Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 271, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1911 — The GENEVIEVES I KNOW (Also their JAMIES) [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The GENEVIEVES I KNOW (Also their JAMIES)

By HELEN HELP

tin*-r - i i ne VieuevievG Wbo iVliumecl in Him

s When a woman marries a man to rtgot it done there will be noting left but reform—the man will be entirely rotted away*. x James was a delightful man with only one bad habit It was the habit which moat women call “bad habits," He was a real estate man was .tames, and his bad habits were very active right after he had cinched a deal. He cinched a deal rather so often—perhaps— : :4 Genevieve met James at a club party, according to the commonplace "wont of things, and he was very nice to her. She was a nice little thing, and he got into the habit of driving out rather often to her father's home on the very edge of the town. It is not too much to say that Genevieve fell in love with him. James fell in love with her, too. Then he went driving out to see .Genevieve very often and was allowed to stay to supper, and he and Genevieve had a lovely time on die veranda in the moonlight. ' - Then, as cool weather came on, he was rather busy and fell from grace, as usual, when he cinched a deal. And at last, at a party, Genevieve saw him when he had fallen from grace. He was a bit above himself, and, besides, she danced with him and noticed something about his breath. Next momlpg big brother said, “Jim had a lovely souse on last night, didn’t he? But he certainly had a nerve to ' dapce with you. You should have turned him down.” —~ ..Genevieve gasped a bit. Then she said, "He was nothing of the kind, and I don't thank you.” And then she ran to her big, pretty, pink and white room and got down upon her knees ' and cried and cried.. Then, when she could get her breath, she remembered his; and then she prayed for Jim very sincerely and very girlishly, and felt better. _ She entirely failed to pray for herself, because she had not yet found out

that she was the person who reallyneeded that attention. James came out In a few days, sober and in his right mind. He knew how bad he had been, and he supposed she did, too, so he told her he was hot fit to speak to her, but he was going to be a man now, and would she forgive him? And (lenevleve said he must be a man for her sake, and she would forgive Mm, because she was sure he was repentant and would n?v6r fall again. , 1 When James went back to the club the next night he lifted a restraining palm to his friends and said: "Never again! I’m on the water wagon for keeps.” And his friends laughed, because they had climbed on the water wdflon themselves at the bidding of a nice girl. About Christmas .Genevieve had a shock. James was doing great busibesides, It was the blessed holiday season. He was to dine with them on Christmas, and when he arrived, rather late in the afternoon, he had been warding off the cold of the driv«k»?\..- - Genevieve ariee her eyes out alght, down oh the floor beside her bad; and James wilt back to the club and gathered together a~ monumental —er —well, he was a lltle above himself again. Because he was extremely ashamed. By the time this wore off, he was truly repentant, and hated the very smell of the stuff. So he drove out to see Genevieve and toM her so. Genevieve had the theory, held by every well brought up girl, about a man reforming by the grace—well, by prayer and such things. She had prayed sto-

cerely and James now declared that he hated the very smell of the stuff. These two things stood to Genevieve in. the relation of cause and effect. And this was the exact moment chosen by James in which to ask her to marry him. - . When James and. Genevieve came back from their honeymoon, the happy bridegroom was warmly congratulated by his many friends. When he went home to Genevieve the first evening he said, “M’darling’ assure you nothingwrong—hatetastestuff.” • ■ • .■ • ♦ • « All the years that James was coming home to Genevieve perfectly sober —er—that is, sober at least three evenings out of the week, Genevieve was thinking with some pride that if be would only straighten up, he would show those friends of his who had so far outdistanced him in the race—because, really, said Genevieve to herself, James was far the ablest of them all. It wan, nothing but bls disastrous habits that stood in bls way. And at lash the day dawned, when James came to. He saw what he really looked like and decided that the time had come when he must straighten up and leave behind his boyish ways. So ba straightened up. Immediately? Yes, immediately. Was it an awful struggle? No, It was not an awful struggle. He was sick ® week or so and felt depressed and down for months, but that was about all. Because the truth is that it is not such an awful struggle, as a rule. The truth is that James and John and William and Charles are not often In earnest when they say they want to stay on the water wagon, so they cheerfully fall off again. Their wives think they are? Yes, but their wives only see them when they are depressed and down in the mouth. The minute James and the rest of them get Outdoors, they are different men. ’’You don’t believe it? Well, you ask your brother about it, Genevieve, my dear, and watch what he says. Well, when James really made up his mind to quit he just quit. And the saddest point of the story is right here—he never did astonish the world. He never set the river on fire, he never did a thing except to continue to make rather a shabby living for Genevieve. / She had reformed him, but the reform was about ell there was left. As Genevieve sometimes said to herself, “It seems as if he were only a ghost —only a ghost” As he was a perfectly commonplace ghost at that, perhaps Genevieve did not have much of a run for her money after all. .(Copyright, by Associated Literary Press.)

"Nothingwrong, Hatetastestuff.’’