Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

386 Some had more flavor, but went off. to a fawn, gooey unsatisfactoriness sooner than others. That new kind didn’t tickle the palate quite so alluringly at the initial bite, but it had a lasting punch. Julie knew, because she had timed the masticatory pro- cedure from the first snap of her small, white teeth, until the moment came for parking it under her desk top; wallside to the left. In some respects Julie was me- thodical and thorough, and it should not be rashly thought that she was a freak or an exception in the poverty or paucity of her food for reflection at odd moments. Plenty of others are prone to self hypnosis and mental magnetic attachment to grains of chaff and millstones. Opposite Julie sat a man who for the past three years had been trying to make up his mind whether he should give up se- cret drinking or his business. He did not want to give up his sly tippling, so his fu- ture was easy to foresee. On Julie’s left was a huge, grossly obese woman whose every meal-time was a torture of regret and a conflict between her natural constitution and appetite. How could she eat pork, po- tatoes, candies, ice-cream, and other flesh and fat fertilizers without putting on weight? Her problem was how to be a thin glutton. Standing by the sliding door was a florid, | discontented-looking broker whose financial deals ran into hundreds of thousands of dol- lars every month. His august presence near Julie was due to a breakdown of his imported car; but his disagreeable expres- sion was not caused by having to journey on the “L.” His trouble and obsession were connected with his inability to grow hair where he wanted it. As lusty weeds do grow, it thrived on cheeks and chin; and excepting for a brief respite immediately following a close shave, always did his seek- ing fingers stroke a purplish, raspy skin. He shaved twice a day. In three months he could have grown a beard a foot long. On his head was a scalp that no wild In- dian would have coveted as a trophy. There was nothing to catch hold of. So it goes, most of us have some pet fly in our oint- ment and—there it sticks. Others there are, who unsung by popular ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. acclaim, determinedly nurture in their hearts some dear hope, and carry unseen the cross of self-sacrifice. They are holders of jeweled scepters and often rule unknown. Humble may be their station in life; quite unaware of their spiritual glory, they are .members of a host of uncanonized saints. Hard by the noted owner of the bald pate was an old lady in rusty black. Her skimp- ing and scraping, her life of penny guard- ing and self-denial, had left its mark upon her. She was tired and worn looking; but the son born to her in her late thirties had climbed and was still going upward to suc- cess. Body and mind she had nourished him, watched over and guarded him. Now the cost was written in her faded eyes, the furrows on her brow, the lines about her firm, pale lips; but she was happy. Her soul was at peace within her. — Other matters that had come up for consideration before the personal, directing likes and dislikes of Julie, had been the choice between a comfortable bedroom with a South aspect—and closet with running water, at seven dollars a week, and service- able, but cotton stockings; or a four by ten hall-room overlooking a dismal, junk lit- tered back yard at thrée fifty and—real silk hosiery. The silk stockings won the argument without any fuss of delay. Like uncoated pills, and getting up early for work, sensi- ble and serviceable things are nasty and too often made unattractive. A pill, a rea! up- to-date pill is candy-coated; but compul- sory early rising remains just as irksome to some lie-abeds as it did before pills were camouflaged. Thus, on the theory that it is harder to tumble out of a comfortable seven-dollar- a-week bed than a lumpy contraption of squeaky springs and shaky legs; and back- ing up her argument with the certain knowledge that she would not be able -to afford a breakfast in keeping with a South aspect, Julie’s trim ankles went to and fro from rooming-house to office, in silk. In preference to a wholesome plate of soup and a hunk of bread for lunch, Julie spent an extra dime and had a prettily decorated, nice tasting sundae and cake. If she had GOMLGDOO CO |