Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 47, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 May 1936 — Page 21

MAY 5, 1936

Today's Short Story - ■■■■■ 1 TAKE A LETTER By Alma and Paul Ellerbe

“'T'AKE a letter, honey,” Tobey X eaid, spraddling his legs In that way he had. He dictated standing, and looked, Jean thought, like a cavalryman. As she wrote the letter in neat, swift shorthand that she had learned in a hurry-up course so that she could help out, she thought that Tobey had swagger written all over him; that he almost strutted a little; that if you didn't like him you might almost think him big-Ikey; that he was cocky from his big, scuffed up, carefully polished shoes to his big, pulled-around any-which-way cavalryman's hat that would have said: "Tobey Grantland” to anybody In town. But Jean thought also that he was cute, and the most masculine man she knew. So that perhaps it was just as well that she was safely and coztly married to him and not just his secretary. Writing down his words, he was, she reflected, very much the boss there in the office, having been a little cramped in his natural, high-wide-and-handsome style out of it by the fact that all the eligible young men about had wanted to marry Jean Winant, in almost every case, a good deal more to offer both socially and financially than he had. For the truth was that Tobey Grantland could not be called eligible at all. It was perfectly plain that, though he had started from scratch, he was going somewhere, but it was certainly without benefit of ancestors. Tobey's parents had left him nothing but debts and a background of social obscurity. a a a WHEREAS the remotest Winant was easily identifiable, practically always distinguished and safely embalmed in some book or other. Which meant nothing to Tobey and not a whit more to Jean, but nevertheless had cramped his style of courting and lent gusto to it now dictating to the American equivalent of the daughter of a hundred carls a letter to Mrs.'Lackland Marston about renting her house. It was a kind of high-sa-luting letter, meant to impress Jean, and it did. "The lamb!” she thought. "He thinks it's lovely. He’s showing me how it ought to be done. I wonder if I could correct that one grammatical error? No. Not now. Next year, maybe.” "Get that one off right away, will you? 'And then call up Cartwright and tell him—better write it down so you’ll get it straight. . . . And then drop around and pay the taxes on . . . And sometime today let Bill Moreland know I'm not going to buy that car he showed me because . . . And figure out those rates for me on the Alexander and West policies. And ...” For Tobey was going away. Meekly Jean wrote down as much as she could of what he told her—he was quite big-business and very rapid fire today—and tried to pack the rest into her head. But it wasn't tsiat kind of head. After he was gone she got the notebook part as straight as a string, but the head part she jumbled up quite a bit. She telephoned, and trotted around town, and interviewed, and came back to the office and figured, and she was as busy as an extremely chic little bee until she got it all attended to, and then she sighed the sigh of the thoroughly uninterested and lay back, not in her stenographer’s chair, but in Tobey’s boss’ chair, and daydreamed about her and Tobey. a a st AND THEN—then she did the next best thing: She pulled toward her there at the boss’ desk a pad of fresh paper and began sketching dresses she would like to have made up by the best shop on earth and wear now and then in the smartest places. That was a pursuit she could drop into at any moment as a diver into the depths of the sea. You had to tell her what time it was when she w’as doing that, and since there was no one around to do it that day, she was late for dinner and didn’t go to the Palace Restaurant, where everything would be cooked to pieces and as cold as ice (and where she and Tobey usually dined frugally for 50 cents each), but reverted characteristically and foolishly to old splendors and blew herself to the tune of $2 at the Poinsettia. which had been taboo now for many a day. The head waiter, who knew her well, gave her the best small table in the dining room, with a wel-come-to-our-city air, and she sank back into the old comforting atmosphere with a sigh —and, too, into her sketches. -For she had brought them along with her, and was simply gaga by this time about a black-and-white get-up that woulcf have made her —with her camellia skin and blackbird hair and her coal-black eyes—the last word in what the well dressed young matron should wear. Between courses she gazes at her sketch and pondered it and mentally improved it and tried hard to pull up her sinking heart with the thought that a measly little two dollars—no, two and a quarter, with the tip—couldn't make or break even a poor man like Tobey. * • THE two occupations so absorbed her that she didn’t notice Raymond Porter until he had sunk into the chair opposite. "You don’t mind, do you? Quite like old times, isn’t it?” "Why, Raymond! Mind? How too perfectly heavenly! Why didn’t you let us know you were—?” "Didn’t know myself. Thermometer fell, and so did I. Toppled into a plana this morning and here I am.” He looked at her across the table. "Jean,” he said, "nobody in the world could be prettier than you used to be except you as you are

SO SHE SLAPPED YOUR FACE 'CAUSE f SURE. JOE, HOVE HOLDING YOUR HANOI YOU HELD HER HAND .NO WONDER. jf§ (JOU ALWAYS KEEP THEM LOOKING } Lm Soap gata tha dirt othar aaapa can't. -Ita LAVA lathar gets even ground-in grime In IT 1? -T a fifty. Its seething ails protect the hands. SOAP

now.” And he wagged his head as one who knew. There had been a time, when Jean was in New York, when Raymond Peter was very much a part of the scene. He had money, taste, a flair for all the visual beauties of a varied earth, and it had been pleasant having him parade the great flambouyant place before her eyes. It was extraordinarily pleasant coming upon him now. She was in a mood for him. . . . They even danced afterward in the Poinsettia's Orange Room. . . . It was quite late when she got home and to bed in the little cold scrvantless house on a side street. Tobey rolled in at 2 a. m. Tobey! And he'd had a most successful business trip. And why he had come back was: “I wanted to see you. Isn’t it idiotic? I thought: ‘There's only going to be one Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1936, out of all time, and I’m spending a great chunk of it away from her that I could spend with her!’ And I went right from that meeting at the Dayton House to my car and I drove like hell till I got here. Can you understand how a fellow can be sifeh a fool?” tt tt h BUT at the office next day he was The Boss again. "You see,” he said, pushing papers aside and getting up and beginning to swagger just a little—" You see, honey, in a business like ours. . . .” And he went on and gave what he evidently thought was a bang-up lecture on a business like theirs—of which, it appeared, the haunch and the hump and the hoof were, accuracy. "Yeih,” she said when he had finished. "True enough. But some are born accurate, some achieve accuracy, some have accuracy thrust upon them and some remain inaccurate to their dying day and that’s me, so what?” He stared at her, pained. "Do you mean to say you can’t learn? It wasn’t easy for me at first; I had to work like the devil; and you—” “Listen, Tobey: What I can’t do is get interested, see? If it was designs for dresses, now, or how to fix up a house, or something creative—Oh, I don’t mean that. Something up my street, I mean. But you could replace me here for sls a week and—” "Sure I could, the way you are now,” he said patiently, "but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go on, if you’ll really put your mind on it (you aren’t like a lot of women I know—you’ve got a mind to put), and become invaluable to me. Besides”—he spraddled his legs apart and looked at her with that cocky, little-boy, half lover, half stage, big businessman air that delighted her—“l haven’t got the $15.” tt tt a 1 ’'OBEY,” she said fearfully, X wondering if v what was coming would take some of the strut and youth and charm out of him, “suppose that I-, —’’when the telephone rang. As buffer-state it was her duty to answer it. It was their convention that the great man’s time was valuable and must be saved. “Yes,” she said, “it’s Jean . . . Oh, Raymond, you’re sure? . , . How absolutely too perfectly topping! ... Yes, the Poinsettia, by all means; it’s the best location in town. . . . No, no, not the east room—sunshine’s everywhere here —the south one, just off the main dining room. ... But Raymond. I’d come for much less than that! That —that’s immense! . . . why—why tomorrow, if ycra want me. Tobey could fill my place in 10 minutes by telephone.” .. . There was silence in the office of the Tobias Grantland Agency as she hung up the receiver. She turned slowly toward the head of it. "I’m going to open up for Raymond Porter,” she said, “—with adding machines and bookkeepers and everything like that to assist me—the smartest gown shop south of Mason and Dixon’s line, beginning at the earliest possible moment—at a salary—hang on to yourself, Tobey—of one hundred and fifty a week.” . . . And she’s still wondering whether there was more pleasure or pain to him in the announcement. THE END TRIAL IS URGED FOR NEW SAFETY SIGNAL Traders Point Man Invents Traffic Light Device. Members of the Citizens Safety Committee have recommended trial of an improved stop anc, go signal invented by Dr. Walter K Beyer, Traders Point, at two street intersections here. The device, which may be attached to automatic signals now in use, is designed to speed up traffic and at the same time to increase safety. The device is in the form of a visor which encircles the green light. Twelve small white bulbs are mounted around the edge of the visor. As the green light comes on the white bulbs light in indicating to motorists the time remaining for them to cross the intersection. As the last white bulb lights the green switches off. FARMERS WILL MEET Instruction in Handling of Seed Corn to Be Given. A meeting to instruct farmers of five counties in the proper handling of seed corn is to be held at 8 Thursday night in the Washington. Horace E. Abbott, Marion County agricultural agent, announced today. Speakers are to be K. E. Bosson, corn specialist, and S. A. Anderson, construction and ventilation expert, both of Purdue University.

OUR BOARDING HOUSE

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FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS—

WHY DID YOU HAVb. THE CON THAT HUTTY foH,SO'tbU , RE DOIWQ IS FOUHD ) OFFICER KELLY INSIST F VEW Y#l HE LA,D ° M ' IHE J W TWeSoORyS AUIHISIOCLEACLEAR A \ BT S COUNTER,If PAY R3R M . THATY3UHG / HO, \ DOMT BLAME MR. UH A accused OF taking. J E^“J^ A f££' •. my idea i } nour 1 _ ROLLED OWTO -THE 1/ THE * < OUT OF HY > ,

WASHINGTON TUBBS II

pON it, you fool/ ) ~NY :>■ J” /iainT done fer

ALLEY OOP

WHY, VOU IGGERUMT YAPS \ F / AWRIGHT, GLTZ -DO YOUR D’VOU THINK YOU CAN HOLD ) gjk \ \ \ STUFF QUICK-WOW WE'LL ONTO A DINOSAUR. WITH s \ \ SHOW HIM OUR LITTLE / THAT-BIT OF STRING? / JR TRICK- X haw/ one jerk of s / ( FOOZYHIS HEAD AN' IT'LL BE ) / WiW / V HERE SHE V V

BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES

TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD MEN

~~~—

Tarzan was anxious to be accepted as the embodiment of an immortal spirit, for that fitted in with his plans to solve the mystery of the Taloned Death. But Sobito, the witch-doctor, scowled. He felt it would not pe good business to admit too much credence in a miracle not of his own making.

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

With a ridiculous frown, designed to frighten and impress, the puffing little witch-doctor prepared to denounce the stranger. Meanwhile Nkima the monkey, who hated and feared all men except Tanan, hurled the vilest jungle invective at the blacks, boasting of what he do if he got hold of them.

With Major Hoople

OUT OUR WAY

WHAT \ /you GUVS ARE \/OH,NO VOU \/ I DON'T LIKE \ URE ? GETTIN 1 INI ON \ DON’T/ I WANT \/ THIS ROLE-IT \ 10 IN SOMETHIN? THIS l A CONTRACT DONfT SUIT MV l OLP AINT NO ORDINARY I WITH A CLAUSE PERSONALITY AN' / MCE, CAMERA-THIS IS IN IT. SEE I AIN'T IN THE / >UTHS A MOVIE CAMERA, MV MANAGER-*- \ MOOD TDAY, / POSES. / WITH COLORED \ WE'LL ARRANGE/ V ANVWAV. J FILM-REAL / \TH' DETAILS. 7 V cjfc S. \ MOVIN' PITCHERS, / \ A oC£2| „ OT.*.w,uv.AM 3 193< BY NEA3CRVICC. INC. T. M. BEG. U. 3. TAT*. OW. IHg Vjz&iJT, C*s

LATER: great scott- looks! AccipENrTWWHMHft fUi IU?. \ LULU BELLE,the l ■' AN ACCIDENTS MY ||| JlVf I mmmm I ' , A --WERE BRINGING • V HER TO TOWN, j

C.U7, OC BOY, WITH YOUR \ 4EV At, 1 THROWS AT STAKE, VOU \ I Pa. . Btk >„ 4 1T BETTER HOPE TH/S YOU V ~, jVßS.lfejflP VI WE DOMT SAID it, ; \ ' _ mBSS’ \jtmg% "Inbreak

oh .she's sleeping o.vk,'.where's [ sv\h‘. he's ASLEEP,!WELL.\NE mustn’t SO SOONiDLV.NT THE PROF.? \ HOPE.P\GHT JjTAKE ANY CHANCES 1 . VNOOLO E>E A SV\AVE I OUTS\OE THE EETTE^ lO W.W, ft,

■fyfhs; j~ *bY j^xrcirSTiP^ *yv^

From his haven of safety, Nkima challenged them singly and en masse, knowing of course that his words would not be understood. Tha ape-man, trained in the stem school of the jungle, was not given to mirth. But when he heard Nkima’s boastful defiance of the blacks, his lips parted in laughter.

—By Edgar Rice Burroughs

Sobito believed the stranger was laughing at him. Fury surged within him. Some of th# blacks who had suffered from his tyranny were secretly pleased at his discomfiture and were grateful to the white man. But the witch-doctor fumed and stormed: “You are not Muzimol I will expose you!"

COMIC PACTS

—By Williams

—By Blossec

—By Crane

—By Hamlin

—By Martin