Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 11, 1925 — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

190 about the cut of her little chin and a light not yet burned out of her violet eyes told hint she wasn’t yet beaten. ‘““She’s me over again,” he told himself. “Bound to lick the big town or die trying. Wonder if I’ll be as near done as she is in another week.” The information girl turned from the phone. “Yeh! Job’s fillismornin’,” she droned, indifferently. Driving a nail in a sister’s coffin left her unmoved. The applicant stared a moment, then, as she turned toward the door, swayed a little. Ferris started forward impulsively, but the girl pulled herself together at once and acknowledged his gesture with a faint smile and a brief bow. Then she passed resolutely out on her hunt. At that moment a boy at his elbow said, “Mr. Hale’ll see you now, Mr. Ferris.” Though Ferris had come hunting a job of his own, his mind was still absorbed with the strange girl when he faced the man who was to decide his fate. Hale’s words brought him back to himself. “Tm sorry, Mr. Ferris, but I’ve about settled on another man for that position. As I told you, we like your personality, you’ve got the ability we’re looking for, but you haven’t the knowledge of New York and the New York experience we need in this job. I hope you have better luck at the next try.” “ Better luck!” Ferris burst out. ‘ I’ve been hoping for better luck next time for six months now. You're practically saying a man mustn’t go in the water in this town till he’s learned to swim. Why, there’s an army of men and women hit this burg and get jobs every year; why can’t I?” “Well, they either come younger or older. You tell me you’re twenty-seven. If you were twenty-one or two I could give you a job that wouldn’t require New York experience or breadth of experience, a -beginner’s job that I wouldn’t insult you with now. On the other hand, if you were _ thirty-five and had a broad experience in a smaller town and had made a record, then you’d be fitted for a big executive job here. You come from Rochester. You have had the beginning of a good business experience oo * wt - = pe studying. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. there. Go back for five or ten years till you’ve made a record before you tackle us again.” Ferris’s jaw set. “ Thanks, but I can’t-take your aie: Tl beat this town yet. Good day.” But as he emerged from the building and faced the blazing street, he felt his self- confidence ooze a little. Lower Broadway in August! A river of sticky asphalt through which rushed purposefully an army of job-holders! A border of towering, forbidding cliffs, every one of whose ten thousand windows meant a job guarded against him! The great city’s fetid breath strangled him. A strange sun beat with a brazen hammer upon his “Gotham, the Goat-Getter!” the ex- claimed. “ Will it get my goat too, I wonder?”’ Then, even as his thoughts turned back to the girl, his fellow job-hunter, he saw her again. She was standing gazing in a window next door. As he looked closer he could see she was leaning limply against the pane with a dejected air. ‘“‘ The poor kid’s sick!” he thought, re- membering how her steps had faltered up- stairs. ‘ Wonder if I can help her?” He started forward impulsively, then hesitated. “Hold on, Tommy! You’re always putting your foot in things by going off half — cocked. She’d probably turn you over to a cop.” At this he foted the window she was It was that of a restaurant! Now he understood. “Starving to death!” he exclaimed. “The poor kid! She'll be fainting right here on the sidewalk.” _ He hesitated only a moment longer. “Tommy,” he teld himself, ‘ you never picked up a girl on the street before in your innocent life, but here’s where you’re going to begin. Tactful, though, boy! Tactful!” | He approached the girl now in his best business manner, swiftly mapping out the: first plan of attack that entered his head. He wasn’t much pleased with it, but it was EOMIE 00,6) <S (EO)