Kansas University Weekly.
111
"Katie Mc Kee:" A Character Sketch.
In Pennsylvania there lived, not many years ago a very peculiar old man. He was short in stature with a plump little body. Robert McKee was his real name, but he was better known in the neighborhood as Katie. This name had been given him through something said by a child, but Katie, himself, always blamed his neighbor, Mr. Reed, who was well known in that part of the country as a practical joker, for this stange nickname.
Mr McKee lisped badly and this with his serious face, pious manners, and innocent remarks made him a person to whom every one enjoyed listening. Often people would ask him questions for no other reason than to draw from him some laughable reply.
One Sunday morning, after a heavy rain, Mr McKee, on his way to church, was plodding along the country road that ran by the farm house of Mr. Reed, when the latter called out to him: "Good morning Katie, very muddy roads we're having." The only answer coming in a pious drawl was, "Idon't—don't—talk about—muddy --roads—on—the Thabbath day."
Poor old Katie held his wife very dear, notwithstanding the fact that he never could say Sallie. He always called her Thallie.
Upon one occasion, when Mrs. McKee lay very ill, Katie became so uneasy about her that he could scarcely control himself. Afterwards he was telling Mr. Reed how frightened he was about his wife's illness. Mr. Reed," he said "I I couldn't do a thing, I tried to thing, and I couldn't thing, and I tried to pray and I couldn't pray, the only thing I could thay wath, Oh Lord, Thallie ith thick!"
One Hallowe'en, a crowd of mischievous boys desirous of playing some trick on this inoffensive man, lifted several boards from the floor of the bank barn in which Katie kept his cow, and let Flaskie, as the cow was called, down upon the sloping bank below.
The next morning upon entering the barn,
Katie was much surprised at not finding the cow, in her accustomed place. All that day he searched for her, but in vain. By the the next morning, however, the cow had become discontented with her lonely hiding place, and was lowing when Mr. McKee entered the barn. Upon hearing her muffled voice Katie waited for no more, but turned and ran to the house and ran to the house, crying "Oh Thallie! Thallie!! I've found Flaskie, but I don't where she ith!"
VESTA McCURDY.
Comment.
I am pleased to see that fashion now sanctions color in the dress of young men. A young man, whether an untutored savage or a college man, loves color, and it is most unaccountable to me, that thro' so many years just past, men could have submitted to the ugly, coloress, prosaic costumes that romantic novelists never fail to condemn. On our streets today we see our stylish young men wearing all possible shades of color. What would our fathers have said of duck trousers, red shoes, dove colored coats, red and blue hat bands, to say nothing of the summer ties in the most brilliant hues? We are rapidly returning to the gay colors of the days of chivalry. I, for one, am very glad to see it. To be sure, I have no desire to see modern male attire "puffed and pleated in the fashion of those ruffled days of yore," but give us back the colors that the men have lost somewhere in the flight of time.
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"SEEK NOT that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life." Epictitus. Somehow one feels that this is a lofty sentiment, and yet what does the man stand for who adopts it and lives it. Who would fight the world's battles if all should adopt it, and without battles no progress.