Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 144, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1911 — THIS WAS THE LIMIT [ARTICLE]

THIS WAS THE LIMIT

PAPA THREATENED THE TOTAIj DISRUPTION OF HOME. He Instated on Having the Place Livable or Moving to a Hotel, - ■ and He Carried Hia Point "Wipe your feet, papa," reminded! papa’s eldest daughter as he stumped, muddlly on the front porch. Papa accordingly shuffled his feet diligently! upon the wire mat; then stepped upon a atrip of carpet on the porch and by contorting himself into weird shapes wiped the edges of his shoe soles comparatively dean. < ' t “Don’t hang your wet coat there!”’ called his wife. “Don’t you know wa-j ter will ruin that chair?” Papa ac-i cordingly gathered up his raincoat and carried It up to the bathroom. .. “Oh, mamma,” walled the youngest daughter; "look at the mud he’s leaving on the stairs! And I just washed them myself!” But papa z was putting on his slippers in the bathroom, standing on one' foot and hopping about like some damp stork. Then ha changed his clothes and came down stairs. “Did you change your clothes, dear?” inquired' his wife sweetly, eyeing the chair in which he sat with speculative eye. Papa growled and, turned over a sheet of his paper, for/ he .knew all About that inquiry. Presently he-stretched, yawned and rose. He walked over to the sofa, heaped with pillows and lay back luxuriously just as the middle daughter came in. “Why, papa,” she shrieked; “you’re spoiling the sofa pillows. You’re lying right on them.” Papa sat up. “What’s this sofa for?’’ he demands ed. His wife had come in by this time and stood, side by side with her Indignant daughter. “Certainly not to treat as you’re treatlng .it," she said. "If you want to take a nap lie on your bed.” Papa arose. His jaw began to grow rigid, for papa was getting mad. For long he had put up with this sort of thing and the limit was reached. “Take those pillow* up to your rooms,” he commanded the assembled daughters; “this sofa goes out in the woodshed. .This is no place top use less things.” Then he dragged it out into the shed, leaving consternation In his wake. “What do you mean?" stormed hia wife. Papa looked at her and she began to grow uneasy under his look. He didn’t say anything. “Go'up in the bathroom and get my raincoat and shoes,” he directed. “One of your girls, 1 don’t care which.’’-The girls looked at each other. “Go!" said papa, "and be quick.” The youngest daughter went Then papa sat on a sacred chair and put on hi§ shoes. The slippers, one inside the other, he handed the oldest daughter. "Take them to the bathroom,” he commanded. The oldest daughter stared. Then she started to say something and shrugging her shoulders departed, holding the slippers as though they might bite. She couldn’t miss any of this remarkable situation, so she returned. “I’m going down to the office,” said papa; "you can pack up what you like, because we’re going to store thia truck and go to a hotel.” “Why, papa!" It was a chorus of alarmed voices. But papa was firm. “One thing 1* certain,” he said; “we're through with this foolishness. I’ve had all I’ll stand. I’ll do thia much —either you’ll make this place homelike, beginning tomorrow morning, or we quit housekeeping. That’* all.” Then he departed in the rain. But when he returned his slippers were in the hall, and his favorite chair, with the evening, papers on it, was stationed under the light and the family had retired. Then papa put on the slippers, put them on another chair and began to read. —Galveston News.