Then They Spend
Money On Hotel Bills, Among Ten Thousand Farms, On Private Companies Who
Lease And Stock Land For Sporting Purposes, On Yachts And Canoes,
Bicycles, Rods, Chalets, Cottages, Reading Circles, Camps, Tents, And
All The Luxuries They Know.
But the luxury of rest most of them do not
know; and the telephone and telegraph are faithfully dragged after them,
lest their men-folk should for a moment forget the ball and chain at
foot.
For sadness with laughter at bottom there are few things to compare with
the sight of a coat-less, muddy-booted, millionaire, his hat adorned
with trout-flies, and a string of small fish in his hand, clawing wildly
at the telephone of some back-of-beyond 'health resort.' Thus:
'Hello! Hello! Yes. Who's there? Oh, all right. Go ahead. Yes, it's me!
Hey, what? Repeat. Sold for how much? Forty-four and a half? Repeat.
No! I told you to hold on. What? What? Who bought at that? Say, hold
a minute. Cable the other side. No. Hold on. I'll come down. (Business
with watch.) Tell Schaefer I'll see him to-morrow.' (Over his shoulder
to his wife, who wears half-hoop diamond rings at 10 A.M.) 'Lizzie,
where's my grip? I've got to go down.'
And he goes down to eat in a hotel and sleep in his shut-up house. Men
are as scarce at most of the summer places as they are in Indian
hill-stations in late April.
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