Evening Star Newspaper, November 22, 1925, Page 80

4 THE SUNDAY OUR HUSBANDS’ FAULTS BY FANNY KILBOURNE. . STAR, WASHINGTON, D. (.. NOVEMBER Sometimes It Seems As If Ordinary Shortcomings Should Be Considered as Real Assets MEN T hear a girl say that some man is perfect, I don't have to look at her wedding ring finger to know she’s single. When vou're married, you may be perfectly erazy about your husband, but you don't go around making wild state- ments about any man. It is harder, of course, 1o be sure about single men. They may look romanti¢ and different and quite without a flaw on the sur- face. But just wait till these same men get married and you have a good heart-to-heart talk with their wives. Why, to see Roger Lane around before he and Duicie married, for in- atance, I would never have dreamed that he would dip his toast in his coffee. The first time I ever saw him do it was one morning before I was mar- ried when I'd stayed all night with Dulcie. Dulcie looked across the breakfast table at him and then at me. “The first time I saw Roger do that,” she said, “I thought to myself, ‘Dip away while you're single and can, Mr. Roger.'" Dulcie sighed. “I thought you could break a man of any habit you didn't Iike, in a day or so.” She sighed again. We've been mar- ried seven months, and just look at him?” Roger guiltily stopped, but you could tell he'd forget and do it again. Being single at the time, I natural- Iv thought that Dulcie just didn't nnderstand how to manage a man. Managing a man as I have learned aince I've heen married myselt, is like playing tennis. It looks easy till you try it T often think that that is why widows are o fascinating. Not. as is_commonly supposed, hecause they understand how to handle men, but hecause thev have given up trying. On your first husband I guess you are hound to keep struggling as long as vyou have a breath of pep left. Having put your hand to the plow. you hate to turn back. But having once seen what an almost hopeless job it is to make a_man over to suit vou abso lutely T doubt that man women vould have the heart to start at all on a second one. That is why a man, meeting a widow, sees the dullness of nopeless resignation in her eye and realizes at once that here going 1o be a restful woman to along with, But with strange how get your first husband. it is hope springs eternal in the human breast. Mrs. Frank Kirsted says that every time Frank unwraps o package in the living room and leaves the paper and string right n the middle of the floor, and then. when he sees how bad it makes her feel, promises solemnly never to for- Ret agai <he can't em to help bhe. lieving him and thinkinz that that fault is cured now, and what had she better start on next JILL's worst W tactlessness that this is not a drinking too much we were married, fault h I know, of course, serious fault. like In fact, before T hardly thought it was a fault at all. It used to just strika me funny. Like the time when he had Miss Prescott almost lanled to buy the Witherspoon place. In the general conversation the subject of ages came up, and she asked Will to guess how old she wae. To my amuse- ment. I heard him guess 46. That was just the age Miss Prescott really was and when she decided not to buy the Witherspoon place atter ali I tried to explain to Will that his zuessing she was 46 might easilv have been the heginning of the end But, zreat grief, she used 1o 2o to school with mother,” he said. “And she certainly looks 46" ‘“The flowers that Spring, tra-la.’ " 1 sang, * ‘have noth ing to ao with the czse.’ If you'd guessed 35, 11 bei two Lits she'd have hought the place.” But when von're marri thinge like that don't seem half s funny to you. It's juet as old Mr Long says, the only 'ma he can help langhing to see 2 man's feet flv out om under him is when it's his own et. Before you're married to a man his faults are his own, and you can laugh at them if they strike vou funny: but once you're married to him vou feel as responsible for evervthing he does wrong as though you did it vourself. And it's bloom in the d 1o a man <o hard to cure men of anything,” Dulcie sighed. “I believe they secretly think their faults are masculine. ~ They always uct though if they pald too much atten tion to vour idens it would make them sissified T zot so provoked at Roger other day that I =aid, ‘Well You nesdn't try to make me ut theres anything specially virile and man!v abont dipping vour toast in your cofie iy It's perfectly Kirsted azreed I always pleasant doesn't fike to n tell that ‘way w all regular zuy and that, ve.” Mrs. ¥ 1 that bout it and me mad. T ean lerneath he' thinks throv their thi after all, tidying up « work T hed to lauzh at that. It was so ex: =ctly like Will. Whenever I just unped on him ahout some espacizli: tupid plece of tacilessness, he would lcok half guilty but the other half virtuous, and insist t whatever he said was ¢o, and ‘that he was no ounge lizard who could spend his ime thinking what kind of an im- pression he was going to make every he opened his mouth. It cer A kes it a »t harder when ) hushand secretly belleves that b ilts are really manly, rugged tes There when 1 felt I zive up trying. were times should just have to hut of ‘course vou never really do quite get used toit. I seemed to suffer as much each time he Lroke out as though I weren't in a_way prepared for it. T shall never forget ithe last avening before Dulcie and I went up to Minneapolis My brother-inlaw was going to the Masonic convention and father said that T wanted to go up and stay with Kathie while Elmer was away, he would buy my ticket. The bank was sending Roger 1o the banker's @ convention at the same time, so with me and visit her aunt ‘The night before we were to leave, I had the Curtises to dinner. As Mr. Curtis is vice president of the new Harvester Company, and they keep a majd and everything like that s Jived in Chicago. natural- Montrose's young ma trons, T wanted to put my best foot forward for the whole town. so to apeak. Will's father being president of the Boost Montrose Club, Will was naturally in sympathy with me on this, and brought home two cigars of the kind he knows Mr. Curtis smokes. By good luck, I found that I'd packed some beads away in an old cigar box of that same brand. I had no idea where this box came from, but it would certainly come in handy. T put the two cigars in it, and the effect was for all the world as if we always bought them by the box and these two were all there happened to he left. I told the Curtises that we would have dinner at half-past 6—that is the time they always have it; and I certainly stepped on the gas-all day getting ready. I froze strawberry ice cream and packed it away in a melon mold, and had oranze and cherry salad all set in gelatin. that Frank | Duleie decided to go up to Minneapolis | 1 and | Frank Kirsted told me how to make and that was absolutely new in Mont- rose. I had little Ella Crowninshield 10 wait on the table and put flowers in baskets on the porch, and Will said he broke a shoe lace hurrving to get home in time to shave before they got here. All in all, T rthink it would be perfectly honest to refer to what we were about to have as what society stories would call ‘a smart little din- ner. Oh, everything would have Zone off in A way to be a credit to us if it hadn’t been for WillI's stupid tactlessness. 1 managed to keep him held down during dinner by constant vigilance. ‘Whenever I thought he was going to say anything fl-advised. 1 would change the subject hastily. 1 could usually tell. He has a certain expres- sion, a kind of friendly, frank, guile- less look, that he usually gets on when he s about to express some truth that would far better be left unsaid. Whenever I'd see that ex- pression coming over his face, no mat- ter what we were talking about, I would change the subject before he had time to say whatever he had in mind. Naturally, I am alert like this only when we are with people like the Curtises. I couldn’t stand the strain to do it all the time. With our old crowd I figure they all know Will and like him anyhow, and I just let ‘er the Gurtises or anything 1 never told all the time dishonest like that: but the general impression was there. The general impression T had worked and planned all day to create. And Will had ruin- ed it. utterly ruined it, in less than two minutes. * % ok ok LLY. if 1 hadn't been goinz away for two weeks the next morning. I don't believe I should have forgiven him for days. 1 couldn't stand it to go away mad, though, so we made it up in a way. But under- neath the thing rankled with me. It was the utier hopelessness of the situation. Will didn’t know any better. and—every woman will know how 1| shrank from accepting this tragic truth—the chances were he would never learn. He just didn't have any talent for tact 1 told Dulcie all about it on th train the next day and, although she was sympathetic, she couldn’t honestly offer me much encouragement. If Will couldn't do any better than th on an occasion when he was just as anxious as I was to have everythinz all right, what hope was there for the future? 1 saw the vears stretching ahead, me working myself to death to flicker. * ok o* % HAD forgotten to tell Will that I was going to serve the demi-tasse out on the porch. so when I came out with the tray I fixed him with a glassy eve and talked rapidly. so that he would have no opportunity to express surprise. However. in my hope that the Curtises would not notice his look of pleased, startled interest, and guess that we had never done this hefore. 1 forgot something far more important I had the cigar box on the tray with the cups. but Will didn't see it. He rose briskly and went into the living room. And just as I was opening the box with a casual Well. just one apiece left!" out shouts Will from the living room “Say, Dot. what did vou do those two cigars I bought today? For a moment, 1 felt I could die o mortification: then my natural adroit ness came to my aid “Oh. never mind those T cailed carelessly, “there are a couple lefi in the hox.” “What Lox”"" Will called. but T was already talking briskly to the Curtises and I'm sure they didn't hear him It's crises like fhat. though, that age a woman before her time. And then, even after I had that emergency so successfully. Will managed to spoil éversthing. It was almost time for the Curtises to go home and T was congratulating mv self on everything having gone off in a very sophisticated way. In my con- zratulations, though, I relaxed foo soon In some way the conversation had come around fo daily schedules, and Mr. Curtis, reminiscing of his boy. said Yes. my my have dinner at 12 « I glanced over at Will. and to my horror T saw that he had on his warn ndly. frank and guile. d fratically to think of something to change the subject to. but nothing came to me I tried madly to signal to say whatever he was saving, but he wasn't with met er always used I Will not thinking looking at to of me. “Well. as a general thing. we have at twelve, too my utter norror I heard him in a confi dential tone I managed 1o catch his and there must have heen something in mine which warned him that all was not well. He looked anxiously at me for a moment. and then apparently d that he had sald something he shouldn't have sa “But it wasn't any trouble to have it at night tonizht.” he added hastily. He evidently thought my concern was just for fear the Curtises would think they had put as out. “Not the slightest bit of trouble,” he went on, with the large-handed air of a host say ours, advance us a little socially, and Will knocking down every success as soon as 1 got it buflt up. Nothing Duleie could say could really comfort me much and, although Elmer went on to visit his married brother. and 1 stayed in Minneapolis tor a full month. T didn't really get over it. Of course, time wears awuy all sorrows a littie, and I didn't feel quite so desperate about it on my way home as 1 did on my way going up: but whenever I thought of the vears streiching ahead and Will doing and saving things he shouldn't scat tered through them. I felt pretty dis- couraged. I came home alone, come at the end of the two weeks. AL Verblen Junction old Mrs. Long g0t on My train on her way back from staying all night with her daughter She sat down with me and | prepared to hear all the home gossip of a month. If Mrs. Long didnt know it. vou could be sure it hadn't hap pened. fhe may know some things that never really do happen: but vou can bet she never misses anything t really do She smiled said - Well. it's high time veon tinz home 1o look afier hushand of yours.” “Oh. Will's heen all “He's been gétting his mother's. And my mother's been tak inz care of his mending and every thing.” “Oh Dulcie having in a playful way and were get that young right.” T said. meals at his he's heen taken care of all right,” Mre. Long agreed. Now, that sounds like a simple enough sentence. but some way—Iit musi have been Mrs. Long's tone or her look or something—made it sound somehow queer, and—well, foreboding is the only word I cari think of. It sort of puzzied me. put me ine stantly on my guard. and 1 didn't say anything for a minute. “Oh. ves.™ Mra. Long repeated ‘Will's been taken care of. all right. “I knew it.”" 1 said: but somehow I couldn’t make my voice careless and hearty. T had a queer premonition that there was something more in this than met the ear. And after a moment. T suppose he’s writtén you all about Mre. Price’s sieter that's been visiting her?"" “‘Oh. ves.” T said. "Mrs. Price had him over to dinner one night and asked him to take Miss Allen to the city to a show. Mr. Price had bought tickets and then couldn’t go.” “Oh,” said Mrs. Long. “'So that was the way it started!” The way it started! Something ‘way down inside me went cold. She looked at me sharply. “Ts that all he's written vou about her?’ she asked suspiciously. “Oh. I don't know, there may have heen something else I've forgetten, trying to put zuests at their ease. “We alwavs switch ound and have it at night whenever we have com I said in what 1 hope and Draved was a careless tone. It is pretty hard though, to be careless when & hideous that the whole world had stopped. The sunshine on the corn fields we were whirling past seemed queer and brassy. While 1 resolutely talked fast abonut other things, fnside 1 was arguing with myself. trying to choke back that cold. sweeping fear. [ told my self that Mrs. Long was a gossip and a trouble maker. reminded myself that, just because Will had®once taken her daughter to a dance. she had thought he was interested in Jessie, and she had never really liked his marrying me. These things were true. of course; but it was just as true that, while Mrs. Long always put the worst side front, I had never heard of her lying. Why had Will written me nothing of it when he was writing to me practically every day? Why—sudden Iy I remembered one letter. It had Tome just as I was planning to start back with Dulcie. He had urged me not to come home yet, as long as 1 was having such a good time and it would leave Kathie alone. He was getting along all right, he said, and 1 was not to worry about him but stay on. as it might be quite a while before I'd get up to Minneapolis again. 1 had thought it was sweet of him, but now—perhaps he hadn't wanted me to come home! And all the time I was talking lightly of this and that to Mrs. Long. I think once T even langhed. It is amazing the bInff you can put up if you have to. Curiosity—not the pleasant. almost frendly curiosity that makes von like (o hear all the latest goesip—a bitter, frightened curfosity was gnawing at my very heart: “Every time I look out of ‘my window thev're walking past toget * * + maw themat the movies Wednesday night " And yet 1 could not axk Mrs. Long any more T couldn’t ask Dulcie or Mrs. Frank Kirsted. I couldn’t. I suddenly realized with a queer chill of fright, even ask mother. Mother couldn’t help me’ nor father, Kathie. Thix was the real thing of all the fun of being called Mrs. Horton, of being a married wom an. It meant that in evervthing that really counted in the world Will and I were playing the game alone to zether. If Will falled me. I should have to plav it all alone. For the first time in my life I felt reaNy &rown-up: not the gav. dignified &rown-up I had always hoped to be this heing grown-up was a responsible, lonely, bleak husiness * xox % S ™* passed the freight sheds. pull ing into Montrose, I remembered passing them on the way out. Dulele and T had been comparing notes about our husbands’ faults, getting a certain chummy sort of fun ont of sympathiz ing with each other. Were there things that Dulcie had to settle for herself, 0o Problems that she couldn’t discuss with anybody. ever? And I had thought Will's 1actlessness was a real trouble! The Mrs. Willlam Hor ton who had ridden out of Montrose complaining comfortably to Duleie seemed young and green and care-free to_me, now Will met me at the station and seem ed so glad 1o see me that for a mo ment I forgot all about Mrs. Long's words. Then while Will was over see ing about getting Sam to:deliver my trunk and I was going out to our sedan Dulcie came out of the post office. ““Hello, Dot she called. to our cit n hack “Welcome I'm in a mad rush, but I'll run in later tg see vou.” And then, just as she was hurrying off, “It’& a good thing you came back to keep an eagle eve on Wil laughed and sang from that out.of- date old song. “"A red-headed woman is making a wreck out of me.” Miss Allen anywhere,” cidedly. Allen " anywhere, else. her quite a few “when F'd down of hand down see works in Judge I hated the me go on. and Mrs. Price in the libr night Mrs, Libby and T went on with Miss Allen as far anything like that solutely all Wednesday night ly. tri went to the Roger Prices came in and sat next came some ¢ . 1925—PART “But “Mrs. Mre. Long saw vou.” Long never saw me faking said Will de- never took Miss Her nor anybody “hecause | “Mrs. Long saw you go past the house with her.” Front times," run into her Mert's. 10 practice sleight with Mert. She used to go pretty near every evening to her other sister. the one who Scroggins’ office. all?” I asked. Oh d suspicion t street said Wil on my way “I walked down with Was that how p. No—lessee: | her ran into v just with them. talk to Mr and Price walked along stopped 1o as their house, if vou mean “And that was all?" T asked. “Ah Yep.” said Will. "“Are vou sure” Vill, you took her fo the movies 1 said triumphant But It was an unhappy. miserable mph “I did no said Will promptly. *1 movies \Wednesday with Dulcie, and she and the 0 us, Mrs. Long's wise, disagreeable laugh back 1o me He'll have slick exc had said and she “I know husbands. It ow rathe: queer, when you came to think of it %0 many coincidences. ““He'll have some slick excuse readv.” It was queer. “He'll probably get mad and try to bully vou out of even asking him.™ And as her prophecy went running through my mind, Wil turned sharply in his chair. “What's the idea of the cross-exami nation?” he demanded. “Do you think I'm lying?" His tone was angry. Will is alwavs %0 good-natured thai for an instant i1 frightened me “He'll try to bully vou out of asking him." “I have a right to ask vou a simpie question.” T began. And I answered it 1 told won 1 haven't been taking anvhody around Do vou think I'm lying?" His voice wasn't loud, but, though I had only seen him really mad once in my life, I knew that he was now. He caught hold of my shoulders, kind of rongh Answer me. Do vou think I lie to yon? “He'll try to bully you.” . . . To my disgust, 1 felt scared, almost afraid of Wil It did sound figshy I had a right to know—1 mustn’'t let myself he bullied: “I—1 a~ I began. falteringly ‘The angry grip on my shoulder tight ened. Feeling frightefied and all alone in the world—nobody but Will, and he. perhaps, decelving and hullying me— 1 still tried 10 go on. It is strange how whole future lives may hang on some chance. An automobile which had come down our street by mistake stopped in front of the house and turned around. The headlight swept across our porch, throwing great black shadows of the little vine leaves shinning. almost dazzling bright, full on Will's face The glare lasted then swept around blacker than evi But that brief glaring moment settled something for me forever. In the brief white light I had seen Will's face 1 had known it it was as tho awful hour. in and excitement I had forgotien what 'my own husband was really like. In that flash of light I saw him again Angry. but underneath a hurt, open guileless look As though I had heen wandering around in strange and fearful countr I came suddenly back to evervihing that was tried and safe and familiar and trustworthy. Will, guessing that Miss Prescott was 46 vears old: Will explaining to the Curtises that it was no trouble to have dinner at night Will—everything that was blundering and tactless and honest. Why like stumbling ont of scary da into sunshine. In myv fear and picion T had overiooked th important fact. Wil was Iving kind. Oh. the suspicious fear! only a moment leaving the porch wonid h. » angry. but during the my fear and anger one not the ous lifting of that cold Let Mrs. Long sneer at fresh-picked brides, let the hunch tease. let there e a million suspicions coincidences in anything he Will said it was 50, it was so! “Oh, I'm sorry—don‘t he mad at me honey. I must have been crazy said. if when other <hut still agair cheek open, gulleless face away talk like that! Please, plea mad! Wil we made it people can make thev're as ¢ as< Will and | by the time it was all lmp. 1 leaned hack ag myv eves. The hones =0ft aver the porch. the d and sweet, and home ow and then I r net Will'e was really terribis up ar last vas hhed aga ace. his Mre disagreeable beinz able husband refrec at he e der ort of a with her Think of what _vour own Oh, the relief relief of knowing jittle 100 honest the heavenly con has no talent fo 11 bet vou're glad to he home wit Will again.” observed Dulcie the nex morning as I ran_ over 1o borrow some coffee: it was the only thing Wil had forgotten to get. Dulcie and Roger were eating breakfast out or their side porch in the sunshine. “It's funny how even your hushand's fault Inok good to vou when vou've heer iong enough to et lonesome fo she we n T dec g0t normal enough on Roger's tahle wise not he ndability man whi the o him haven't start in manne again.” And there in the morning snnshine ht under the affectionate his wife. sa1 Roger, dippingZhis 1o (Copyrizht “Come-Back” of Great American Turkey Helped Along by Government Scientists BY C. MORAN. KEY were com mon_in shington around the Thanksgiving and Christ- mas holidays. Geese, 1oo. were included in these trots when farmers in outlying parts of the District assembled the bi: She | them on foot into town, vania avenue to the slaughtering pens back of Center Market. ix and drove ifown Pennsyl 1f a fami eferred to offer thanks ¥ The nail that Mrs. Long had started | with a bird more gamey than the do- to drive into my very heart in hard then with a crash is a fiirt and all that. but she isn't A trouble maker. I might set aside anything Mre. Long said: knew it. too. And T coulnd't ask Will ahout it. Two or three times during that deso late evening I tried to. but 1 couldn't If there was nothing to it T didn't want to make him think I was silly and jealous. And if there was any- thing to it. it Will had really got tired of me or interested in another girl— well, T just couldn't bear to learn it. time I started to say something. the fear of what I might find choked back the words. It was a desolate eveningz. thing should have heen lovely. had had America in house. and she had got supper for us, and he had a bunch of pink roses went Every- on the library table and a pound box |threatened with extinction, Nt [ mesticatad Dulcie | house and his sons shouldered guns or woods caught but Dulcte | of wing. catch a wild turkey in the wooded sec tions of Virginia or the mountainous regions of West with infinite patience and rare luck. try from Maine to Mexico. s0 numerous in Colonial time: they were regarded measures had to be taken to keep the birds from parking in back yards and on door step: numerous as the and soon it became necessar, Will| turkeys in eaptivit to clean up the | continue to be a siving. article, the head of the fashioned nets, and in the nearby the piece de resistance Thanksgiving feast on the It is still possible to shoot or the Virginia, but only Wild turkeys once ranged the coun- They were that as and “‘pests The birds became less country .developed, ¢ to raise . if turkey was to ymbol of Thanks- The domesticated turkey is now and the of French chocolates, and evervthing. | Department of Agriculture has begun But once the poison of suspicion is in | experiments to save the turkey from your veing, what are roses and French chocolates? to sec me and carrying on so—could it be. the sick fear struck me, that he was stilling a guilty consclence? I plaved up as well as I could, act- ing gay and cheerful and glad to get home. And underneath. every minute, I was feeling more and more that Aead, miserable feeling. I kept wait- ing for Will to say something about Misg Allen himself.” At first I thought T was afraid he would, but as the evening dragged on I knew that I was more afraid he wouldn't and he didn't. After a while. we went out on the THE ANGRY GRIP ON MY SHOULDER TIGHTENED. pany whe are used to having it at night regularly themselves.” He beamed at Mr. Curtis and then {at Mrs. Curtls, and then turned to | me with the genially satisfied look of a man ®ho has fixed up a delicate | ituation. The beam died quick when i/ he saw the way I was looking. | “Dot likes it better at noon,” he | floundered, getting in deeper with every word he spoke. “She likes to get her heavy cooking out of the | way earlier in the day, so that she jcan be free to do anything she likes | in the afternoon. Then, too, we don't | have the dinner dishes to &> at night. Honestly, T would just as soon have{ died right then and there! In two minutes he had ruined the dinner party 1 had spent all day getting ady for. The “heavy cooking.” the inner dishes to do!” There I was | payiny little Ella Crowninshield 75 ! cents to wait on the table and wash | the dishes! I had planned the cook: | ing like a general planning an attack. 180 that I should have almost nothing {to do after the Curtises got there, to create the same impression there was in their house, of a house rather stylishly run, with a competent ser- vant. Of course. nobody could reall call Flla competént. and she wouldn't fear is prowling around, pounce on you. “I'l warrant he hasn't w¥itten much,” she hazarded. ‘‘Mercy, child. he’s been out with Far every evening. I saw them at the movies Wednes- 1 day night, and every time T look out tof my window they're walking past i together. Al | teasing him about. 11." I laughed with hollow lightness. ‘Well, I'll_ have to k Will what he's been up to while I've been away, IT sald, as though it were a joke. A Joke! ‘Ask Will!"" Mrs. Long echoed scorn- fully, and laughed, her wise, disagree- able laugh. ‘“Mercy, child, anybody'd know you'd been married under a year. WI1II'll have some slick excuse ready, and probably get mad and try to bully you out of even asking him. Mercy, child, T know husbands. I'm no fresh-picked bride.” I said nothing. There was a queer dullness inside me that kept me from being abla to speak. “‘Oh, well, don't worry about it." Mrs. Long advised cheerfully. “I don't suppose that it amounts to anything.” “Mercy, I'm not worrying!” 1 said in a scornful tone. Not worrying! The train went rush- ready to Mrs, | stand for Leing called a servant any-, ing. clanging on, but it seemed to me the young folks are porch. 1t was so sweet and quiet after the train trip: vou could smell the honeysuckle from the back of the house and hear our little clock tick- ing faintly in the living room. All the heavenly, homey dearness of it was sadder than I could bear. And to think that the last time I had been on that porch I had been furious at Will about what the Curiises might think! As though if really mattered what the Curtises thought, what all Montrose, what all the world thoughi—if only evervthing were all right with Will and me! Will sat down in the big wicker chair and pulled me over onto his lap. That was just too much, T couldn't stand it any longer. I couldn’t help it if he did think T was silly and jealous. 1 couldn't stand it any ionger. | UWIIL" 1 blurted. “what is it they're {all teasing vou about—ahout Mrs. | | Price’s sister?" ~ “Oh, that Will just laughed. That's one of the bunch's jokes." “'A joke?" “M’hm. It got started that night I took her into the city to the theater. Coming home on the train, Roger and Dulcle and the Mertons and Rich and Corinne got on at Verblen. They'd Ibeen over at a -party. The second they saw us they set up a hoot. They thought it was a rich joke, vou know, the first time yvou'd gone away to ch me out with another girl. Well, Miss Allen is a good sport and she entered right in. and we just kidded them along, pretended we'd been try- ing to keep it a dead secret and now we'd been caught. You know how you do. 1 nodded. "AI‘? it was such a good joke that they %ept it up. Whenever I'd see any of them, they'd sing, ‘My Wife's Gone to the Country—Hooray!" or kid | me about it. You know how that bunch {s.” I nodded. And then, trving to keep | my voice steady and casual, as though it didn’t matter: “And after that, you took her out evenings. nearly every evening?” “Oh, gosh, n the department hs 1o the turke; made to thrive in the Uinted These turkey which has plumage like that of a peacock, and the Mexican chacha- laca, which is a pheasant. for breeding purposes. ihas gradually shifted from New Eng- the fate of the dodo and the great And Will acting so glad | auk. Should these experiments fail, “Fallure to appreciate the value of the turkey industry in supplying the Nation with one of its most popular foods has been one of the chief rea- =ons for the decline in the industry in recent years,” says Dr. Morley A. Jull of the Bureau of Animal Industry “The prevalence of the disease ‘blackhead’ has algo been a dominant factor. Other reasons are that the rearing of the young stock in some re- spects requires more detailed attention than do other classes of poultry. The birds range widelv, frequently tres. passing upon neighbors’ property and this causes vexation which tends to discourage turkey raisihg. “But despite these handicaps.” Dr. Jull points ont. “turkey raising can be made profitable where conditions are suftable and proper methods are followed. This requires considerable care in maintaining constitutional vigor In the breeding stock, clean soil, and the abhsence of disease. The birds range freelv and destroy many injurious insects. They also pick up much waste grain which heips reduce costs of production. Turkeys are grown now mainly as a side line on farms, in flocks of about 100 birds. In southern California, however, the turkey flocks may be as large as 1,000 birds, which are herded by men on horseback, much as sheep are herded on the open yange. It is reported that this yeaT, in Texas, which sends some ‘turkevs to the Washington market, the hirds have suffered greatly from the long Sum- mer drought, and that the crop is and returns with them to “meop up™ the antagoniste. Several dozens of the chacalaca turkeys have nested on Sapeioe Tsland this vear. once or twice. They are slender-bodied birds. olive.brown in color, and make excellent flesh for the table. They are about equal in weight 10 a rufMed grouse. They spend most of their time in the trees, where they nest, but feed on the ground. The note of the chachalaca is lond and rattling, and once heard is remember. ed a long time. No cure has vet heen found for the disease “blackhead.” Should a turkey contract the disease, the hird must he destroyed instantly and burned to pre- vent spread of the disease among the other members of the flock. An entire flock may be wiped out in short order should the disease gain headway. One difficulty is that the symptons of the disease are such that unless the bird is killed and the internal organs examined. it may not be known whether the disease is hlackhead or some other malady. The head of the turkey sometimes turns dark and it is trom this symptom that the name blackhead originated. All domestic varieties of turkevs, the Department of Agriculture records have descended from wild comprising four varieties. se are the Eastern wild turkes which ranged over the Eastern part of the United States from Maine to Florida: the Rio Grande wild turkey, which ranged over southern Tex and northwestern Mexico: the Florida DRIVING TURKEYS TO MARKET FOR THE THANKSGIVING FEAST. imilar which it can be include a South American near relative of the Department of Agriculture records show that turkey breeding stocks have | decreased greatly during the past | years. led 6,600,000 hirds, whereas there are Breeding stocks in 1900 total- now around 3,500,000 birds on farms The industry land to the Southeast. thence to the Southwest, which is now practically the only large commercial turkey pro- ducing section of the country. New England raises scarcely enough birds to meet local demands. The dis- ease “blackhead,” a mysterious mal- ady which wipes out whole flocks, is held mainly responsible for this situation. The disease has followed the birds to the South and has becorne more or less prevalent throughout the country. . An experimental turkey farm was established recently by the Depart- ment of Agriculture at Glendale, Ariz. for the purpose of studying the dis- ease and preventing it from entirely wiy Mg, ent the turkey Industry. labout 25 per cent less than last year's. The Washington market is supplied chiefly from Maryland, Virginia, Ten- | nessee, Kentucky and Texas. Vir- ginia has been making marked prog- |ress in turkey raising recently and is {now sixth- in the list of important |turkey growing States. Maryvland is | farther down the list, but considerable numbers of birds are raised in the | southern part of the State. There were also some imported turkeys from Argentina on the Wash- ington market last year, so that con- sidering all sources of supply. there is |little likelihood that stocks in the | Washington markets will be insuffi- |cient to meet the local demand—at a | price. | _The department’s experiments with the Mexican chachalaca are of con- siderable interest. The birds are re- ported to be thriving on Sapeloe Island, Georgfa, where they were placed three years ago by the United States Biological Survey and Howard E. Coffin of Detroit, Mich., who own% the preserve. Mr. Coffin says that the birds seem to be happy in their new environment, though a bit clannish. | When other barnyard fowls incur the displeasure of the chachalaca, the lat- ter retreats to the woods, surrounds himself with a gang of his fellows wild turkey, which ranged over south- ern Florida, and the Mexican wild iturkey, which ranged over Arizon western New Mexico, southern Col rado and Mexico. Thesé wild turkeve in turn were of common origin, descending mainly from the Mexican wild variety. The name ‘‘turkey.” it is thought, is de- rived from “tukki” which is Hebrew ‘{or peacock. Early Spanish explorers carried a few of the birds back to 8pain, where they were handled by Hebrew merchants, , who confused them with peacocks” and gave the birds the Hebrew name for peacock. Turkey trots were common almost {everywhere that the birds were | Brown, but these celebrations are no {longer' held. ~“Turkey day” was held in some sections where farmers dres: ed their own birds and sold them at auction on the streets. Highly com- mercialized methods have largely superseded these practices, particular. ly where the industry is large, such as in Texas. Independent dressing plants have been established which the city markets. Practically all the turkey raisers in these sections sell to dealers who send buyers into the country to gather the flocks. These huvers stop at the hirds to a along the road a flock of 1,600 turke a day dealers #180 used and feather dusters asked answer signals for the dete ations in longitude. whole continents cepted by many geologists buy the birds alive and dress them for | | bining acetylene with coal-tar deriv drove which is 0 the dressin, ix or eight men. it is aid. ir Farmers near the city markets o« their turkevs and sell them either to consumers or to A sizable husiness ls turkey feathers. which make feather heds. 1 in to Continent Drift. RE America and Europe farther apart? This que in a geological and political sense, was set before meeting of the British Associat Prof. J. W. Gregory. who propoze. it by the use of wireless 1ir mination of Kept up for a vears, he xaid, these would affo; conclusive test of the theory recen advanced by Wegener. that the A1l tic Ocean was produced by the ing apart of the Americas on one A and Europe on the othe The reality of a drifting motion s now seriously Recent vestigations have shown that bene: the uppermost 60 miles or o of rock crust, there is a semi-molten magma or lava overlving the carti solid central core. and on mass the continental blocks find mor or less uncertain footing. ver this viseid The idex o a drift also receives support from the ather ggestive reciprocity of the projections and indentations of the Atlantic shores of America, and the Euro-African coastline. Prof. Gregory was not inclined, h ever, to admit the rapidity of drift postulated by the Wegener theor: and it is to get a critical test of this disputed question that he proposed the use of radio time signals. ew High Explosive. explosive so violent that 1t drove the pieces of its contatner shot 1 hole fashion clear through a nearny | bottle without cracking the bottle was recently demonstrated, according Science. The new substance is divinyl acety lene, product of remarkable new de velopments in acetylene chemistry at Notre Dame University. As usual dyee and explosives are bed-fellows in this research, and a brillant new sca: let color is one of the results of com to atives. This is the first serious and extensive use of acetylene in chemical synthesis, the gas having heretofore each |been relegated to the domain of the farm, weigh their purchases, and add | steel-welder.