Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-05-20

sizes of their husbands. l heard caller in
conversation with my wife the other day
and learned much to my surprise, that her
husband and | had much in common
As he Is a rich man, a rank Tory. stand
patter. and | never could keep a cent, am
A red radical and hate everything old eN
cept shoes. hats friends, pipes and steel
engravings, l priCked up my ears to hear
the reason for this alleged similarity.
TT SEEMED we both hate to have our
1 desks touched or our studies cleaned!
T SANK back with sigh Of relief. After
i all. that's like saying we have great
deaf in common because we both wear
pants drink coffee for breakfast. or it
is like . certain famous American actresses
remark 10 an enthusiastic and infatuated
Harvard senior who met her at recep-
ton and q. once declared they had much
in Commur. Yes" said she. looking him
over, we both have red hair, haven't we?'
DREATHES there the man with soul. so
ID dead who never to his wife hath said
This is my own. my native lair, and
fought with every weapon at his command
to repel the attacks of dustCloth and
broom? The woman can never understand
the reason, attributng it to a natural mas
| culine liking for dirt; one of those vulgari-
| ties of the sex which have to he borne with
| what patience is possible. Yet such, of
| course is not the case. The Cleanest and
| most immaculate of males may have desk
| that resembles ras-pCker's shop wrecked
| by a cyclone. The real reason is that no
mere man can ever tell where an orderly
woman will put things.
This wouldn't be so bad if the woman
| could. But she can't either. Once let
real housewife get into a Uttered study
| and much will be lost forever.
| Of COURSE, there may be business men
| ~ and the like who boast Of cleaning their
desks of work every day. (Ther Office
| desks, be it noted) When they 80 home at
night they leave a piece of plate glass on
| top Of the mahogany, an inkwell, an
empty wire basket and a tired stenogra.
pher. But if they have clean desks at
| home, in that room sacred to a mans
pipes. fishing tackle and midnight rehec-
tons when the rest of the family has re-
| tired, then they are creatures singularly
devoid of the qualities which give a man
! charm and interest.
TIOW many things there are to litter
L the desk; things which you want near
your hand, things you are using or read
! ing things you could never find again if
you put away, things you don't, perhaps,
want to put away, yet cannot make up
your mind to discard. There are two or
three books you are browsing in; there are
seed catalogues and sporting goods cata-
| logues, to be picked up and glanced
| through: there are letters waiting TO be
| answered; there is the tobacco jar and the
match box handy; there is box of rubber
| hands, pair of shears, a pile of clippings
some magazines not yet read, but to be
read on that magic some day; there are
| goodness knows what, according to your
tastes and interests--dusty, yes; powdered
| with pipe ashes, perhaps but all gathered
handily and intimately around you when
| you sit down. A man has sort Of sixth
sense which tells bim exactly where to
| look in the. litter for some desired clipping
| but no sense al all where to look for II II
Il Is filed away. Besides, who wants to