Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1917 — THE HOUSE MAGNIFICENT [ARTICLE]

THE HOUSE MAGNIFICENT

By MONA COWLES.

The apple of the eye of J. T. Bradson, junior partner of the firm of Bradson & Son’s furniture store, was a “House Magnificent.” This was located on the fourth floor of the establishment and comprised about eight rooms, in which were clustered, in what purported to be a well-furnished mansion, a motley collection of highpriced furniture. In the city where it was located it was one of the sights for women coming from the country for a day’s shopping. To a very few Bradson’s “House Magnificent” was the by-word for all that was inharmonious and pretentious In household interiors.-—.... But Bradson went on from year to year with his enthusiasm for the "House Magnificent” but little dimmed —even when from reports from his bookkeeping department he could see that very rew pieces in the place were ever ordered. It was still a drawing card, he reasoned to himself. Then came Jenny Dorr. Jenny Dorr was a little, red-haired, freckled, snubfaced girl who was employed for $6 a week to copy sales records in the grimy, dingy portion of the fourth floor just, behind the “House Magnificent.” Jenny was such an odd girl! She actually put each figure down in the big books that stretched out before her as if she had an Interest in the performance. “There is something nutty about that red-haired girl, there^’commented the head bookkeeper to his employer one day. “S’matter with her?” “She’s always looking at the books as if they were story books, and at lunch-time she sneaks into that ‘House Magnificent’ and walks around.” “H’m,” commented the junior partner. “Send her to my office the first thing In the morning.” “Good morning, Mr. J. T. Bradson, Junior,” was the greetin," of the snubfaced, red-haired Jenny Dorr the next morning. “I expect you want to let me go, lam sorry.” “Sit down —not in that chair by the door. Here in the big chair opposite me, where I can look at you. How old . areyou?” - « “Eighteen come next summer.” “How much do you get?” “Six dollars a week.” “Well, just to show you that I am not firing you, I will tell you that you are to get twelve from now on—maybe more later. You’re a smart kid, aren’t you?” The blue eyes looked at him to see whether he w-ere jesting or speaking' seriously. Discovering the latter to be The>~case, she answered frankly. “Yes, I think I am smart —at least I’m smarter than I am anything elfte. I am such a little, undersized sort!” .. • ? “Tell me honestly what you think of the ‘House Magnificent.’ ” “Honest-to-goodness, or just as a working girl would naturally tell her boss what she thought he wanted her to tell him?”

“ ‘Honest -to - goodness,’ ” Bradson quoted smiling. Jenny gasped joytously as if a long-dreamed-of opportunity had come. “Goody,” she*began. “This is what I think: I think that ‘House Magnificent* is the worst liability you have got. It eats up money, takes up room and brings in nothing. Sure, it brings people to the store, but those people buy all their furniture at the Emporium.” “Well, w'hat would you do about it?” Bradson asked meekly. “I’d gradually put the pieces in stock, and then I’d start something else. I planned it all in my mind —It Would be a set of small flats or cottages—one for three rooms, one for four and one for six or seven rooms. They wouldn’t take up any more room than the ‘House Magnificent’ does. Everything in those dove-cotes —that is what I would call them—-would be chosen because it was inexpensive, and everything would be marked plainly.” A quarter of an hour later, when Jenny had finished describing her scheme, Mr. Bradson detained her, holding out his hand to her. “Suppose we make It twenty-five dollars instead of twelve dollars,” he said. And so the dovecotes were begun and Jenny had charge of them, and daily demonstrated the possibilities of Inexpensive artistic home decoration to the hundreds of housewives who visited them. * For weeks Bradson had been too busy to feel anything but the sense that business had been booming, booming as no other mercantile enterprise in city hfid boomed for many a year. ~ ~ One day he lingered at the six-room dovecote with Jenny. “I am so busy nowadays I can’t get home. It’s a long way to go, anyway. I was wondering if I could not have one of these dovecotes shut off from the others —and have it to live in right here when I am so busy. We would make other dovecotes to make up for it —we need several more.” “I’ve been wondering that, too.” A blush peeped through the funny little freckles. “Were you planning to live here alone?" \. . “Never a bit,” came back from Bradson, and two strong arms were held out to Jenny. “Is that honest-to-goodness? she queried. “Every bit,” he said. “And we’ll be a lot happier than we would ever be in a house magnificent, too." (Copyright, r b Jy^ c^5 lure