Evening Star Newspaper, June 21, 1931, Page 80

[ 10 - % BEING CHAIRMAN This Is the First of I'our Complete Stories by This Author—Four Stories Full of Color and Humor—Mr. Tarkington Knozws the Youngsters—He Has a Way of Placing Their Ideas in Delight ful Fiction, and His Work Needs No Introduc- tion to Readers of The Star’s Sunday Magazine. Illustraied by WALLACE MORGAN. Y friend, Mr. Massey, has his Summer residence at Mary's Neclz, that salty promontory on the New England coast, but he sometimes drives over to see me at Cobble Reef, a few miles distant. He has formed the habit, indeed, of dropping in on me there when he finds himself needing a confidzntial listener, and thus it was that we sat together on my veranda one thinly moonlit evening not long ago, while he related the details of an episode mortifying to himself, but useful, I think, sincez it led him to some conclusions that might be pertinent to almost anybody. The youngish moon was high over the sea when he began, but hung low toward Mary's Neck before he finished. Out home in Logansville, Ill. (Mr. Massey said), such a thing as this could never have happened to me. I don't think it could have happened to me anywhere except under the peculiar conditions that prevail at Mary's Neck, because at a Summer resort part of a person’s character can get to sticking out of him in a way it never would in his home town. At a Summer resort a person is liable to discover qualities in himself that he probably never would have even suspected he possessed if he'd stayed home, and the qualitics I'm speaking of are the Kind he’d prefer to attribute to somebody he'd never taken‘any great liking to. ‘The way I look at it, one thing that brought out these qualities in myself is the fact that nearly all the families at Mary’s Neck come from different places. Back home where they grew up they've always been used to the other people around them, and the other people have always been used to them, but when they come to the neck for the Summer season they're out of the original package, as you might say, and surrounding conditions are kind of disturbed and fluctuating. g That could hardly be helped, because so many of these families have got used to the idea that they were just about the most im- portant in their home towns, so they naturally feel they ought to bz the most important at the Neck, too, and some others that weren't im- portant in their home towns have decided that anyhow they're going to be important at the Neck. Well, it's easy to see how difficult it is for a community to consist entirely of influential citizens without any lower populace for the influential citizens to influence; it leads to considerable feeling at times, and we cottagers at the Neck find ourselves getting agitated over things that wouldn't be likely to upset us at home. HEN Mrs. Massey and our two daughters and I took the step of renting a cottage at the Neck and settled down there for our first Summer, all new and excited over the Atlantic Ocean and everything, of course we didn’t have any idea that these peculiar con- ditions existed. It took us quite some time to get acquainted around, and for a good while at first we couldn’t feel that we were ever going to be allowed to take much part in the human life of the place, as you might call it, so we naturally experienced a good deal of the meek- ness that comes over left-out people anywhere. Probably we had this lowly feeling of being outsiders more than other newcomers had it because we found out before long $hat we were the only Mary's Neck cottagers coming from the Middle West; the rest were practically all Eastern people, who nearly always strike citi- gens from our own section of the country as wanting to stay ignorant of us and afraid somebody’ll see them talking to a stranger. We Masseys had to go through quite a little depression, and there were occasions when we eould hardly tell whether we felt more resentful or more humble. For instance, at the beach, where the whole of Mary's Neck goes regularly about noontime, we kept hearing people asking a question that I never did hear any one ask in Logansville, and for quite a while I couldn’t make sense out of it. “Whe sre the Thompsons?” you'd hear pomebody sy, and then somebody else would answer, mgybe: ‘“Very nice; they’re connected with the 3hompsons of Dogfield” Or maybe the answes would be: “Terrible! Willy Smith lives within a block of them in Newark and &ays he » ver even heard of them!” At firgh, I couldn’t see either what the ques- tion mesy i or how the answers shed any light, and then one day we heard some one near us at the beach asking who a family named Kirke were. “Kirke?” the other person said, as if wonde:ing why any one would mention such a family as these Kirkes. “Oh, you mean those Western people!” The word “Western” was spoken in a way that scemed to imply that was enough to say about the Kirkes, and as we Masseys happened to have heard that they came from Altoona, Pa., of course we perceived that, coming from Illinois, we must be a lot worse Western then they were. It kind of frightened us to imagine what would be said if anybody happened to ask who the Masseys werc. But, gradually, as we became acquainted with the other ccttagers and found most of them fairly cordial to us after a time, we gct to feeling more at home in the place, with as much right to spend our Summers there as anybody else had, and, speaking for mys:lf, it wasn't very long before I quit be- ing impressed by the importance other families would show me when I first met them. Instead, I began to feel kind of huffed inside, and started in to figure how to get the conversation around to where I could let it be known incidentally that I had a great uncle with a town named after him, and that I'm president of the I.mnsv‘llt Light & Power Co., which supplies our whole county, and a director in all three of our banks. And when Mrs. Massey and Enid and Clarissa would get to raving, maybe, about what great people a family they'd just met were it usually made me cross and I'd try to quell their enthusiasm. 2 s “Look here,” I'd say, “you seem to forget that the Masseys were among the first set- tlers in our part of Illinois, and that Packs- burgh, in our county, is named after George H. Pack, my own mother’s uncle.” Likely as not, they would all three sit on me and one of 'em say, “Good heavens! You don't suppose snybody at Mary's Neck is go- ing to pay attenticn to what we are in Logans- ville, do you?” Well, that would make me crosser, because I couldn't see why we needed to be deferential to people who didn't count any more in their own home towns than we did in ours, and probably nct as much, I didn’t see why the Masseys needed to bé kotowing to anybody anywhere, for that mat- ter; and, by the time we came back for our third season at Mary's Neck, it seemed to me our position there was just about as good and established as any one else's; maybe a little more so. We were pretty well acquainted with all the cottagers by then. Mrs. Massey and I had been to dinners with most of them and we'd had them to dinners with us; the ladies all liked Mrs. Massey, of course, and I expect most of the men ¢f my own age had picked up a pretty fair idea of my position in the business world of Logansville. Furthermore to the point, our cottage had become the center of interest and gathering place, you might say, for all the ycung people of the Neck, be- cause, you understand, there aren’t any prettier, livelier, or more intelligent, nicely dressed giris anywhere than Clarissa and Enid. As for whatever went on among all the Neck’s young people of the marriageable and semi-marriage- able ages, there wasn’'t any doubt that they pretty well had the say. No, I couldn’t see that the Masseys needed to give ground to anybody; it began to strike me that there wasn’t any reason in particular why we shouldn’t regard ourselves as just about the leading family at the Neck. STRIKING thing that confirmed me in this opinion® was an honor that was paid to me personally at this time—one that came without any soliciting or even expectation on my part and seemed to show how I was re- garded by the most select of the Summer population. It emanated, so to speak, from the Neck's main sociable organization, the Rocky Meadow Club, which is the general family country club. It has a swimming pool and a good-sized club house, kind of irregular and oldish looking, and during our first season it had seemed to us a pretty coldly impressive monument of exclusiveness; so we were right pleased, and maybe a little surprised, the next year when we received a notice that we had been elected to a family membership. But, to tell the truth, at that time I was a little timid about using the club, and when I did put in an appearance there I kept feeling as if T'd got into somebody else's grounds and better not stay long. Even by the e when I began to feel that we were about the Neck's leading family I'll have to own up I was j:ind of excited to have THE SUNDAY STAR, WA AT THE NECK— this Rocky Meadow Club pay me the honor I speak of, which was during the early part of July of this present season, our third. The honor was a notice frcm Mr. Allstover, the secretary of the club, informing me that I'd been appointed chairman of the House Com- mittee, and I called upon Mr. Allstover per- sonally the same evening to tender my accept- ance and also to inquire in a rcundabout man- ner just what position the chairman of the House Committez occupied, because I'd never filled a chzairmanship of a purely sociable na- ture before. He had a worried expression when I came in; but, after I told him I'd thought it over and decided to accept, his face cleared up. “Good!” he said. “I'm sure everybody will be delighted, especially as the position has been entirely vacant since Mr. Dalrymple's resigna- tion last week. Do you think you could con- veniently assume the chairm:>nship by tomor- row mernjng?” “I supptse I might,” I told him. “I take it you mean I'd better cz2ll a meeting of this committee and preside over it?” He looked kind of surprised. “Oh, no,” he said. “Our hcuse committees never have any meetings; you'll never bs bothered with the other members of the committee. As a matter cf fact, I don't remember who they are; they just give the use of their names, you see, and nobody ever pays any attention except to the chairman. Ycu'll be the whole thing, of course, Mr. Massey.” Well, I couldn’t help feeling that this was pretty gratifying. “You mean I don’t have to even consult the cther members of the com- mittee?” I esked him. “Goodness, no!” he said. * “You don’'t have to consult anybody. You just take complete charge of the club house, Mr. Masscy. The chairman of the House Committce has absolute control of the whol2 place—servants, house rule, conduct of members—everything. All you have to do is to go over to the club and run it prac- tically as if it were your own property. I sup- pcse there isn't a more autocratic position any- where, and it's going to be the greatest pleasure in the world that you're to fill it for us, Mr. Massey.” Well, there’s no denying that I felt some pride in being selected to occupy the chief sociable position, so to speak, in the whole of Mary's Neck; and when I went to the club house the next morning to take up my new responsibilities everything was very gratifying indeed. The steward, 2 man who had made me kind of nervous sometimes up to now, came right forward to meet me and expressed him- self most respectfully. ‘“Are there any orders you care to give, sir?” he asked me. “All the employes are very anxious to please you, sir, and we hope you'll make your wishes known as to any manner in which it may strike you the service could be improved, sir.” There was only one club member present in the house, everybody being at the beach; but this member was a very nice lady, a widow named Mrs. Hapburn, right good-looking for her age. She came up to me after a while and congratulated me on the chairmanship, which you could see she thought was something pretty large. “I know in your position you can't grant any special favors, Mr. Massey,” she told me, “but if you would let me make just the timidest little suggestion, I think it weuld be a great deal more convenient if the newspapers could be kept on the table in the reading-room where the magazines are, instead of in a corner over in that lonesome billard room, where no one ever goes.” I thought she was a pretty nice little woman, and when I told the steward to do as she sug- gested, he said, “Instantly, sir!” and did it. Then he came back and asked me if I'd mind looking at the billard table. “It's a pity no one ever uses it,” he told me. “But, you see, the children got it into such a territle condi- tion last year that nobody would scarcely be “The instant I opened the doo able to play on it, and a good many ol members have been complaining about it.”! So I went to look at it with him, and table struck me as being far gone. I sa children should never have been allowd get it in that condition, especially as I'd looking over the house rules of the club knew there was one to the effect that c! were not allowed even to enter the b room. “That rule should have been enfo I told him. He agreed with me heartily. “It ce should!” he said. “But if you'll allow x suggest - it, sir, this table was getting old, anyhow, and if you'd feel like autho me to order a new one——" “Me?” ¥ said. “Why, certainly, sir,” he told me. “It all rest with you, sir. The club certainly it, sir, and if you'd say the word I could a new one by long-distance telephone sir. I think it would be a great thin club spirit, sir, if the membership could that now the place is going to be kept it ought to be, sir.” ELL, I told him to order the billiard because I was certainly going to the place up. He said, “Instantly, sir!” going right off to obey the order; and Mrs. Hapburn came to thank me in a sweet, nice way for the great change I'd about the newspapers. “Already this whole place seems to new air,” she told me. “I'm sure the d