Evening star., 1923-01-28
Tutt1e Was Always Ready for
Any Charming or Dramatic
Adventure IN His Travels

INJURED Ianguidly. What he said.
however, was not Home, Parker,
or ''To the club, Eugene" This nur-
nlur of his was rot only languid but
plaintive A tear appeared upon the
lower lid Of the eye that had opened, for
It was a weak and drowsy eye. and
after hours of solid darkness the light
fretted it. Moreover, the tear. as
greeting to the new day. harmonized
perfectly with Mr.. Tuttle's murmur,
which was so little more than husky
breathing that only an acute ear close
by could have caught it: 'Oh, Gosh!'
Then he turned partly over, shifting his
body so as to lie upon his left side
among the shavings that made his
limousine such a comfortable bedroom.
After thousands of years Of wrangling,
economists still murder one another to
emphasize varying ideas of what con-
stitutes the ownership of anything, and
some people tthe most emphatic of alD
maintain that everybody owns every
thing. which is obviously the same as
saying that nobody owns anything, es-
pecially his own right hand. SO 1t may
be little hasty to speak Of this limou-
sine, in which Mr.. Tuttle lay finishing
his nights sleep. as belonging to him
in particular; but he was certainly the
only person who had the use of it. and
no other person in the world believed
himself to be its owner. A doubt better
founded may rest upon a definition Of
the word 'lin1ousine''; for Mr.. Tuttle's
limousine was not an automobile; 1t had
no engine. no wheels. no steering gear:
neither had 1t cushions nor glass; yet
Mr.. Tuttle thought Of IL and spoke Of
1t as his limousine and took some pleas
ure in such thinking and speaking.
Definitely. 1t was what Is known as
Limousine body" in an extreme but.
permanent state Of incompletion--that
Is to say. the wooden parts Of a
'iimousine body" had been set up, put
together on buck" or trestle, and
then abandoned with apparently the
same abruptness and finality that
marked the departure Of the Pompeian
baker who hurried out of his bakery
and left his bread 1000 years in the
oven. So sharply the postwar in
dustrIal depression" had struck the
factory that the workmen seemed to
have run for their lives from the
place. leaving everything behind them
just as 1t happened to be at the mo-
ment of panic. And then, eighteen
months afterward. the excavator. Tut
tie. having dug within the neighbor-
ing city dump-heap. one cold evening,
to no profitable result, went to explore
the desert spaces where once had
been the bustling industries. and
found this body Of Limousine. just
as it had been abandoned by the
workmen fleeing from ruin. He
partly filled 1t with shavings and thus
made home.
LIS shelter was double, for this lit
i i tie house of his itself stood in
doors, under a roof that covered
acres. When the watery eye Of Mr..
Tuttle opened. II beheld room
vaster than any palace hall, and so
Uttered with uncountable other auto
mobile bodies in embryo that their
shapes grew vague and small in the
distance. But nothing living was
here except himself; what leather had
since devoured. and the rats had de-
parted. A night watchman, paid by
the receiver in bankruptcy, walked
through the long shops once or twice
a night, swinging a fashlight, but
he was unaware of the tenant, and
usually Mr.. Tuttle, In slumber, was
unaware of him.
The watery eye, having partly OPEN
ed and then wholly closed, remained
closed for another hour. All round
about, inside and outside the great
room. there was silence: for beyond
these shops there were only other
shops, and others and others. cover
ing square miles. and all as still as
village midnight They were as
quiet as that every day In the week;
but on week days the cautious Tuttle
usually went out rather early, be-
cause sometimes a clerk from the re-
ceiver's Office dawdled about the place
with notebook. Today was Sunday;
no one would come; SO he slept as
long as he could.
His reasons were excellent as rea-
sons, though immoral at the source
That is to say, he should not have
haa such reasons. lie was not well,
and sleep is healing; his reasons for
sleeping were therefore good. Blu.
he should not have been unweli; his
indisposition was produced by sin;
he had broken the laws of his coun-
try and had drunk OF Illegal liquor,
atrocious in quality; his reasons for
in fhn-
sleep was not good sleep.
From time to time little manifesto
tions proved its gross character; he
lay among the shavings likR fatl
grampus basking In seafoam, and he
breathed like one; but sometimes his
mouth would be pushed upward in
mfsdirected expansions; his cheeks
would distend and then suddenly COL
lapse after explosion. Lamentable
sounds came from within his cor
rugated throat and from deeper
tubes; his shoulders now and then
jumped suddenly and his upper ear,
long and soiled, frequently twitched
enough to move the curl of shaving
that lay upon 1t. For q time one of
his legs trembled violently, then, of
it's own free will and without waking
him, 1t bent and Strengthened repeat
edly, using the motions of q leg that
is walking and appears to be going
somewhere. Having arrived at its
destination 1t rested, whereupon its
owner shivered and, thinking he pull
ed a blanket higher about his shoul-
ders, raked q few moro shavings upon