Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 193, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1918 — Page 3

A Very Bad Moral

By JANE OSBORN

(Copyright, 1918, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) "Say, : there’s a new efficiency man and he’s some looker,” commented the tall brunette in the “beauty parlor” of Heed’s dry goods stpre to the rathershortish, rather biondish young woman who was laying out her manicuring outfit at the table next to the tall brunettes. Charlotte Day, hie rather blonde, rather short, young woman, made no comment. “Honest, he’s stunning,” went on her companion. “I saw him when I went up to the stock room for nail files just now. He’s the real thing, I’ll tell you—none of your namby-pamby, pale-faced floor walkers, either. He never worked In a store before. He was a college professor or something and went In for this efficiency stuff. He’s going to give some talks on selling aqd success at noon hour. You don’t want to inlss 'em. The one today is called: ‘Know your customer.’ You don’t want to miss it —he’s certainly a dandy-looking young man.” Charlotte snooted slightly as a short cut to express her lack of interest In the new efficiency man in general and his good looks in particular. “Say, Fm through with this efficiency dope,” she said. “Ever since I came to this place two years ago I’ve been listening to that kind of thing. The man they had before gave that same idea of ‘Know Your Customer.’ I was just young enough and foolish enough- to take it all in, and I read uplift talks in the paper at night on ‘Forging Your Way to the Front.’ They all give the same advice. They say if you tend to your little job the best way you know how, why some day you’ll be head of your department, or maybe make a hit with somebody and get married to someone who’ll appreciate how hard you’ve worked and everything. Talk about knowing your customers —don’t I know every wart on that fat Mrs. Peabody’s old face? And

don’t I know just how many double chins that Armstrong woman has? Arid talk about being diplomatic—‘oh, yes, indeed, Mrs. Armstrong, the facial massage does make one dreadfully pale. Not that you would usually need any rouge, but .after the massage I’d better put oh a little. Oh, I’m sure you don’t usually need it.’ “And then this to Mrs. Peabody: ‘Just a little of this tonic, Mrs. Peabody. No, Indeed, It isn’t dye. Bui; this new electric treatment makes the hair look a little dull and you really need a little of, this tonic to bring out the natural color of the hair.’ And of course she knows and I know that It’s straight walnut dye. And that’s what I’ve been doing for two years, kidding them and studying them and saying what they want me to. Where has It got me? Yes, they smile at me and ask for me when they make appointments —but catch them doing anything more. Why, to hear these efficiency men talk you’d think that they were going to ask you home in their limousines and were going to introduce you to their families and get rich husbands for you, or that you were going to be buyer for the department or something. No, indeed,” concluded Charlotte, rising and smoothing her diminutive apron. “I’m through. Pm going to act just the way I feel like acting. I have a feeling that It will get me further than the other way.” So Charlotte abandoned her efficiency methods and proceeded to try different tactics. When Mrs. Armstrong came she bluntly announced the presence of an additional chin, and she referred to Mrs. Peabody’s hair restorntjve as dye In a way that made that lady blink with surprise., She told one woman frankly that she was ruining her hair having it waved so often, and another that she would look far better If she didn’t get the expensive “transformation” that bhe was thinking of buying. Then a well-dressed young man came to have his finger nails manicured, and Charlotte performed her . task with none of the customary play of small talk that was calculated to make the customers return. J “How do they look?” asked the man after Charlotte had put on . the final high polish. “If you really want to know,” com.rnented Charlotte, thinking only of her resolve to be perfectly frank, “I think they look like fury on a man. The way they were when you came in is the way a man ought to have his nails kept. Now they are shaped and pointed and polished till they look like a woman’s. Somehow you’re not the sort or man that looks as If he would go in for that sort of thing.” Charlotte noticed the young man’s eyes studying her face. - “Still,” hfe said, “it is rather bad business, it seems to me, for you to give that sort'of advice. Perhaps you are right, but your game is to get as\ many customers as ybu can for your store, Isn’t it?” “You talk like one o* those efficiency men," commented Charlotte, with a sigh, replacing her Implements in neat array on top of the table, and the man hurried away. Charlotte did not go to the noon-hour talk, although it was the first advantage of the sort that she had missed since her arrival in the store two years before. Instead, she took, a walk in as secluded a neighborhood as she could reach within walking distance of the Store. She breathed freer and deeper

than usual. She really felt, without knowing why, that -she had taken a step toward her own emancipation. What If she did lose her job? At least if Site dM.*|®mething might happen—there might be some adventure connected .with the next -One. and ta the rut she had been keeping for two years there was nothing but monotony. She thought of the toan she had just manicured. Really he hadn’t disliked It because she told him the truth. He had looked at her With interest. Sh«,bad at least surprised him and that was more than she had ever done to any other customer in two years. After the lunch hour, when Charlotte was summoned to the office of the new efficiency man, she thought only that perhaps he wanted to see all those who had not attended his talk. She actually did turn a little pale when she realized, that he was the same decidedly goodlooking young -man whose nails she had recently manicured. She noticed that the high polish had-been rubbed off. He asked her to take a chair beside his desk, and then he proceeded to give her a little talk on efficiency purely for her own benefit. It was an A, B. C lesson in salesmanship. He assumed that she had never heard anything of the sort before and assured her that if she. only plodded ahead in the way he suggested she would reap her reward. Success would be hers —she would work herself out of the rank and file, cte* ' Then Charlotte waxed eloquent in reply. In fact, she rose and stood over Mr. Avery Baker’s desk and her eyes flashed as she talked to him.

“Fm through with this efficiency game,” she announced. “I’ve been pegging away at it eve" since I came, and I’m shampooing the same stupid people and manicuring the same hands and getting the same wages and telling the same lies and hoping the same hopes that I was two-years ago. That is, I went on hoping I’d get my reward till this morning I realized that—that there just wasn’t any reward. What do you people mean when you talk rbout forging ahead? Tell me, Mr. Efficiency Man, where is the golden opportunity you’re always holding up as an incentive?” Mr; Avery Baker evaded the question as tactfully as possible and saved his reputation as an expert by assuring Charlotte .that her real trouble was that she was a round peg In a square hole. He said he had made a tour of the store that morning and had got his nails manicured not because he cared fbr high polish —she was really quite tight in Saying what she did, though It was very bad salesmanship—but to test the work of that department. He had realized that she had the wrong point of view and that is why he had sent for her. Now he knew she had ability and she was no longer to work in the beauty department. She was to be his assistant. She could talk extremely well-*-that she had just proved —and she could help him in his lessons in salesmanship.

It was only two months later that Avery Baker, after due deliberation, realized that his entire happiness as well as his complete efficiency depended on his marrying Charlotte Day, and Charlotte had In a measure decided that, were the opportunity to arise for her to accept a proposal from Mr. Avery Baker, she would hesitate only long enough for appearances’ sake. “You’ll have to admit,” laughed Avery, "that I’m some efficiency man. I found you unsuccessful in the beauty parlor and knew right away that you’d double my own efficiency and achieve my complete happiness if you became my life partner.” » Charlotte pondered a moment. “Still,” she said, “the reward didn’t come because I pegged ahead and did my best thfe way I’d been told. It all began the .day I decided I’d break away and forget the efficiency stuff. If I’d gone on as I had for two years I’d be counting Mrs. Armstrong’s chins and Mrs. Peabody’s warts.” Avery Baker looked quizzically Into Charlotte’s face. “Perhaps you ( are right. In yeur case perhaps it wasbetter to break away. But, Charlotte, dear, from the efficiency man’s point of view it is a very unsatisfactory moral lor our little romance.” '

Latin and Hebrew.

For a parallel to Hebrew, which, after having been numbered so very long among the dead languages, Is becoming today again a Hying, spoken tongue; we must turn to Latin, though the analogy is not perfect. If decidedly romantic, in either casa Through all the dreadful days of bar” barism in Europe the Roman Gatholle church helped to preserve the Latin language from oblivion. When. Greek had all but perished from the ken of mankind at large, when even Homer had almost been forgotten; the language of the* Caesars still rendered international communication possible.

Wasted Knowledge.

“How is Jibway getting along?” “He tells me he is having a great deal of trouble keeping a cook.” “Why, I thought he married a graduate of one of the most noted schools of domestic science in the country-” “So he did, but you ought to know that there are a great many people in tills world who don’t make any use of an education after they set it.”—Birmingham Age-Herald. 1

Roman Builders' Good Work.

Several hundred miles of old Roman walls, at least■ seventeen hundred years old, are still standing in England today. The best specimen of this work of the ancient Romans in England is -the wall which crosses Northumberland, from near Newcastle to near Carlisle, In many places, the facing of this wall is still Intact, showing what marvelous builders these Bo mans were.

THE EVENING RENSSELAER, IND.

BLOUSES FOR ALL

Separate Outside Garment Has Recognized Advantages. Waistcoat, > Cuirass and Ornamental Blouses Are Among the Styles v. Various Tastes. There are still women who wear separate gkirts and blouses without a pretense that tiie two belong to each others;There are still women who wear coat suits with white or colored blouses tnat end at the waistline imd are joined to the skirt under a leather belt ch* one of the material. It may be that this fashion will never die out, but the impulse toward .medievalism in dress has continually acted against the division of the costume at the waistline by the joining together of two colors. The students of dress and those who are in the higher strata of dressmaking, asserts a correspondent,' have observed this medievalism for the last three years. They have preached it to women whose eyes did not see it, but sometimes the seeds of reform have fallen on stony ground. Women of middle age, who have gradually developed a thickened waistline, are the ones who insist most upon the separate blouse which ends at the waist, and this is as it should not be. They are the ones who beyond cavil should cling to medievalism in their clothes and wear the tunic, the skirt, the blouse that reaches to the hips. The small waist is taboo, and since it is so, women should accept the fact that the straight figure needs a straight line of clothing. They apologize for their inartistic manner of dressing by saying that a white shirtwaist is so comfortable. But why should its com- . fort be greater when it is cut off at the waist than when it is allowed "to hang outside the skirt? Ts a jury had to decide on this question there would be no dissenting voice. The artists of the world have always pleaded that thick-waisted women wear the kind of clothes that lengthen the line from the shoulder instead of shortening it and cutting the figure in two, as though it were a piece of broken sculpture that had been badly put together. From the appearance of clothes this season it looks as though women are actually beginning to see the advantaged of the separate outside blouse. It is sold by the shops, it is made by dressmakers and it is worn by women who have heretofore never allowed their thoughts to wander outside of the conventional blouse tucked in at the waistline and finished with a belt. There are waistcoat blouses to go under suits which give a straight fine from the collar bone down; there are cuirass blouses that stretch from shoulder to hip in an attenuated line, with long, tight sleeves and roll-over collars; there are ornamental separate blouses, for young girls or those who have slim figures, which are cut in the shape of a peasant’s blouse and lightly girdled at the waist

FROCK FOR MANY OCCASIONS

This frock of navy blue satin with cerise jersey girdle and yoke, wilt serve many occasions. The surplice line Is broken only by the girdle. The graceful lines are seldom found in garments of this nature.

Silk This Winter.

Word comes from France that so far as she is concerned, much silk will be shown for next ■winter. And as we have a big* silk supply in this country, quite probably we will follow the lead of Paris, and wear many frocks of this fabric.

JUST DIFFERENT, THAT’S ALL

Artistic Hand Bags of Leather and Felt—Reversible Hat of* Manila Straw. One shop tempts you with this artio* tic bag of black patent leather made gay by hand-painted parrots of red and green; and again by a square one of

Art Work That Tempts.

white brush felt buttonholed in black wool. The fruit Is formed of cleverly painted wooden beads. A reversible hat is of manila straw, its crown swathed in a silken plaid scarf. Reversed this hat is rose colored. A prosaic clothespin gilded and hand-painted was declared fit to hold back the guestroom curtains.

SKIRTS DROPPED TO ANKLES

New Type of Garment Said to Be Accepted With More Than Usual Enthusiasm. The skirts of suits are both narrow and short, and the women who appeared on the street in them without leggings or high shoes created some unpleasant criticism. But just when we are accepting with enthusiasm this continued style of short and narrow garments, notes a fashion critic, the prophets say that the real French skirts are growing longer. And the smart American designers say the same. They are making the garments slim, without using an inch of surplus material, but they are dropping them to the ankles, omitting the leggings and the high boots, and coming back to the flat-heeled pumps with broad ribbon bows across the vamp. , Three or four of the best houses emphasize these skirts, and those who are tired of the brevity of the skirts we have worn for years are accepting this new type of garment with more than the usual enthusiasm. If it had fullness it would be impossible for street usage, but its narrowness and the slight bias line at the sides, that comes from the material being pulled backward and upward, make it pleasing.

STITCHING YOUR SPORT HAT

Narrow of Broad Brims Will Respond ' < Magnificently to the Treatment Prescribed. z It may have a narrow brim, or it may have quite a broad brim; but in either case it is sure to respond magnificently to this treatment. Of course, you know how to blanket stitch, notes a correspondent Should you not recognize It by that name, buttonhole stitch may make ft clearer to you. WeH, that’s what you’re supposed to do to the brim of your hat Do It with mercerized cotton, preferably in a strongly contrasting color. Then make your vertical stitches long and short, alternating. The inng one may extend on a narrow brim all the way to the crown base, the shorter stitches going only half of that distance. You see, the horizontal stitch then results in an attractive binding, the vertical ones effecting a smart striped effect. However, if you stopped right there, the hat would be something of an unfinished delight And so there is tremendously chic finish in a crown band pimply made by wrapping single strands of the floss round and round the crown until it results in a band.

“LOVE THAT SUBDUES EARTH"

Robert G. Ingersoll's Beautiful Trib- * ute to Women Has Been Surpassed by Few Writers. It takes a hundred men to make an encampment, but one woman can make a home. I not only admire woman as the most beautiful object ever created, but I . reverence her .as the redeeming glory of humanity, the sanctuary of all the virtues, the pledge Of all perfect qualities of heart and. head. It is not just nor right to lay the sins of .men ,at the feet of women. It is because women are so much better than men that their faults are Cbnsldered greater. A man’s desire is the foundation of his love, but awomah’s desire is bom of her love. The one thing in this world that Is constant, the one peak that rises above all clouds, the one window in which the light forever bums, the one star that darkness cannot quench, is woman’s love. It rises to the greatest heights, it sinks to the lowest depths. It forgives the most cruel injuries. It is perennialof. life and grows in every climate. Neither coldness nor neglect, harshness nor cruelty, can extinguish it. A woman’s love is the perfume of the heart. This Is the real love that subdues the earth the love that has wrought all miracles of art that gives us music all the way from the cradle song to the grand closing symphony that bears the soul away on wings of fire. A love that is greater than power, sweeter than life and stronger than death—Robert G. Ingersoll.

WORD THAT IS OVERWORKED

Swiss Visitor in England Somewhat Puzzled Over Constant Use of "Up” In Conversation. The use of the word “up” as applied to railroad destinations reminds a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian of some observations of a Swiss friend. “When I go back to my country,” she said, “I shall tell them that they must use ‘up’ to everything. Everything is up. lam roused up in the morning. I wake up, I get up, I button up my dress. Why *up?’ I button it down. Then I eat up my breakfast, I drink up my coffee, and then somebody washes up the pots and eleans up the house. I pick up my (umbrella and go out of the house, and when I see a friend in front I catch her up. How can I catch her up? It is ridiculous! It Is all up. You lie up when you are 111, and you save up for a rainy day. Your English language is very funny. My employer put his head in at my office the other day and said, ‘I want you to stop tonight? So I got up and ptft my cloak on-. When he saw me he got quite worked up. He said, ‘Why have you got your cloak on? I told you to stop? I said, ‘I have stopped? Why was he angry? I look into the dictionary, and ‘stop’ means ‘leave off? and be meant me to go on.”

Strong Seasoning Harmful.

In an article about food and growing fat, a well-known doctor says in American Magazine: “When you continue to pour strong mustard and other seasonings into your food day after day and week after week there can be no question that their effect is injurious. It is exactly the same as if qne used a drug of some sort. Constant use creates the desire to increase quantities until the amount used becomes positively harmful. “For example, every one knows that when mustard or pepper is put on the skin the skin reddens and in a few minutes a blister is caused. And, since the skin can stand a great d'eal more than the membrane of the mouth and stomach, you can well imagine the effect upon it wheh you pour strong mustards and peppers into your stomach. So if you are prone to indigestion and gastritis see if you are not using too much seasoning in your food. . ■ \

Feather Convicted Thief.

A green feather decided a curious esse at Bishop, Auckland, Australia, recently. A man was charged with the theft of a canary, but declared that he had bought the bird. In the course of evidence It was stated the prosecutor’s bird had. a green feather. Examination failed to uncover a green feather on the bird In question, but It was pointed out that it might have been plucked. Accordingly the case was adjourned to see If the feather would grow again. The bird was handed to the care of a well-known fancier, and each party agreed that the case should be decided on whether the feather grew or not. A few days later the fancier produced the bird, and it was observed that the dark green feather had grown again. Defendant was then fined five dollars and costs.

Church Many Centuries Old.

The church of St Martin, at Canterbury, Is claimed by some to be the oldest church in Great Britain now in use. The building. In excellent repair, contains many features attributable to Roman and Saxon architecture, and was the scene of St. Augustine’s preaching and the baptism of Ethelbert, king of Kent. After the departure of the Romans from Britain in 400, the church wqs still used. by a small band of Christian worshipers till St Augustine’s mission in 597, and within the walls of this cradle of English Christianity Divine service has been celebrated for at least 13 centuries without any apparent interruption. |

“WANTED”

By MARIAN T. CARTER.

“Say, Jack, that is a crockerjack Idea.” exclaimed Tom Steven*,«s bis chum finished explaining his plan to bring Beth Butterfield, Tom’s sweetheart. to terms. ‘Til bet if she saw such an advertisement she’d answer it, just for the mischief of doing something odd.” The next day there appeared in the Siconset Summer News columns the following: . -v “Wanted—A young gentleman with a good reputation would like to correspond with a young lady in the summer colony. T 88.” A few days later in Tom’s morning mall was a large envelope from the newspaper office enclosing three letters in answer to his advertisement. The first two he opened were very uninteresting and from girls he did not know, but the last one was the one he wanted. Beth had written! It was a very -formal little note, exactly like Beth, but it gave Tom the opening he desired. Tom .answered it and a few days later another letter arrived. Tills was surely immense fun on Tom’s part, his proposal Beth Butterfield had treated him very coolly and now, although unknown to herself, she was corresponding with him. She had said when she refused to become engaged to Tom that she wanted “to have a good time and not be tied to any one man!” Well, she surely seemed to be having a good time from what Tom could make out. Dances, tennis, canoeing, swimming, and all the other things that go with a good time at the beach. After their correspondence had gone on about two months Tom decided it was time to take definite steps, so in his next letter he asked if he could call and meet the young lady who had given him so much pleasure through the summer. One week passed and then another, and Tom decided to write again. The next morning he,found a short note, saying that a meeting would be impossible, for she expected to leave very shortly. But fortune always favors a true lever. There was to be a dance at the Casino that very evening, and Tom knew that Beth intended to go. Yes, he would go, too, and see if things could not be straightened out that very night. When evening came Torn, dressed for the dance and also slipped into his pocket two of the letters Beth had written, including the last one. The dancers were all busy filling out their dance cards when Tom got there, so he Immediately began to fill his own out. As he approached Beth she turned slightly away, but Tom, undaunted, pretended not to notice her' movement and politely asked for her card. He took several of her dances, Including the first, those at intermission, and the last Poor Beth, what could she do? Everyone was watching her, anyway; for they knew that she had refused Tom once before. When he returned her card she bowed slightly but said nothing. At intermission Tom managed to* get Beth out into the, conservatory, and then asked her again if she would marry him. "I think you rather ought to, since you have been corresponding with me nearly all summer,” said Tom. “I have not!” exclaimed Beth, and stamped her foot; but because she remembered that she had corresponded with an unknown young man she flushed guiltily. “Yes, dear, you have; seeT' And Tom held out the letters he had In his pocket. “Oh, how did you get those letters? Why, I thought I was corresponding with a lonely fellow who knew no one here. Tom Stevens, you are the meanest, meanest boy!” And she broke down and cried. This was too much for Tom. He took Beth in his arms arid kissed the little wet cheeks, murmuring: “Dearest, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, but I was determined to make you fove me. I couldn’t live without you, dear. Can’t you say you love me now, Beth, sweetheart?” “Yes. Tom,” whispered Beth. “I’ve had all the good times I want, and I want you now, all the time, Tom dear.” Tom’s voice was husky when he next spoke. “My own little girl,” and he bent and humbly kissed the upturned lips. v ’ _ After the dance they walked home through the quiet streets happily planning their future. (Copyright, 1918, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

Coonskin Brought High Price.

A coonskin trapped in southeast Missouri recently sold at $875 at a London fur auction. N. Goldsmith, head of a Cairo (Hl.) fur company, sent a shipment of skins to London and Included a particularly pretty coonskin. He requested that It be sold to the highest bidder and the proceeds donated to some war charity. He was informed by cable that the pelt brought £IBO. the money being given to .the prisoners-of-war fund.

Nuts and Fruit.

The government is not calling upon us to give up all of our toothsome dishes, but to be economical in the use of those commodities which are scarce. Nuts and fruit have not been tabooed, and these will be found to add much to the dishes, and especially to give to our daily bread a new and very delightful flavor.—-Peo-ple’s Home Journal.