Show FALSE FACES r ILL WITHERS VITHERS nn and I Bill 1 Bill lived B BILL across the road from us bad us-bad had been reading Bentley Dentley Burrows Burrows- or The Skeleton Hand Han a o tale of ghosts and bandits an and general horror continued from week to week In The Saturday Night a literary Journal which our hired man bought er e every week ek at Coles Cole's drug rug store In town Shivering with fear I was just finishing the last chapter In the dusk of a dull November Novena Novem her ber evening when I heard a knock at atthe atthe atthe the door I called Come In as was the polite custom In our c community and to m my horror a real bandit entered leather lt leggins big bib re revolver lver bristling bris bris- bristling moustache nn and all 1 I Vas was frightened frightened frightened fright fright- ened for a moment and mid th then n I caught sight of n a lock of curly r redhair sticking stickIng stickIng stick- stick Ing out through a hole In tl the lire sombrero an and a freckled ear car protruding 1 It was only Bill Dm Withers Vithers false face and tr trying to fool me I have had hall the experience nce often since t f fI i I 1 was at a n party a n few hights ago where on the surface ever everything thing was hilarious Through th the tiro dim ilia light lows fel-lows however I could see that all the time fellows tell tel fel lows l vs were wen wearing ring false fa faces es A Above oye the din of the ragtime soun sounded ed out from the suffering long-suffering piano I could detect the hollow unnatural voices Issuing issuing Is Is- suIn suing through the masks masl s that the men were wearing I watched Mary Gay rosy cheeked un and e eyed bright e an and I 1 th thought I r ha had never neer seen a n handler and n a more P mated mate face She was smiling on every everyone everyone everyone one and showing a vivacity vi and anti an nn Interest interest interest In in- terest that held a pleased crow crowd about her A few tew minutes later inter I came upon her unobserved as she was standing b before forc the mirror In the hallway ay surreptitiously surreptitiously surreptitiously sur sur- adjusting her false face and I could see how pitifully bored and tired she looked ed I ran onto Jim Burton one Sun Sunday uy this summer at church with his iris par par- He was looking pious attentive and altogether unsophisticated As he leaned over to pick a hymn book from the fl floor or I could coul see how crudely he had hall adjusted his false face for tor un underneath underneath under under- er neath he was the same Irreligious lr lr- lr Irresponsible youth whom I had known at c college liege The false faces which we wear or orBee see Bee every day seldom deceive anyone They are like tike rouge or oleomargarine or hair dye or face no powder powder powder- no one ever thinks them real We Ve put them themon on to make ourselves beautiful or Im lm Impressive to our teachers or our sweethearts sweet sweet- hearts or the tax collector or the home folks or the minister or Of our Creator but more often than otherwise the lock bock of ot red hair escapes or the freckled freckle ear lUcks out and gives us away |