The advocate., 1894-02-28
aration for the duties Of a reporter, for
Grace was certain Kate would be a
journalist the next day.
CHAPTER XIV.
WOMAN's SPHERE


undertakes to settle the sphere OF the Mar
tineaus and the DeStaelsl with what gracious
condescension little men continue to lecture
and preach on the female sphere ana Iemale
duties P"-WENDELL PHILLIPS.
Judge BOlder was accustomed to take
his midday repasts at lunch counter;
where, sitting on high stools and sans
napkins, gentlemen regaled themselves
on hard boiled eggs, ham sandwiches,
Washington pie" and hot coffee. And
here let me give the reader valuable
hint. I have travelled much in the
west, and in all my travels / have
never found in a city like RiSingtOn a
hotel nor restaurant which furnished
real coffee. The fluid is usually so
strongly weak that the odOr of feeble
ness is waited from the kitchen and
gives the waiting coffee lover head
ache by anticipation. But never has
the glorious lunchstand urn failed me
yet. Judge BOlder delighted in strong
coffee, and coffee on its last legs, as it
were, was his special abOminatiOn. By
no effort yet put forth had he been able
to elevate the coffee standard of the
hotels or restaurantS-W weak coffee
seemed to be a matter of principle with
them, and the midday cups at the
lunch-counter had become the oasis
springs in the days desert to which at
breakfast he looked forward and at
supper looked back. He and the edi-
tor of the Evening News usually sat on
neighbOring stools, and so long had
they done so that, by common consent,
these two stools were always left va
cant for them, and if a stranger took
one of the reserved seats the proprietor
always interfered.
The day on which BOlder had pro-
posed journalism as career for Kate
Cotterell, he repaired to the lunch
counter as usual, and when he and Dan
Glass, the editor, had taken their ac-
customed stools and had ordered coffee,
three boiled eggs apiece and ham sand
Wiches, the Judge remarked, as he up
set the milk pitcher in reaching for the
salt:
Dan, have something new to pro-
pose in your line. One of the brightest
girls you have ever Aeen is visiting my
niece and we wish her to stay here.
She wants a situation and have prom
ised to get you to make her reporter. "
"Great Scott, BolderP' exclaimed
Dan. "HOw would the heather rage
to see a young woman toddling around
in gum OVercOat on rainy days hunt
ing items for my great moral family
instructor! There's to be a chicken
fight over at Bob Moody's soda-water-
and other drinks emporium tomorrow
night. Send her over thereI Why
she'd hoOdoo the performance, and
every man in the house would stop his
paper and vote the Populist ticket for
spite. Then remember that choice bit
of scandal you aired last week in the
Scanlan divorce case. How would it
have done to set a pretty, young
female reporter down there in the
midst of you susceptible old lawyers
and had her take notes of the teSti.
mony? Why, it would have queered
your case, old man, and you would
have sworn had been hired to do it by
the other side. She might do society
items, but she would get her face
scratched and her bangs pulled if she
failed to make every blasted Woman's
dress finer than any other dress in the
house at Mrs. Colonel Thingumbob's
3 o'clock. Hades, no, BolderI would
do almost anything for you-even to
defending your character when you run
for congress, but l draw the line at
female reporters. Besides, old man,
think of the danger-I might fall in
love with the dear gaZelle, and then
what? I'm too susceptible, my friend.
And-Holy Moses, think of the blast
my esteemed contemporary, the Morn
ing Recorder, would give mel Not
much, old man. Not any for me,
please"
'Is there nothing else about the
paper she could do?''