice calls down the back stairway: "Honey Boy, come tight upstairs and det some ice cold milk for 'oO lunch" He seems to have hankering after iced drinks, for once when I had placed a pitcher of ice water on the table for my own especial enjoyment during the after noon, Honey Boy sprang up lightly and lapped his fill out Of it. The members of my family told me after ward that they feared I was going to have apopleXy or hydrophObia, but it was really an attack of my cat-feGr. Sometimes the gentle voice calls per- suasivply: "Come upstairs this miny nte, Honey Boy to 'oo mother" Ceel before d call myself mother to a dis reputable bunch like that I'd make the rounds of all the orphan asylums in the city.
 But going back to my cat-fear-it's different from any I've ever heard of. I'm trying hard to keep it well under control, but every day the fear grows stronger that some time I'll mistake Boo'ful Sing for the splotchy mop he resembles, and with tense nerves and set teeth either mop up the front porch or the back yard with him. That would hurt his pampered feelin's and worse still, it would hurt the feelin's of tds mistress-and there'd be strained relations, between the upper and low er ,hatters, No, I'm not afraid of the upper tlatters reading this outbrrst of suppressed cat-fear. They don't find. any time to read-theyre too busy caring for Honey Boy.