Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 14, Number 55, Decatur, Adams County, 4 March 1916 — Page 2

From My Narrow M| Little Window ' I By THE HOOSIER OBSERVER fe. ; JJ “THE OTHER HALF” ,—...

r 1 When you come to the end of a busy day. And you sit alone with your thought, And events pass by in review array— So very much the day has brought!— Do you think what the end of a busy day Can mean to a thoughtful heart, When the sun shines down with pitiless ray, On sorrow and joy far apart? A reporter’s lire is a mixture of joy and sorrow. But she must learn to take it like water rolls from a goose's back; or like the quarrels of the mis tress and master go in one ear and out the other of the grim-mask-set-faced, stage bptler. Jorgins. A new reporter, or one very young, goes about in the first stages with red glims, for the weeps cannot help crop out. Her sorrow heretofore has been limited to the death of a pet bird or pet dog. And the tragedies of the world sit heavy on her narrow’ shoulders. But she cannot keep it up! Atlas' burden would have been as an atom of dust to an elephant compared to the world's griefs upon her young shoulders. But with the passing of years she may learn to take it like the grind organ woman about whom I think I have told you before. • » » • She comes) to Decatur often, I don’t know who she is. But she is a meek, mild, little woman with a crutch which she stands beside her grind organ while she grinds, stopping in front of each business house, until they give her some pennies to move on. Down one side of the street and down the other she goes, slowly and patiently, as though working out a panance for some relentless, pursuing fate from which she cannot escape. The deadly monotony of her life seems to have seared her countenance like deafness irons out the wrinkles of care and gives a certain peaceful, but hopeless expression. Tune after tune she grinds out, with deadly monotony of expression. “Lead Kindly Light” chimes out as cheer- , fully as ' The Irish Washerwoman” or “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary” and on the other hand these two latter tunes came out just as dolefully as “Lead, Kindly Light.” Her facial expression never brightens ,or changes. It is just as doleful under the strains of “0 Happy Day” as it is under the tones of “I m a Sinner Weak and Weary.” Her grinding never takes on a more jaunty air under the inspiration of one tune more ; than another. 1* .ust as though she is turning a clothes-wringer. It means “grinding” to her. I have stopped often in my w’ork and walked to the window to look at her and pity ‘ her. “Why can’t she show some interest in her work?" I have thought, “Show some expression of appreciation or sympathy with the airs she plays.” J have since learned by experience. What a gymnastic impossibility her face would become if she were to try to do so! What useless effort would her body expend! After all she was just grinding out somebody else’s tunes. She was possibly conserving her strength by not showing emotion. That is what a .reporter should do. She is simply recording somebody else’s experiences. She should look at them impersonally, like the grindorgan woman. But can she! She may learn not to show’ it. But possibly, like the grind-organ woman’s underneath the cold mask, the heart is throbbing painfully—or joyfully, as the case may be. e * * * Experience teaches. You have learned that it is just impossible to weep with all those that weep; and laugh with all those who laugh—ft you are a reporter/ You must go through with your work coldly and dry-eyed. But sometimes the “weeps ’ll git you if you don't watch out” and those who dislike to be called "sobsisters” can sometimes barely make the run to reach safe shelter where tears fall in unobserved peace. "What are you crying about, sister?” some one may ask. And you answer, “O, nothing!” “Well, well,” will come their answer. “Do you just like to cry?” » » « » And so, at the end of a busy day, as you pick up the paper and scan it. many things crop out between the lilies —as you review the events —between the words that in haste are sometimes misspelled or written un-

— -I I . ■ ■. .1 !—■» nr.itntically, or seemingly harshly, tut how much there is that is not written there! * » * ♦ - A reporter's life is not all bliss that the social column might load you to think. How gay the :-ocial realm seems. One series of parties and teas and balls ard aids and hops and “so cial affairs” follows the other. The reporter is supposed to linger in settings of “softly hooded lights throwing their rose-colored hues over the throng of beautiful women in rich evening gowns that fall from glisteny ing white shoulders supporting heads o crowned with tiaras set with diss’ moods.” She is supposed to view and ► sometimes taste, perchance, the rich •t feasts in which eight or sixteen I- courses pursue each otljer in state varying in number befitting the occa1, sion. Or she is supposed to write It with equal splendor the minor affairs, P in which a new adjective must be s sleuthed from the dictionary to again t describe the “epergne” which did duty 8 last week at one party and was borr rowed for the occasion of another par- ! ty this week. 1 And then that charity hall. It was 1 a grand affair. The ladies who gave ’ it are the kind and thoughtful and 1 hard working and their kind charity 3 is a blessing to many needy ones. 1 But they need help. They hhve learned that the best way to get the dollar is to coax it gently from the purse by giving something in return. That 1 return is biggest through the ball, i The setting, of course, must be per--1 feet. Hot house roses perfume the J air; the strains of an orchestra from [ many miles away must lure the trip- . ping feet; the refreshments must be I as delicious and daintily served as i careful catering can do; everything must be conducted in the way to . which the elite or de luxe who come, have been accustomed. There must . be no showing of the seamy side of life to which the dollars must ulti- . rnately be applied. The floating, airy, dainty, lovely evening gowns may frock dainty women, whose greatest care in life is a pet poodle, which must be warmly robed and carefully pawicured and be-jeweled-collared and fed on roast pheasant out of season. Man and matron, girl and bachelor. accustomed to every luxury, with no cares or responsibilities in life, see only joy here. Everything—light and roses and music and joy and happiness and feasting abound —are going to waste; may not be even properly appreciated. It is easy to laugh and be gay, here. Nobody but the reporter who slips out in response to a call to another scene sees the “hand citing on the wall.” » » * ♦ The slipping away to another scene is recalled to her in scanning the paper at the end of the busy day. She reads over the paragraphs she wrote during the day. “Mrs. Blank, widow of Mr. Blank, laborer, who died a few months ago, passed away last night. She leaves five children, the youngest six months of age. They are in destitute circumstances and will be taken to a home. Heart failure was the cause of death.” Ah, yes, “Heart Failure” was the cause of death! Whose heart wouldn’t fail in the face of such circumstances? But thirty years old, she was a widow, < with five children. A poor, little hovel in which to live, affording poor protection from winds and even snow; a little cracked stove, with meager coal supply; bare floor; bare cupboards; the wash board with which to eke out the charity of the public. At night . the wash steam became a chilly, pene- ’ trating fog. The little pale-faced wo- ' man had been found lying cold and lifeless in her chill bed by her oldest child, thirteen, at three o’clock that ( morning, who was-awakened by the whimperings of the six months’ old baby, whose little mouth groped, with suckling lips in vain, for the flabby, 1 fountains of life that had sparingly supplied it, even at the cost of her 1 own failing strength. About the babe the meagre blankets were doubly wrapped. Until the morning light 3 came the frightened children had watched alone with the dead in the cold house, and then summoned help. 1 The reporter was soon on the scene and with others did what she could 1 to help. There was no milk in the house for the baby. A bucketful was brought by a neighbor. Some one ask- ■ ed for bread to put with the milk.. • There was no bread; no nothing with e which to feed the other children. The i- bare cupboards told a sad tale. On e the table were four plates, unwashed, - and in fact needing no washing, be-

cause so little had been on them. Four plates tol dthe story of the mother’s self-denial plainly. She had not used a fifth plate, because she had nothing to put on it. The reporter recalled a little incident in her own home. The family cat had two little kittens that played and frisked around tiie back porch. One day in hastily stepping out on the porch, she stepped on the head of one of the kittens. Its life was crushed. The mother cat mewed in sorrow and tenderly licked the fur of the little one into a shroud; and for days the mother guarded the pan of milk set out for herself and her young, the mother | vat drinking very little and always see>l>ing that a portion of the milk in the pan was reserved by th» other kitten I for the missing little one. that she probably could not understand was dead, but whith she thought would surely come back again for its share , of the milk. i Mother-love and self-sacrifice. While some of the women were “ridding” up the table they found in the place where the “fifth plate” should have been a scrap of paper on which were scrawled the names of and amounts owing from some of her delinquent "customers" for washings. The amounts were small and were past due only a week or two. But they took the place of the fifth plate. Spending her frail strength for oth- ’ ers, the woman had little time to keep her own clothes clean. There was not sufficient wherewith to decently “lay her out in." In the closet hung a row of “best" dresses for the children, which they eagerly looked forward to wearing to the funeral. They were thin and gauzy and delicate andTairy in pastel tints. They were made from pall dresses of somebody and "donated.” They—- • » • • Here the scanning of the paper at the close of a busy day by the reporter was broken by: “Well, Sis, what are you crying about?” “Oh, nothing!” “Well, do you just like to cry?” HAS THeIeTTERS 1 CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE last night that Hardesty was the man whom Aimee referred to as my ’Mitchell six.’ It was also reported that for some time there has bees whispering around the city of an in! timacy between Mrs. Cour-Smith and Hardesty. Hardesty could not be found last night to give his side of the story. “In the last letter mentioned Aimee says: ‘Am still havlhg a good time here, thanks to Harry. He took us to see “Twin Beds” Saturday afternoon and we rode a lot with him. I wiil have to leave towm before long or there will be some talk here. Had a dandy letter from Billy K. the other day. “ ’Art said in his last letter that 1 should be satisfied to remain here for the present. He little knows how well satisfied I am. My guy with the Mitchell six is making himself more necessary every day, but Paul is first, only I know that Paul doesn’t care for me as much as Harry does.’ f “‘Art Has Swell Head.’” “In an interview with a Chicago newspaper reporter yesterday at the home of Charles Bishop, 1848 West Van Buren street, where she went Thursday morning with Mrs. William Bright, jr„ 711 East Wayne street. Aimee said that Art has the swell head, and that that and publicity are the causes for the divorce proceedings. She denied all the charges and called attention to the fact that nothing had been skid of Art’s running around with other girls,| which she said she hgd been told was the case.” SPLENDID EVENT (CONTINUED FROM PAGE and thither made the spectacle a very pretty one, as the dancers w’ound in and out among the twirling ribbons. In a later dance confetti w r as thrown. Between the eleventh and twelfth dances the Eastern Star served luncheon in the dining room. There were very m£ny here from out of the city attending the ball. A partial list secured includes Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Torrence, Mr. Servis. Marion; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Loch, Fort Wayne; Paul Sauers, Markle; K. R. Morton, Chicago; Miss Hazel Kuby, Winchester; Verne Mitchell, Monroeville; Miss Kathryn Egly, Berne; Misses Marie Jolliff and Margaret Force, Ur. Schirmeyer, Miss Helen Aurentz, Fort Wayne; Fred Mason, Geneva; Rosella Parisot, Flora Limecooly, Marie McMullen. Flora Byerly, Laella Borgman, Fort Wayne; Mrs. L. G. Ellingham, Indianapolis; Fred Weicking, Bluffton. The sorority will clear obout fifty dollars although the exact amount is no’t known at this time. The proceeds will be used for charity.

I—the tooth paste J that protecta your teeth. Use J it twice daily. w See your dentist twice yearly and keep your teeth in perfect condition Get a tube today, read the folder about the moat general diaeaae in the world. Start the Senreco treatment tonight. 25c at your druggist*. For sample send 4c, stamps or coin, to The Sentanel Remedies Cum Cincinnati. Ohio. A DENTISTS Formula . . g“JL -111 -J • . ..L_ 1 "J. 1 J- L —— —— ■■■■■«*’«

- I. * w A ■ 111 i 111 ■UH i will iniiim ii 11 . I ■■•■■■■■■■«■«■■■■■■■■■■■■■■MBHOr wear SIX Model 86 f. o. b. Toledo No Advance In Price The price of the big, powerful Overland Six (Model 86) will not be advanced. 7 ' i Prices o f other Sixes are advancing. Prices of Sixes recently announced on new models, are higher. In fact, comparatively hgunng, prices of practically all Sixes are now far in excess of the Overland. On the basis of present prices of raw materials a Six of the Overland quality would have to sell at a much higher price. But due to a little foresight in purchasing we escaped having raw ma t e rials—hence the price of the Overland Six is not increased. ffaCt tha } Prices of all steels are U P from 90 n-ntc ° C> a tnC P nce aluminum has gone from about 20 cents a pound to over 50 cents a pound; that the price of —ri°es f hold mdXtely.^ preßent pncc of 1145 impolrible SeriOUS C ° nditiOn ° f material that » no?ad^cM*“ ty ” I ° W “ ed: “* »*• capacity, the Sniah. S ''X“ a ssr th , c h ,e " tin « veniences and improvements of ihtn' • e c ° mtort3 > the conand you’ll find no valid rS™ S Overland .Si* with all others a six cylinder automobile.' f paymg raore t^ ll $1145 for Deliveries now. HOLTHOUSE F g F GARAGE Phone 11 I Company, Tc.cdo, Ohu, J ’ U U. 3, A." ■ > A k Z? ,

THE SIGN OF GIGTR COMFORT One Nickel Any Place.

NEW BLACKSMITH SHOP. — I will open a blacksmith shop, cor- i ner Third and Monroe streets, nt the Schlickman feed yard, in the Jacob Blew stand. Horse shoeing properly done. I will also sharpen plows, set buggy tires and do repair work. All work guaranteed first class. Give me a call. 48t12 LAWRBNCE C. SCHLEGEL. GOOD RAISIN BREAD. We have it —Good Rasin Bread that you and all the folks in the family will enjoy. Try It today.—Joseph. Martin & Lang’s restaurant and case. 52t6 " _ ii.. _

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