Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1922-09-28
Mrs. Maxfeld
Dispcses
By WILL r. AMES

Letitia Maxfield smiled the small
est Of amused little smiles over her
knitting as she stole covert glance
at Albert Crafts across the living
room center table The center table,
survival of period when there
must be center table quite as
necessarily as n roof, WAS exhibit
IN the evidence that Letitia Max
field was not the ruler Of thxt
household Exhibit A consisted Of
Mrs. MaXtield, who did rule it No
one, no matter how great Il stranger.
could spend an hour in the pres
ence of Letitia Maxfeld and her moth
er without becoming aware that the
latter tyrannized over her daughter
unremittingly, shamelessly, BY the
device OF exaggerated Self-renuncia-
zion. The center table presented
case in point Albert Crafts, now be-
slowed uncomfortably in the cane
seated rocker with the curved back,
wishing to goodness that Mrs. MaXtield
would go to bed, or at least get up
from that distressing wretched white
enameled chair In which she was por,
traying martyrdom, was another
Mother" Letitla had said a long
time ago, Tets Danish this dreadful
table and shift things around in this
room so as to make it just the least
bit like home
VERY well, my dear" Mrs. Max
field had answered, with all the woes
Of whole generation of mankind reg
Istered in her long suffering coun-
tenance, whatever you see fit to do,
do, OF course. 1t is not to be expected
that 1t would make any great differ
ance 10 you that this is the way your
poor dear father knew our home You
were quite young" Letitia, as a mat
ter of fact, was in her fourth year
when Mr. MaXfield went to his reward
--"and changing fashions naturally are
more important TO you than his mem
DRY. DO what you like with the room,
but please dc not ask HE TO use 1t aft
erward"
So, of course, Letitia being Letitia,
the room remained as it was, center
table and all, an entirely dreadful lat
ter-Victorian mess.
Likewise in the case of Albert
Crafts. Ten years ago, when Letitia
was slighter and prettier-if not SO
Handsomely MaXfield discerned
the imminent likelihood of Albert's
suit CARRYING the girl off her feet SO
she began to be unspeakably sad
dened by the inevitable prospect that
some day, of course, her one eve lamb
would be going away out of her life
and leaving everything all barren and
empty and cold, and 50 on, All Of
which, being actuated by no suspicion
in the world that such disaster imme-
diately impended, so far as the eve
lamb knew. served to make tender
hearted Letitia feel like something that
deserved to be shot at sunrise.
And so il had been. With the re-
suit that Letitia MaXfield, in the course
Of time, came to hold the creed that
to think of herself in the very least,
or to fail to put her mother not only
first but second and third and all the
way down to about tenth, was to be
an unworthy miserable creature.
This is the road that runs through
the land of Spinsterhood to the de.
serted village of Lonely Old Age In
nine cases out Of every ten. Ii just
happened, however, that the love OF
Albert Crafts for his self-s9crficing
sweetheart was not mere calf love.
He was man, this slow-movlag young
fellow, and he never gave up. Year
after year he kept up the steady I'M
despairing though not over hopeful
pursuit of the particular brand of hap
plness on which ne had set his heart in
the beginning.
ITS no use, Albert Letitia would
say. 81 shall not marry. l will not
leave mother"
But I've told you hundred times,
dear" Albert would protest, that
there need be no separation"
Always Letitia shook her head at
this point She would not formulate
words even to herself, the realization
that somehow 1t would be unfair 20
subject another life to the same cark-
ing influence that had so manacled her
own. This was because Letitia's brain
knew that her mother was a selfish ty-
rant, the very while her heart kept
insisting that that mother was n rare
and tender plant which needed every
bit of the daughters generous young
soul for its spiritual suStenance. "She
mas always missed father so, the poor
dear" Letitia said to herself over and
1ver again
And so Lettia had come to the point
where she could find just a wee bit
Of amusement in the awkwardly con.
,ealed wish Of Albert Crafts that Mrs.
MaSheld would 20 to bed. and in the
luconcealed determination of Mrs
Crafts to do nothing of the kind. She
lad an uncanny way Of knowing had
hat lady, when one of the occasions
lad arrived upon which Albert lust
naturally mad to propose to Letitia
again. Only that very day with her
very best air Of martyred abnegation.
she had said to her daughter: Lett.
tia, my child, If your happiness de.
mands that you marry, pray do not
consider me I am only vnpr ,,n.ka-