Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 154, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1915 — IN THE CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IN THE CITIES

Chicagoan Who Always Goes to Church Barefoot

tHICAOO.—It has become quite an event to the residents of Besley court when Prank Schmall attends church of a Sunday morning. Children pause on the sidewalk to watch him go by and the gossips of the court run

to their windows with as much interest as if a parade were passing. In reality Schmall resembles a cross between a Q. A. R. procession and a Russian dancer. His chest is covered from shoulder padding to waistband with medals, and Schmall’s ten twinkling toes —not always twinkling—sprawl on the cement walks as he hurries along with athletic stride. It is Schmall's theory that shoes are as much out of place to the churchman as slippers are in a Hindu

temple. The medals he bestows upon himself, and neighbors have noticed that a new one would appear particularly after an extremely cold and Inclement Sunday. But Schmall’s barefooted philosophy ran amuck when he tried to compel the eight little Schmalls to follow in his footsteps and save the family’s Sunday shoe bills. Mrs. Verona Schmall, who does not care how often her husband frosts his feet or awards himself a medal if his passion leads that way, objected strenuously to the children being sent barefooted to church. If she yielded on this point she did not know but she might be the next whose footwear would be forbidden. "You know I don’t mind his bare feet so much now that I’ve got used to them," she said, “nor do the medals worry me any more. He believes the medals are a sign he’s a good church member. But he seems to think the children —small ones and all —should do the same thing and in all kinds of weather. They’ll catch their death of colds and besides if they take up this medal business the medal bills will be enormous. “As It is, he doesn’t give me and the girls enough to wear. He treats us all like dogs on week days, and Tan just about sick as a result of his carryings on.” So Mrs. Schmall complained to the superintendent of the social service department of the county court and Frank was persuaded to be reasonable.