The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-06-23
FROM COMMODORE GOODWIN

Editor Star: I came to the house
this afternoon, after watching Charles
Duvan and my son Mortimer and the
two farm men snatch load of alfalfa
into the NOW with horse and hay
fork, and read in the Weekly Star
that | am again so dangerously i'll
that my life is dispaired of.
| am told that | must plead guilty
TO such a condition about one month
ago, but since then it has been case
Of convalescence with Gripping lame
ness. After six weeks at home, / am
hoping to get back to the Office next
week. What was supposed to be a
rheumatic touch in the knee turns out
to be ruptured sheath In the knee
cap tendon, and the consequent pres
sing on the nerves put me quite to
the bad whenever l bent the knee. /
have had to be helped into and out of
chair and bed for week, but 1 dis
covered, or invented, new way of
getting into and out of bed that
made me independent of help, and
today / can bend the knee so that /
can sit at my desk and at the table
without boot stool prop.
There is perhaps some foundation
for the information given you that
my life is dispaired of. The way
have assailed the food three times a
day the past two weeks seems to have
awakened some apprehension in the
mind of my family. If they have not
despaired of my life they have at least
despaired of keeping the larder re-
stocked. had attained a real sylph-
like form of which / was proud-not
quite rivaling z. G. Chambliss in
shape but approximating it; but un-
der Mrs. Goodwin's ministrations in
the kitchen Tin the absence of house
keeper and maid) my waist line is
beginning to re-assume its : all too
ample outline, while my trousers no
longer flap about my legs liks sails
about the mast in a half calm.
aS W UCAuIiiS IiiO hllSC, HSNSI was
much inclined to.
"Crook the pregnant hinges of the
knee
That thrift might follow fawning."
And as we good Congregationalists
do our praying standing up or sitting
down, my disability did not interfere
with my devotions. If I had been an
Episcopalian | certainly should have
been in deep trouble. But. did not
intend to introduce the religious is
sue. You have had altogether too
much of it in your politics recently.
And by the way, | mildly wonder how
you people, in the heated season, can
take your politics so seriously. /
presume it is the southern tempera-
ment. / am somewhat inclined to be
strenuous at times-a bad habit of
which l am struggling to break my
self, but thank Heaven my strenuos-
ity never ran in the direction of pol
itics. l am glad to read little corn
and hog mixed in the mass of political
matter in the last weekly issue of the
Star. / recommend hog and hominy
to you. 1t is lot more sustaining at
times of stress than politics. / have
thanked my lucky stars many times
that my life work has run along
bucolic lines rather than in the
grooves of politics. / would rather
help make two blades of grass grow
where one grew before, and help
make a 1400-pound prime beeve from
the cracker" COW foundation, than to
help make governor or a congress
man. But freely grant to others
the privilege of getting their fun in
life in the maelstrom of politics.
Charles Duvall is certainly getting
what he came to Oakhurst fora
thorough cooling out" after complet-
ing two years of high school work in
one. He has not yet had a chance to
wear his straw, and the sweater he
ordered sent from home came tonight
in time to catch twenty degree drop
in the temperature. We will send
him back to Florida with a pretty fair
acquaintance with farm and garden
work saying nothing about the
Naperville girls-and rebuilt con-
stitution. w. R. Goodwin.
Oakhurst, Naperville, Ill.
4