Surprise Party ~ Tom Cummings (Dr. Wailes in attendance)
The Davis City Advance, Davis City, Iowa
Thursday, May 30, l90l
On tuesday of this week TOM CUMMINGS was 48 years old, and his wife and daughter put up a job on him. They made arrangements for a dinner, and notified a number of his friends, and about eleven o'clock a party of men swooped down on the unsuspecting TOM, who was out hoeing watermelons, and didn't know at first whether it was a Sheriff's possee or a batch from the harmless ward at Mt. Pleasant. But a light broke on him after a while, and he went up to the house and got into his store togs and proceeded to help the crowd enjoy itself while the dinner was preparing. The party took to the grass under the shade trees, and cracked jokes and played pranks on each other just like a lot of overgrown boys, and a merry time they had, until the welcome call to dinner came, and then it was fun to see 'em all hang back and have to be pulled in to the first table. But once there, oh my! LOYD SEVERE had to be choked off, and the editor would have been but they couldn't get to him. The turkey set DR. WAILES talking about birds, and DR. ROBINSON got so interested he emptied a cream pitcher in the sugar bowl by mistake.
While the first crowd was eating, some measley son of a tinker stole all the hats and hid them in the Oat bin, intending no doubt to sell them later, but fortunately they were found soon. When the second table got at it there was a terrible slaughter. DR. ROBINSON tried to take their pictures, but they wouldn't stand for it, and the hats of CARTER SCOTT and ISAAC JEFFRIES got so bashful they crawled out from under their chairs and into LOYD's buggy and didn't show up untill long after all were back in town. Ah, but that was a dinner. And when all was over and only a waste of ruins left for MRS. CUMMINGS and MISS MABEL, all gathered out to the front yard, and L.A. BROWN, in a neat and earnest speech, presented to TOM a 5 foot plate glass, gilt framed mirror, a gift of the party, as a token of their esteem and friendship.
All wrote their names on the back, and the party went home, richer by a very pleasant memory of a day well spent.
Those present were ISAAC JEFFRIES, DR. ROBINSON, DR. WAILES, SAM and LON BULLOCK, HARVE SHOEMAKER, CARTER SCOTT, LOYD SEVERE, FRANK OSBORN, A. NORMAN, W.H. WELLER, ED TEALE, L.A. BROWN, C.A. WICKES, GRANDPA CUMMINGS, W.J. CUMMINGS and ARTHUR CUMMINGS.
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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
September 9, 2003
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