putterings       585   <   586   >   587       index

 
      Scene : Farmhouse kitchen. Chairs and other plain furniture to suit convenience. Door R. to adjoining room in house and door L. to outside. When curtain rises, Joshaway Alexander Smith is sitting in a rocking chair, reading, sears blue overalls, no coat or vest, heavy shoes, a torn hat lies near on the floor.
      Enter Mrs. Smith, R. Wears calico dress and bib apron. She has a butter ladle in her hand.
      Mrs. Smith. Well, pa, I must say I am all worn out toiling and moiling, trying to get the butter as dry as a bone, yes sir, dry as a bone, and with the price as it is. I declare to goodness! And the eggs, hens stealing their nests hither and yon and the merchants wanting eggs dated. I’ll eat um, yes sir. I’ll eat every one before I’ll date an egg. And me a fussing and whitewashing both henhouses, and a puttering with oyster shells. If you don’t whitewash the pig pen I shall. Yes, sir, I shall! Don’t you say one word, not one word, if you don’t white-wash that pig pen I shall. Did you hear me say, that I have worked that butter until it is a perfect salve?
4

      Mrs. S. There is this much of it, Mr. Smith, I am tired of puttering, yes sir, I am tired of fiddling. What’s the use? I used to think that when we got to be before-handed and I had a brussels rug and an oval looking glass with a gilt frame and a brass bedstead, that I would be perfectly happy, but I ain’t. I’m sick of the whole caboodle. I never want to see another calf, nor a pig, nor a hen, nor a turkey, nor a duck, nor a goose, nor a gobbler, nor a gander.
5

Carabel L. Munger, Just Like a Woman, A comedietta (Chicago: T. S. Denison & Company, 1912) : 4, 5
LoC copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
LoC scan : link
 

Carabel Lewis Munger (1860-1922)

  1. findagrave : link
  2. Carabel Lewis Munger also authored The Goose Creek Line; A comedy in two acts (1916)
    LoC copy/scan : link

    described thus —
    A comedy in 2 acts; 3 males, 10 females. Time, 1 hour. Scenes: 2 interiors. The fun and incident of this lively play concern the installation and completion of a telephone line — the first in Goose Creek Hollow. It abounds in humorous incidents of the rural section and the characters are true to life. It was especially written for the Chautauqua County, New York grange, and has been produced in manuscript numerous times with decided success.
    p18, back advertising matter,
    Katherine Kavanaugh, The Fire Escape (1917) : link (wikipedia commons, pdf)

  3. Today

    How can you say that the summer is late,
    When the lilies are blossoming down by the gate
    And the vines are all trailing —
    And the butterflies sailing —
    And the bluebird Is lilting her lay,
    Her lay — the bluebird Is lilting her lay,
    The buds in her nest have each bloomed to a bird,
    Like a chime of bells ringing the brooklet is heard,
    In a garland the swallows are dipping,
    The bees at the clover are sipping;
    Why not be happy today — today ?
    Why not be happy today ?
     
    Strong enough! brave enough! steadfast of soul,
    Just over yonder, behold it — your goal!
    Look! all the storm clouds are lifting ,
    See! how the shadows are shifting,
    All of them drifting away — away,
    Shadows all drifting away.
    Hold the glad thought that the world’s growing brighter,
    Help every heart which you greet to be lighter.
    Azure and amber the sunlit skies bending —
    Bird-song and book-song gaily are blending.
    Then why not be happy today — today?
    Why not be happy today?
                            — Carabel Lewis Munger .

    in “The Editor’s Corner,” women’s section “The Evening Lamp,” in The Farmers Voice and Rural Outlook (“A Semi-Monthly Journal Devoted to Every Interest of Rural Life; containing thoughts experiences and successes of progressive farmers”) (1 June 1908)
    Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections : link
     

    The copyright of both Just Like a Woman and The Goose Creek Line was held by Eben H. Norris (1871-1943).,

  4. The New York Times carried this notice (May 14, 1943) : link (paywall) —
    Chicago, May 13 — Eben H. Norris, owner of the T. S. Benison & Co. [sic], publishers of plays, died here today in his home after an illness of two days. Mrs. Norris, a world traveler, collected many Old World maps, and recently gave to the government a rare map of Sicily to be used for military purposes.
  5. There appear to have been hundreds of titles published by Denison & Co. Two of these are :

    Eben H. Denison, A Brief Make-up Guide : Directions for Making up, How to Select Wigs, Beards and All Kinds of Make-up Material (Chicago: T. S. Denison & Co., 1916), and

    Eben H Norris and Nendick Buckton [illustrator? have not seen], Denison’s Make-up Guide : Written for the amateur actor and actress, and containing information of value to professionals in the art of making up for stage parts; also, in the selection of wigs, beards and all kinds of make-up material and accessories (Chicago, T. S. Denison & Co., 1922)

    Both of these titles are referenced in later scholarship on black- and yellow-face acting in vaudeville and theater productions.
     

8 February 2026