Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-02
TWO GUESSES ON MARTHA

tin there In the front Office of thu
physical culture studio. holdin' a cigar.
cite at arms length between his
thumb and forefinger, and starin' at II
like 1t was one of these crystal gain
balls.
Also he's chuclSled twice, and Pinck-
ney only chuckles out loud when things
are goin' wrong. When he's really
pleased or amused he takes It out in
twistin' his mouth around and hunchin'
his eyebrows; but when something cert.
GUS is happenin' to him. such as dis
coverin' that his man has put pearl cuff
links In his afternoon shirt or that the
l,utler has used the wrong kind of vine.
gar in the salad dressin'. then he dis
guises his real feelin's by maxim this
queer noise in his throat. At the second
chuckle ! turns my head around to get
a better look.
"Ah come" says l. "Spill 1t"
"Eh? IL beg pardon?" says he.
coming out of the spell gradual "Oh,
yes! must have been thinking, Shorty"
'Painful process. amt it?" says I.
ESPECIALLY when you amt used to It,"
He waves that aside easy, lights q
fresh dope stick. and squints at me
through a smoke ring. shorty" says
he, "were you ever troubled by an
elderly female relative who had devel-
oped social complex" r..
II amt sure" says I. II remember
an aunt who was a snuff dipper.''
mo-" says he. II fear you do not
quite grasp the meaning of social COM
pick. It's Freudian term, and is used
to indicate a person who But per-
haps it would be simpler to tell you d.
rectly about Cousin Maj tina"
"What!" says l. 1.-THE nice lookin'
little old girl with the silver hair and
the live-wire eyes? You don't mean
to tell me her gears are out Of mesh?"
"Only in the Freudian sense. If at
ALL" says Pinckney. ANY complex is
difficult to determine, you know. And
hers takes a peculiar turn. She insists
that New York is not fit place in
which to live"
TITS lucky they can't put you in the
nut works for that" says l. IF they
could there wouldn't be enough barred
windows to 60 around"
Pinckney shrugs his shoulders. "Oh.
I understand" says he. with young
children growing up it's different, But
Cousin Martha has no such excuse"
He's perfectfuly serious about this.
Anybody who can live in New York
and don't Well. there must be
something the matter with 'em. Course.
it's all right enough to be away two
or three months in the summer or to
have country place like his Hickory
Top Joint up in Connecticut, where you
can run out for the week end, but not
to be within walkin' distance OF 9th
avenue most of the year, not to have
one or two clubs. where you call the
doorman by his first name-that's his
idea of dull gray existence. You
might as we'll be a potato sproutin' In
some cellar.
I happened to be in on the little
debate he had with this Cousin Martha
when she first showed up. a month or
80 back. She's cousin of his mothers.
as matter Of fact, a widow. Her
hubby had been banker in some one
horse burg up state-some place like
Cohoes. or Skeneatales. or Malone
and when he'd checked out. ten years
or so ago. Martha had begun this globe
trottin' act of hers.
First off she's only been rung in on
one Of these sixty-day steamer trips:
where they hustle you through the
orient and back. allowin' you time to
buy picture postcards In Cairo, Con-
stantinople and Bombay. She'd gone
with an old friends who was principal
of a girls boarding school. She'd had
to be urged good deal, at that But
once she found how easy 1t was to
pack steamer trunk and fit on to
foreign parts she seemed to get the
habit The next season she spent dom
the Riviera and she came back to the
one-horse burg for only long enough to
sell out the old double-breasted man
sion. with the jig-saw decorations. and
scandalize the members of the sewing
circle by putting at cork-tipped cigar
cite when tea was served. That winter
she had villa at Biarritz. wherever
that Is. And so 1t had gone on since.
III you please. Cousin Martha" de-
mands Pinckney. why do you do it?"
She cocks her head on one side. perky
and favors him with one of her quizzin'
smiles. 'Why my dear Pickney,"
says she. II am enjoying the freedom
Of the late fifties. You see, while Abb
ner was alive we led a most proper