Judge — January 4, 1919 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Here was a strange collec- tion of things, some unmis- takably antique, others cheaply modern. There was much jewelry, no doubt of little value. In a tray with brooches, earrings, etc., of the sort worn by poorer Italian women, Strong saw anecklace of imitation black earls that took his fancy. With Tony's assistance he found it was priced at one lire, approximately twenty cents in American money. He took it and handed the shopman an American quarter. After Tony had as- sured the seller he had more than a lire’s value, they left. “W’at you do wida dat?” Tony asked. “Send it to my girl in New York,” Strong replied. he not know it’s cheap,” Tony laughed. “But it looks good,” replied Strong. Miss Julia Beebe, to whom the necklace came, was a stenographer in the broker's office in New York ‘from which Strong had graduated to Uncle Sam's service. She had promised Strong to marry him on his return. Although she had been inclined to miscellaneous philan- dering before this promise, Strong’s absence had sobered her, and she was a model of fidelity. The necklace took Miss Beebe’s breath, it was so handsome. “I picked it up in an Italian junk shop,” Strong wrote. ‘It didn’t cost much, but it was the pret- tiest thing in the place.” Miss Beebe didn’t care how little it cost. She loved it. When her girl friends ex- pressed doubt as to the genuineness of the pearls she laughed. “Don’t women of Fifth Avenue wear phoney stones?” she asked, adding, “this suits me! Miss Beebe didn’t envy one of her girl friends, Miss Brent, also a stenographer, when she breathed a secret one day during luncheon. Miss Brent was en- gaged to a cotton broker, and slyly disclosed in its rich case a solitaire pe diamond ring. But her fiancé—a 4 cotton broker knows little outside | tai of cotton—had bought the ring at a guess as to the size of her finger. It was a bit too large. “Will you go with me tomor- row?” she asked Miss Beebe. “I must have it made smaller, you know.” “Of course,” was the answer. That night Miss Beebe received word that Strong had been wounded —and that he might lose an arm. He had been among those selected for police service in new Italian territory. Shecried herself to sleep. And she cried over her hurried breakfast. But she braced up. “T shall marry Bob when he “ane comes back, even if he loses both prawn by Noawax Astnoxr arms and both legs!”” she declared to Miss Brent as they were on their Drawn by 3. K. Baraxs “Then I am to understand th c 3" “What else do you expect, a sweater and a pair of ear muffs?” gna “What's the idea of the camoufla “So my creditors won't see me.” way up Fifth Avenue. “G'wan! Really?” “Really!” They entered the great repository of precious things from which the ring came, and found a man who lis- tened for a moment with in- terest about Miss Brent’s er- rand. Then his eyes caught Miss Beebe’s necklace and remained fixed upon it. Pardon me,” he said, “but would you mind let ting me see your necklace?” “Not at all,” Miss Bee- be replied as she unclasped it and handed it to him. “But my ring!” inter- posed Miss Brent. “Yes, in a moment,” said the man to Miss Brent, still looking curiously at the necklace. “Quite extraor- dinary!”” Then to Miss Beebe: “Do you mind if I take it back for a moment?” His gesture indicated “back” as somewhere eastward in the glittering distance. Miss Beebe didn’t mind. “Gee! of all things!” said Miss Brent. “He'll forget what I came here for!” They waited a few minutes. The man came back with the necklace, and in a gracious manner asked Miss Beebe where she got it. She giggled as she told him. “Do you care to sell it?” he asked. “Why—n-o-o.” She hesitated. “But would you let us keep it for a day or two—and accept a check for $1,000 for its safety? I will take your address.” A thousand dollars! If Bob should come back maimed that would mean so much! “Of course!” she said. A few moments and she had the check. A few moments again and Miss Brent’s errand was attended to. And they went back to their typewriters, marveling. Two days later Miss Beebe received from the jewel- ers this brief note: 4 “Dear madam—If you care to sell the black pearl necklace, we shall be pleased to give you $40,000 for it.”” at you have er-given me the e Zoo “Let's go see the animals this after- noon.” “Not again. I've seen them all this morning.” o: “Where?” . “In my own zoo. The fact is, my cook’s a tiger, the butler’s a bear, the office boy’s a monkey, the clerks are = wise as serpents, the bank cashier's a gorilla, and my whole family is like a swarm of bees.” Boobs “What are you laughing about?” “Now that peace is here I’m think- ing of the poor guys who got married to escape the draft.” comicbooks.com