Image provided by: Rogue River Valley Irrigation District; Medford, OR
About Ashland American. (Ashland, Jackson County, Or.) 1927-1927 | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1927)
THE DRIED APPLE CHEST <© by D. J. Walsh.) LIZA CURRY sat writing a let ter. X4ie had taken tbc mate rials from a quaint wooden box that sat before her upon the sit ting-room table— sheets of faintly-tint ed paper, a stick of blue wax, a quaint pen that, dipped In a glass of water, rewarded one with a (low of mauve ink. She wrote slowly In a fine slant ing hand with little curlicues on her g’s and p’s and f ’s. And-she wrote painfully, for never In all her life had she anything more unpleasant to do than writing this letter to her neph ew's widow, Lila Canfield. Eliza was old and tiny with white hair wound In a sleek little knot, a mouth like a wilted pink and dark eyes which had once held a "come- follow-nte" look so Irresistible that she had scurcely been able to count her beaus on the fingers of both hands. But she, as so often happens, had married the poor stick of the lot, Fer gus Curry— because she loved him. And that love hud weathered the vi cissitudes of a difficult murrled expe rience which had terminated severul years before In Fergus’ death. During*the years of her widowhood Eliza had "managed.” She hud her tiny white house and a little money which she hud inude lust until the present moment. Now that It was goue she must sell her house. Indeed, the barguln was all but made with possession to be given Immediately. In a week, more or less, Eliza would be leaving the house to which she had come as Fergus’ bride, the house whpre her three children had been born and had died one after the oth er, the house where Fergus had closed his wild, bright eyes, the house where she herself had hoped to die. Her nephew’s widow, Lila Canfield, offered her a home and she was gulng there. She was writing to say that Just as soon as she could get things In shupe she would come. The spring sun came In at the win dows hotly, and as Eliza wrote she was conscious of a faint odor all through the house which came not from her pot-pourri Jar, for that was closed; not from the geranium on the sill, not from the strong cupful of tea she had brewed for her lunch. She sniffed delicately. Ah ! Now she knew. It was the smell of apples— dried apples, und It came from the old chest-of-druwers in the spare bed room off the sitting room. The door wns standing ajar. Leuvlng her letter she followed that elusive lure. The old chest-of-druw ers loomed enormous In the tiny room which she never used because she hud had no company of late years. When Lila came to see her, as she did once a year, she stayed at the Jefferson house. So, because the room seemed good for no other purpose, Eliza kept Hog Reeve there her best frock, her best hat. “Tou ought to be a hog reeve,” said and In the chest of drawers she kept one politician to another. Some folks her sack of dried apples. wondered what he meant. A reeve, lu She opened a drawer and took out old New England, was a bailiff. A the sack Hnd peeped Into It. How hog reeve wns bailiff to the pigs. That Fergus had loved dried-apple pit with Is, he rounded them up. If they a bit of boiled cider and cinnamon 1 strayed Into the streets, and Impound She had always had her sack of dried ed them. Nobody hereabouts holds apples on thut account. She did not the position today. Yet If the govern care much for them herself, either In ment should re-establish the post, pie or sauce. There was quite a sack there would doubtless be applicants ful. Of course she wouldn't need for It. them now that she was going awuv. Likewise might It be the post of She wondered what she would do with “ woodward.” Some may guess that a them. Maybe Carrie Rush could use "woodward” was n warden who had them. She had a big family and any charge of the town woodlots. "Culler thing eatable always came In handy of staves" was another post In the an there. cient days. Not one In a thousand And the chest-of-drawers— the drled- will guess I t This official Inspected upple chest she called It in her own the staves that were cut for barrels. I mind. She would huvp to sell it Lila suspect that almost everybody knows had given her permission to bring a about the tything man.— Salem News. few things, but nothing so cumber some us this chest. It was not so In the Fatt Wagon easy to dispose of that She sighed Mrs. Ray Foncanr.on. w ife o f the as she gazed at I t It was very old. It hud been In Fergus' family, had be sheriff of Vigo county, frequently longed to his mother, she thought, or takes her daughter to school In the On the way back to perhaps his grandmother. It was all family sedan handmade, a dark red wood, cherry, town she Invites all the small chil presumably. Well, she would leave dren she passes to ride to their school- the chest-of-drawers and take the houses. dried apples over to Carrie Rush so I T?te other day she picked up a little chap about seven year* old. she could get them ready for supper. With a shawl around her and the | When she let him out at his build sack In her hand she went across ing some o f the children told him that he had ridden In the sherlTs the street to the Rush house. Mrs car. His eyes grew big; he began Rush met her hospltnhly. "Oh. don’t tell the "What's that? Dried apples? Well, to tremble. teacher they brought me to school In I guess they will come In handy. I’ll ! the paddy wagon.” he begged. “O r make me a dried apple cake after my mother, either.” — Indianapolis mother's recipe. Come In and sit | News down a minute. I want you to meet i my company— Mra. Wallace.” Withing Away Tim She drew Eliza Into the living room where a small, keen-eyed woman tut | Tou hear a lot o f fellows they wish It was Thursday. < by the register. Eliza, glad of a little diversion sat wish It was their birthday or down, and tbs three women began to was summer or that this J"h w« Now w « never could get the talk. wishing away time. You ml “ I feel dreadful about your going away. Mrs. Curry," kindly Mrs. Rush well wish away one of you Every time a day goes past mourned. "I don't know what I shall Just ao much lea« o f you l e f t - do without you. You’ve been the best can Boy Magazine. E Drawing by Ray Walter#. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON does a silhouette how they looked. i MAT la fame? Tin- dlctlon- Hut do we ever think of M. Daguerre, • I Hry. the court of lust the r»- Frenchman, who lu li439 gave to I aort In quest Iona o f deflnl- the world this first form o f modern ■ tlon, «ays It 1» "renown,” photography us wa now know It? Not “ celebrity," "that which much ! cumes one’s name to be When It rains we slip on a mackin remembered." And In that tosh, hut we’re not likely to stop even last synonym lies the Joker. for a moment to he grateful to Charles For Fame Is a capricious Mackintosh o f Manchester, England, goddess who often love* whose Invention of wuterproof cloth to trick those whom she makes It possible for us to keep dry ______ elevates to n position of We motor smoothly over macadam Ustluctton. Often she give* gen roads with never u thought for John erously with one hand and with I»udon Macadam, who won fume (? ) the other suddenly takes her gift as a road engineer In Scotland. Along awu.v. She promises that men’s the way, we stop for a sandwich at names will not he forgotten. So they, some roadside stand, because like the poor fools, burn out their lives to win Karl of Sandwich we want a light “ renown." And then they learn that lunch which cun be eaten with com the Joke's on them. Their names are fort as well hs speed. I f something remembered hut they themselves are goes wrong with the car, we open thu forgotten I tool box and perhaps take out a still- Scientists, Inventors and the like son wrench to fix I t (Yes, a man seem to he her favorite <lu|>es. In this named Sttllson Invented this handy electrical age, and especially In these tool. Hut who was he. anyway?) days of almost universal use o f the And so It goes. On long railroad rudlo, everyone uses the terms "watt," Journeys we ride In comfort lu pull- "volt," "ohm” and "ampere,” hut how man cars and It's doubtful If we ever many of us know anything about give n thought to George Mortimer James Watt of Scotland. Count Ala* Pullman, (he New York cabinetmaker sandro Volta of Italy. George Simon who first transformed an old day Ohm of Germany or Andre Marie Am couch Into the first sleeping car. We pere o f France? At least, their nanus nmy have n nmusard roof on our house survive In these common words even hut we don’t know that It's called that If they themselves are forgotten, hnt heoansc a French architect named how about that modem frotnotheus Mansard helped circumvent an old who made It possible for us to do Paris law that tried to limit the height away with the clumsy, old-fashioned of houses by specifying the distance method of starting a tire with (lint and from the ground at which ult roofs ateal? How many person* can name should begin. the man who Invented the modem Nor Is the caprice of Fame confined match? Very few, probably. to those to whom we should be most Yet It was only ninety years ago grateful because they have given us that Janos Irtnyt, a Hungarian an useful or lndis{>en*nble article# of alytical chemist, was successful where every day use. Did you ever say "I hts professor had failed and by using certainly am going to hand him a wal phosphorus Instead of sulphur, pro lop I" "W allop" la a perfectly good duced a match that dared satisfac word In the English language and fa torily. He sold his Invention for about miliar to everyone. Hut who remem Ktn. In IH-ht he founded a match fac bers now a certain Sir John Wallop, a tory and seemed to lx on the road to Hrtttsh general who Inflicted ao many great wealth. Then the Hungarian defeats upon the French that "L et’s revolution two years later stopped hts Wallop them!" became a by-word tn work. He died In poverty In IXUfi. England? We cherish the silhouettes of our I f you ever have to "take a rid« In ancestors as precious helrlooina be the Htack Marla" It may be sorde com cause. unless our forefathers were fort to you to meditate upon the wealthy enough to have their portraits thought that you know why It'a so- painted, these silhouettes are the only called and that the policeman who ar things which give us any Idea o f how rested you doesn't. 80 on the way to they looked. Itut ere know nothing at the station you might entertain him alt about Ktlennne de Si l houet t e, a with the following historical facta: French minister of Anance, eicept that In the old colonial days. Marta Lee. a eoroewhere we may have heard that negree*. kept a sailor's hoarding house he had a reputation for atlngtneeu We la Boston. A woman o f great stature cherlah also those old daguerreotypes and strength, she not only had the o f our grandparents or greet grand- whole lawless element of her part of parents, which tall us aveu better thaa town In aw« of her. but ah« also helped I the authorities keep the peace. It 1» said that at one time she, unassisted, took three riotous sailors to the lock up and whenever a particularly troublesome person was to be subdued everybody Immediately said “ send for Illack Marla." So It appears that she wus not one to “ let George do It.” Ill that respect she wus different from Louis X II o f France. Although him self a strong ruler he was fortunate In hnvlng a prime minister who was u clever executive und an able manager. Georges d’Amholse was his name and as Louis leurned more and more to depend upon him to perform disagree able tasks, more and more was the sovereign o f France given to saying “ Que Georges le fasse" (Let George do It!) Try this sentence on your neighbor: "When a man In defiance o f the bone dry laws gets filled up with gin rlckeys he’s likely to get reckless and let ’er go gallagher.” He probably will understand what you mean, all right. Hut ask him who was Bone and Rickey and Gallagher! I f he can’t answer, tell hint this: John Hone was formerly sheriff o f Chippe wa county, Mich., and through rigid enforcement o f the early liquor laws In that state made his county extreme ly arid. So when the legislature passed the next anti-liquor law It was named the Bone Dry bill. Col. Joseph K. Hickey of Fulton, Mo., Invented the drink called a gin rlckey. Gallagher (first name unknown) was city marshal of Harrodshurg, K.v. During a race meeting In Tipton county he was the driver of a fast trotting mare, entered In a race by Judge Heaver o f Morgan county, which was looked upon as a certain winner. But some o f the sport ing fraternity, hoping to catch the Judge unaware. Imported a famous fast trotter and entered the horse In the race. At the end o f the first half mile, the two horses came down the stretch, neck anil neck, whereupon the Judge shouted "Let > r go, Gallagher!" Gaiiagher loosed the reins, the mar« rushed forward and won the race by n doten lengths. What Is fame? Judging from all these examples fame Is a name and nothing more. I’ersonlfied Fame la the g o d d es s o f caprice. She promises men that their nnnies wilt not be forgotten and they think she Is promising them that TH EY will not be forgotten, o r she r ay he the goddess of Jokes. Our children's chlldien and their children after them may be rid ing around In s ford and to them Henry will he Just s common man * name. For Fame loves her little Joke —even a Ford Joke. neighbor I ever had; I wish there was some way so you could stay." Eliza smiled her pale, patient smile. "So do L But I shall be very cozy at my niece’s.” “ Of course. She will be good to you. No one could fail to be good to you. What are you going to do with your things? Tuke them with you?" " I can't. 1 guess Mr. I’ratt, the old furniture man, will take most every- thing— except, maybe, the dried-apple chest." “ The dried-apple chest 1” exclaimed Mrs. Wallace. Eliza explained. " I ’d like to see that chest," Mrs. Wallace said. "Maybe I could sell it for you. I know a womau that’s quite a hand for old furniture. She might give you a good price for it.” In the little spare bedroom where the chest loomed bo hugely Eliza raised the shade of the one window. "I suppose maybe It’s one hundred fifty years old," she remarked. " I t *8 a fine old piece,” Mrs. Wallace said. "Four drawers and three across the top. And the whole front Is solid mahogany. I fancy Mrs. Aldrich would give you fifty dollars for this, any way.” Eliza drew a long breath. Fifty dollars was a lot o f money, and yet for her the old dried-apple chest had a volue that could not be expressed In terms of dollars. Then suddenly Mrs. Wnllaee went down on her knees und began hunt ing for something at the bottom of the chest. "I want a knife or something to pry with,” she said. Eliza brought the knife. Mrs. W al lace inserted the blade In a cruck which the varnish almost filled. She worked the knife hack and-forth, she gave a tug and out flew a drawer thut Eliza, perhaps Fergus himself, had never known wus there. “A secret drawer!" cried Mrs. W al lace. “ And look here 1" She took out a buckskin pouch which weighed heavily. Open it 1” she commanded. But she had to cut the thong with the knife. Out of the pouch poured gold pieces and greenbacks. “ Somebody’s treas ure," she commented. Eliza stared at the gold In amaze ment "It Is Fergus’ uncle’s money 1” she said. “ The family always wondered what he did with It. He didn’t have a cent when he died. The chest was In his room.” And still she stared, scarcely com prehending the wealth that hud so mi raculously become hers. It was not until the next day that she remembered her unfinished letter to LMa. The money was In the bank to her credit. She wus again inde pendent of reluctantly charltuble rel atives. A moment she contemplated the un finished page. “ Need” was the Inst word she had written when the fra grance of dried apples stnrted her on her great adventure. Why, she wns beyond need now! With a smile she tore the letter to bits, and sat down to write another one.