Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 251, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1918 — Business Rush [ARTICLE]

Business Rush

"Since that Saar,” said the fluffy woman, with the trusting expression, *1 tun consumed with wonder, wondering how any badness man transacts business or even makes a living! If I ran my* house that .wpy rd lose m 1 husband, my Job and my happy'.home! “I made the fatal mistake of telephoning Alfred when I was downtown with, a shopping list a yard long, and Alfred hailed my voice with glee. He •aid it was so fortOTyate I was wham' X was, because the real estate man* who had-been luring Urn on-was so* anxious for me to go out twelve miles on the north sfaere te look at a house whioh he knew was exactly what we wanted—and would X please come , night over to A*Dredfc office and we would go with Ha VlfcWas. j *1 reluctantly consented. X folded •way my stopping Met and pounded . over the pavements to the office, ar- j riving breathless but triumphant in j the feeling that X had not kept the So men waiting, nor wasted any of, dr valuable thne. Alfred looked up from acme figuring and regarded me in an abstracted manner lor a moment Then his brow cleared. ‘Why, hello!’ he cried in the moat surprised manner. Then he grabbed the telephone; ’Clean forgot ‘phoning Tibbies,’ he explained. ‘A man came in “He tried to look Maud when he turned from hia conversation and met my gaze, bat he couldn’t. He said Vib* Wes was out and had left word that he would call Alfred up from whom he was. “Alfred was terribly polite trying ta soothe me. He gave me a journal dealing with concrete, and nervously said it was a pleasant day. Twenty: minutes passed, and then Alfred again called VHfldeu’ office. It seemed Mr.' Nibbles had returend, and not lotting: and message from Alfred, aa he‘had expected, had stepped' out to be shaved. Alfred assured me people got shaved very swiftly in these big office buildings, and that Mr. Vibbleß would be only a second, and here was a new. magadne about the iron output of the last century and the rates of profit “I stored him there and distinctly told him what T thought of him. 1 said I could have got half my shopping done ha&l known I was to watt; ■boon! in this ridiculous fashion. Alfred bristled and said it was plain: M b# seen that I knew nothing of bust Hess man’s time was not hie own.

"Vfbbles* phoned just then. He said that if we would meet him at main. Mihail ll ii of the Blank Hotel we’d take the elevated from there. At least fids < wee m alert, and A sprang, to my feet, Jaat then Alfred remembered that he had to phene a man, which he did for i five minutes. Finally we dropped down fifteen stories to the street to find that tt was raining. Alfred said he’d just im back for his umbrella and it wouldn't take a minute. I draped myself over a steam radiator and let the glad world rush by for fifteen minutes. On his return Alfred explained he’d had to sign some letters. "Arriving at the main entrance of the Blank Hotel ww waited ten minwtee—and, going around to the side entrance, wffifteh had not been mentioned, found Mr. Vlbblee. He was one of thebe charming. wribgroomed persons, absolatMr sot to be raffled. He said oaefeUy that he had been so rushed "Hfevand Alfred discussed solemnly whettuartt were better to go on the elevated or take the Northwestern. Meanwhile the afternoon shadows faster falL .We node for ages and those two poor hawed men sobbed an one another’s shoulders about the fiTitom of life and the awful grinding rush. "Flasky we reached the station, and as wa started Mr. Vlbblee expatiated on the health-giving properties of the air and how the walk to the station—oh, a brief; very brief walk—oh, ten minutes or so—would tone up Alfred’s system wonderfully. Then 1 asked If they knew we were oonalag. Yes, said Mr. TMbles, he had *phoned Mr. Jones downtown, and Mr. Jones said his wife would be home aH af* moon, so it was all right. "When we reached the house nobody answered the bell. Mr. Vlbblee coughed. He said It was most strange, most strange and that if Alfred and I would look the place over from the outside he would just step down to the one store at the station and see M Mrs. Jones had gone there. He took an awful step, for he was gene a half hew, and Alfred and I sat glumly huddled on the porch steps, Uke two burglars in the dusk. Contfnnally he moaned over the strangewees of Mrs. Jones being out when her ftsbnni bad said she would be in. "Do you mean,’ I demanded in awfal tone, *that be past trusted to luck and didn’t ’phene her!" It seems that mna just what he hnd idone. Without ane word It urned and marched toward the station, and Alfred and Mr. VUMes followed still eaplstnlng. Wa warn twenty-five miles from home and M was raining and six o’clock. . •But be said she’d ha home," Mr. TiMrltt protested ‘You just remember ana thing,’ I told Urn fiercely, ‘and that la that no man has any right to thlnk he knows what a woman la gokig to do at any ttoml" Dh. haavant!" am the VftMee man, speaking real huua unbusiness like, ’don’t I know Ms Am I not married T* And 1 told him tt served him right. "And yet Alfred says Mr. Vlbldes Makes a -corking Income n year* and 1 admit Alfred does earn a living—but how those two babes in the weeds manage R An Mewed if X know* 9