Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-09


McMurtry, who tended the brood all day,
called them. blessed gang Of rufdans and
their daddy no better than the rest, hingfng
them around from the minute he entered the
house
That scarcely held, because when Mrs. Nc
Murtry accused their daddy Of boisterousness
that matched his children's, her eyes were
ridiculously out of key with her speech.
Her idolatry OF Kester verged almost on the
absurd She used to cry over him while relat-
ing his various attributes to friends. Hes
saint: the man is, disguised in overgrcwn
boys clothing"
Ik was rather on the basis Of an overgrown
boy and his younger playmates that Kester
reared his children. A man left at - with five
small youngsters on his hands doesn't have
time to work out system" At least Hester
didn't With the problem Of earning their iv-
Ing, keeping the home together educating them
along the most economical lines possible and
above all keeping them happy, Hester plunged
Ia without theory.
50. In rearing his family, Kester was just
himself. Easy, indulgent. ridiculously senti-
mental, unexacting, playful, the adoring par
emit, and yet withal so much the idealist where
his children were concerned, that their short
ComingS, when they became serious, could actu-
ally unnerve him to the extent OF making him
physically i'll.
For instance Myrcn, the second boy and his
cruelty to animals: The scene between Kester
and his son the evening his father found him
IN y group OF Boys Tying cans 10 the Tall Oh u
wretched street dog was one that Mrs. Nc
Murtry, to the day Of her all-too- premature
death. was 10 relate with her face smeared with
paIlor
For a moment it looked as If Kester were
going to beat his son; batter him across the
sides of the head with his fists. Miraculously
that did not happen, but talk took place up
In the fagtness Of Myron's room that was dew
0Stating In its consequences An night Myron
sobbed in his bed and Kester did not appear at
breakfast. The evening following, Myron fell
asleep in Kester's arms, listening to jungle
story which he had asked his father TO repeat.
He was a strange boy and man, Kester was.
father and a mother, too.
LIS brood grew and thriyed. At II the eldest
boy was high-schOol graduate and al
ready draughtSman apprentice Myron chose
medicine. and Kester, somehow on his news
paper photographers salary. began to make
that possible. Two Of his three girls moved
along into quite considerable beauty and the
youngest gave promise Of something more than
even that
OF course, there were set-backs, incubus Of
debt. worry Of illness and occasionally the
need Of discipline Of one sort or another. When
she was IA, Leila, the second girl, developed
typhoid fever and Kester nursed her as q
mother would have nursed her.
The year following, the mainstay Of the
household. blessed AIRS. McMurtry, died sud-
denly Of heart stroke. and that was blow TO
KeSter and his brood. Fortunately, Lily, the
eldest 10 then, took over In total the duties
which she had hitherto shared Jointly with
airs. McMurtry, and Leila, Edmee and the boys
III lent shoulder TO the wheel OF household
hester, as always, shared the burden. Alb
nOluteiy without sense Of pride or artificial bar