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Show SPOILED BY A COOK CHRISTMAS EXPERIENCE IN A WOMEN'S BOARDING HOUSE. How a Famished Tableful Had to Wall for Their Turkey Until the Bel-llgerent Bel-llgerent Female Could Be Coaxed from the Room, "My most unplrasnnt nnd yet most comical cxperlcnco of Christmas-keeping," said tho concert singer, "dates back to tho tlmo when' I lived for economy's sako in a homo for working women. Tho cook wo had was a good one, and so, when Chrlstmns day came, we all felt assured that at ono o'clock we should havo our orthodox turkey-nnd-plum-puddlng dinner. "Hut ono bottlo of whisky, smuggled smug-gled into n Christian kitchen, will upset up-set tho expectations of .10 hungry boarders. Just how many drinks the cook had that morning, I cannot say, hut when dinner tlmo camo sho was belligerently drunk. Tho turkey was as well roasted as though sho had been sobor, but what wns that to tho boarders In general, when sho stood ovor it, carving-knife in hand, declaring declar-ing that not a soul in that dining-room should havo a mouthful of it but mamma and myself? "Vainly did the matron threaten nnd entreat. Tho determined cook wns not to bo disarmed. Mamma and I were bountifully helped, but tho others sat nnd waited, wondering what would bo tho outcome of tho trouble. Finally, tho defeated matron camo out of tho kitchen, nnd with tears In her voice, cnld to me: '"I can do nothing with her. Will you go In nnd see what you can do?' "And so I went in, nnd In my most nffnblo manner Invited intoxicated Ilrldgct to sit down and havo a friendly friend-ly cup of tea with myself. Sho compiled, com-piled, though with an cyo still on tho uirkey. After wo had had our tea, by exerting nil of my arts and wiles I persuaded per-suaded her to go up stairs and to bed. It was not until sho wns ncfely out of tho kitchen that dinner was served to the other boarders. "Of course tho next day thero was a bad nuartor of an hour for that cook, ono that ended with her 'getting her duds together and skipping.' Many, in fact, all of us, were ready to plead for her, knowing that sho could not easily bo replaced; but tho matron wqs adamant, protesting thnt in her experience with tho creature sho had already forgiven her until seventy times seven, and she wasn't going to forclvo her ncaln. And I heard after ward that It was really n year or moro beforo tho woman was tnken back again Into thnt kitchen. "Naturally, it was easier for tho other boarders, who, you may bo suro, resented thnt 'Inwnsion of their wit-ties,' wit-ties,' to forglvo the cook than to make friends wIUi mamma and mo, and from thnt tlmo on wo wero tho most unpopular unpop-ular persons In tho houso. Wo had been ruined by a cook's favor. It would not havo mattered so much about tho boarders, but tho defection pf her kitchen head was too much for tho matron's magnanimity, and as she managed tho lady mnnngors of that Institution, It wa3 not very long beforo wo too, In our culinary friend's Inn-image, Inn-image, had to 'got our duds together and skip.'" |