Show MRs MR SIMPKINS PAYS HIS INCOME TAX by ROBERT mcblair mr simpkins gazed at the portrait on the wall till ills eyes filled with tears it was a portrait of his father colonel simpkins who had four times been promoted for valor during the civil war and bad died bravely on the field of action mr simpkins throat ached now for two reasons first lie he reverenced reveren ced and adored the memory of his father secondly his age and hs eyes and ills his game leg let him go 0 o to clr himself and its as he observed the martial bearing and uncompromising gaze of colonel simpkins lie he saw in imagination the 1 khaki hak dad clad bals of the new dew generation march marching ing forth and add crossing three thousand miles of sea to fight maybe die for liberty mr simpkins peered around to make sure that neither bess nor john who were at the teasing leasing ages of sixteen find and seventeen were where they could see him then lie straightened and threw ills his right arm up for a s salute al ute but his bis gouty shoulder twigged twin ged and he groaned lie he even salute Da damn inn said mr simpkins and with ills his other land fiercely twirled his white mustachios blos los lie ile turned and limped into the library anil and sat flown down creakily creak lly before the mahogany test desk on which A were ere lying the blanks for ills his income tax statement blanks which he be IUM had rather LIML grumpily got from the internal reve keve nue ie only that lay day after lunch con on liis ills way i ay homo home from the club mr income for 1917 had amounted to just alious and lie he had been rather snappy on oil the subject of taxes ever since lie he had discovered that aliat the more income a n man mail lias has the greater file percentage of it he be pays in taxes ile he could think of several men who like himself were married ind and lind two children and yet although their incomes were nere nearly dearly halt half of his they would pay only a small fraction of the amount lie he paid lie ile gloomily drew the blank nearer and began filling in the information that it asked for As mr ir simpkins income was lie he had to figure out the amounts p payable ay on each of the successive smaller classes of incomes in order to arrive at the total due from himself ile he passed over the first class who must pay fares that is single men malting making over 1000 ills his calculation for married men then showed up as follows first they pay 2 per cent under the 1910 law on all income over deducting for each of their children under eighteen years in mr case this was wh which lab he put down donin in the payable column he saw nest dext that under the 1917 law married men pay an additional 2 per cent on all over 2000 with the same allowance for children this added 2 to his payable column lie ile then observed that for every 2500 r 00 juino in his income over lie had to pay a surtax the percentage grot growing Ning larger with each jump till this 9 was wag more inore added to his burd burden en and on top of all this came an excess profits tax lax of 8 per cent on all occupation income over making illogic the total then he must pay was fourteen hundred undred li and add thirty four dollars whew 1 exclaimed sir simpkins angrily theres young henry who aho married jako jake johnsons girl lie mattes makes 2000 and ho he pay a cent of taxes I 1 guess tills this Is his bis war as well as mine thinking of young henry wilkins he remembered that sirs mrs Will tins went every afternoon to make bandages for the red cross and that henry who was a lawyer was aiding the local draft board with its questionnaires 1111 well ell ile be admitted to himself that makes a difference ile he thought next of judge willoughby whose income was about ile he only pays 20 commented mr SIM pUns not quite so angrily this tine and then a thought thou glit struck him and lie sat up ri rigidly idly in his chair judge son soil had been drowned on the tuscania Tu when it was with the loss of two hundred soldiers judge willoughby gave his son to america muttered mattered sir mr simpkins ile ho leaned forward suddenly and put ills his face in ills hinds bands for a 1 long time mr simpkins sat very still in that po portion there was no sound hound in the library except the ticking of the tall clock and an occasional trill of i from the children hil sk upstairs the square of light on the carpet gradually withdrew itself through the window and first twilight tn alight and then darkness settled in about the quiet white haired sometimes irascible old man sir air simpkins was thinking things which lie he would never afterward speak of he be was thinking things that were too saed ever to be put into words dut but some inkling of ills his thi may lie found in his rejoinder to mrs Simp hins when that placid lady came in and turned on the lights and asked him dm whether lie he ans ready for dinner judge Willough bys only son was worth as burh as fourteen hundred und and thirty four dollars bel mr sini pins demanded of her As ills his wife who was not unused to ills his superficial irritations watched him in mild astonishment mr simpkins limped out to the liall and took ills his old felt fell hat and sliver silver headed cane from the liui lao i tick luck letting himself out adut into the coy agy evening lie tapped nipped ills his vay ay down to the corner und and mailed his income come tax statement and check with ills his own oun linnus hanus now goil god b bi thanked sat said mr gimp simpkins kins as thella clanked shut over ills his missive 1 I 1 can do this much for my country anyhow |