Show v I t J r. r 1 Ij 1 t It f r- r t tJ ti J J I. I fl r J 1 TELEGRAM LL R K SU SUNDAY J. J D Y AUGUST 22 ibis 1 1 15 n I c V. V S. S f. f 4 FOUND FOUND A A PERFECTLY Y HAPPY MAN 1 Thaddeus E. E Peck f the he Seventy six six Severity x- x Y ear r- r Old Connecticut S Socrates Soc Soc- oc rates rales Who o Preached a Methodist Parson to Lo a Standstill Lives and Works ors in a Barn ern Where He fie Has s Invented a L Liquid Panacea for or Ending War Worked Out Various Utopian Lopian Schemes for World Betterment and Admits A That of He e Has a Good Time Living kj By Stanley Powers IT T was Diogenes if I remember rightly who poked around looking for one honest man and could not find him evert evets when he illuminated il illuminated illuminated il- il broad daylight with a lantern I had better luck the other day I stumbled stumbled stem stem- bled across that even rarer bird a perfectly happy man And I had no lantern to help me I did not need one All I had to do was shuffle down across a stretch of grass to the thedoor thedoor thedoor door of an old barn bam that stands behind an old oldhouse oldhouse house on the main street of the old town of Stratford Conn I 1 knocked at that barn bam door and an old man opened it and stood peering up at me out of a pair of blue eyes eye faded with many years yean of living He le gave me something I of a shock I was not looking for so mild a person I was looking for the redoubtable Mr Peck 0 You remember perhaps the story of the redoubtable Mr Mc Peck How some som nine years ago now the Methodist Church of Stratford needed land on which to build a parsonage And how the only a available lot was part put of the old Peck estate of which Thaddeus Thaddcus E. E Peck is the present master And how Mr Peck being a scientist philosopher philosopher phil phil- deist reformer and iconoclast in general flatly refused to sell a morsel o of his land for mere coin to such a degenerate institution institution institution in in- as the modem church but he made the Methodists of Stratford a sporting proposition proposition If their parson would consent to sit under his expounding of the law the gospel and the rest of the eternal verities said Mr Peck he Thaddeus T E. E Peck would pay said parson panon Royal W W. Raymond at the rate of rte Excuse m me he said id eI 1 I guess I forgot o ot to dress dreu this morn morning in twenty dollars lIars fin an n ho hour r for his gameness all sums so earned to be applied to the price of the parsonage lot The price of the lot was The minister was game For or eleven cleven hours he sat unresisting under a c cascade lc de of words And then Mr Peck showed showe his magnanimity He F remitted the other tHirty dollars and gave the sporting parson a signed deed for the land That episode made the name of Thaddeus Thaddcus E E. Peck world known for a day then It F went echoing around the globe in relays of I newspaper comment on its owner Just to my right as I tapped at that old i barn door that parsonage stood lu t 1 1 JoUr Uil n. n II aY v u hardly a reminder remind r and a aI I warning to rash visitors But ButI I stood my ground and thedoor the thedoor door opened and the the J faded ded blue blueeyes blueeyes blueeyes eyes peered up into my eyes Though TI they were faded they were by no means dull They were not sharp or prying either They were clear quiet friendly friendly even even a little quizzical Im looking for Mr Peck said I. I And I 1 am Mr Peck said he waving a hand of invitation As I 1 stepped inside he happened happened hap hap- Pe ned to glance down at him him- self elf A look of tepid surprise surprise sur our prise dawned in the eyes behind behind behind be be- hind the battered gold rums rims rima and lenses lense of the spectacles that rested comfortably far fardown fardown down on his nos nose have to excuse my L Ir f i R Thaddeus E. E Peck the aged philosopher of Stratford Conn looks he said aid without embarrassment I Iguess Iguess I gu guess s I forgot to dress this morning There was some work that interested me He certainly had forgotten A flannel nightshirt enveloped him from throat to heels That was all he wore except except except ex ex- the spectacles and a pair of slippers So garbed he should have been a figure of fun But somehow he was not absurd at all There was a a. dignity about him far removed from pompousness and as elusive as it was per perceptible I It t was the dignity of plain sincerity perhaps At any rate he was a living contradiction of Carlyle dictum that clothes make men He gave himself one impersonal glance and then forgot his appearance completely as he had forgotten his toilet in the morning it it was then 5 o'clock of a hot summer Sunday afternoon He had too many other things to talk about too about too many more interesting things to show meI meI me I I was was was' six seventy-six years and six months young just yesterday he told me apropos of nothing in particular and for the last thirty of them this barn bam has been my workshop work work- shop Then he led me further in to see what manner of place it was Never again ca can I hope to explore another old barn bam like that one A little of almost everything packed it from floor to sturdy roof beams There was a a. chemical labora labora- tory There was an instrument makers maker's work bench with tools and lathes and grindstones There was a manufacturing druggists druggist's s workshop floored with cases caSe of freshly filled bottles waiting for their labels There was a a. bedroom and there was a study And wherever there was nothing else to occupy a space there was a heap of books An And in all the clutter so so 10 it seemed there was not a single item that was not in some sense a treasure to its it's owner not ot one he could have spared V A A 1 T Well youve you've given theold the old crank a chance to talk J f without a sense of loss And not one he could pass by without some comment There was Vas sardonic a Frenchman once who said of a rather famous lady that she was a marvellous conversationalist but but seemed to have no gift sift at all for dialogue If Mr Peck unlike her possesses such lIuch a gift he kept it well wen concealed that Sunday afternoon after after- noon But though the words cascaded they were very far from being bung the tiresome mouth mouth- ings ing of a babbler Sincerity saved the man from his own loquaciousness just as fU it saved him hum m from his nightshirt and his slippers He told me of his for great plan the es establishment establishment establishment es- es of a church universal which would make little Stratford the ecclesiastical ecclesiastical ecclesiastical ecclesias ecclesias- centre of the world a OIa plan worked out through fifteen years' years study and observation observation observation tion of the frailties of humanity He has it all worked out the setting aside of a great sanitary zone to embrace embr ce two thousand square miles wherein would dwell a Utopian population knowing no sickness or sin or crime or sorrow who would be a model for all the rest of the world world a a amodel model to be transported abroad for all men mento mento mento to see through the medium of moving pic pic- tures And then from the ideal he switched very suddenly to the sternly practical and spoke about his gas fix silencer his liquid panacea for ending war and violence in in general Arm Ann a policeman with one tube of it it-he it he will need not a a. club dub Dash a Ii motor motol engine praying spraying it at sixty miles per hour down between the trenches of Germans and Allies six Ames six hours later they f t Y The minister was game ame For eleven cleven hours he sat at at unresisting will begin to sit lit up and take notice unharmed unharmed un un- harmed but feeble their martial ardor quenched en Just to prove that was no mere theory Mr Peck poured a little of the compound over his hands at that point and bade me sniff them The one sniff was quite enough Then he had his plan for saving the world some twenty billion dollars every year b by Y conserving as ammonia and fertilizers the e sewage that at at present goes to waste t Those only three of are a good score of his dreams Altogether those are big visions Mr Peck sees see inside the weather weather- beaten walls of his old bam big ham big because they fill his life full upWell up Well yell said Mr Peck standing without self con in his nightshirt and his slippers as I 1 was leaving youve given the old crank a chance to talk this after after- noon That's what all aU m my Y neighbors will tell you that I am He peered up at me mildly out of those faded eyes And now Ive I've talked he asked me bluntly am lOam I as at much of a crank as yoa as-yoa you thought you were going to find here Mr Peck said I I. I I think you are the only perfectly per per- happy man I ever had the good luck to meet He pondered pandered that a mo mo- ment merit Well ha ho told me I do o have a good time living Jiving And then he stood and watched me shuffle off across acmes his stretch of grass graSl Y |