Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1894-05-17
THE MANIFOLD COPY,

be in business, for if there had ever lived n
more poctical, dreamy fellow not one Of
his friends had over seen him. From his
earliest childhood which was not SO many
years ago, be had written little verses
some very dainty and sweet, others so 50
and still others irretricvably bad The idea
of viii Baker, dreamy, handsome VIII
Baker, pushing, bustling, hustling In.
surancC man! 1t was hard to conjurc up
such picture.
Yet despite 1t all Mr.. Baker had succeed.
cd far beyond his own hopes in building
up u good business for himself, and his
many friends found that he knew how to
make money quite as well rs and often bet
ter than he did how to write verses,
which was good thing, as they all agreed
And after the business had grown SO it
could not longer bc accommodated in one
little room others were rented and many
modern improvements put into his offices.
And among these latter Edith Marvicw
was clas3cd-thnt ii to say, ns soon as the
other improvements were in and every
thing so well arranged and comfortably
placed that even the critical head of Slo
business could find no fault with it he ad
vcrtisrd for II typewriter, received hun
drcd odd answers and selected ono from
among the number bccausC-wcll, for
many reasons ono Of them was that she
was perfectly self possessed and not curious
about outside affairs; another that she
never volunteered remarks, which was
thing that twothirds of the typcwritcrs
Mr. Baker knew always did. And she
was cmncntly busincsslikC from the tips
Of her little SHOES clear up to the crown Of
her yellow hcnd
So Mr. Baker took her, and before sho
had been there six months Mr.. Baker fell
IN love with her with all his ardent, ro-
mantle nature, which was rather like Mr..
Baker, now | come to think of it.
Whether She knew this fact-this emf
ncntly unbusincsslkc fact-Mr. Baker
could not say, and because his Office was
always fun of men at work or asking qucs-
lions or talking there was never amy time
10 ask her Ind he been SO inclined.
But Mr.. Baker, | regret to say, found it
II very difficult thing to put into words
that he had SO often put into writing
that Is, to tell her he loved her, us he could
have written verses to an imaginary en-
rhantrcss--for writing love poems and be
Ing in love, let mo tell you, are quite scpn-
rate affairs So VIII loved silently his lit
tie typewriter, and many u man before
him has loved that interesting assistant,
II we are To believe the comic papers, and
worked ON, hoping for some quiet 10 min
utcs when he might sec her alone and tell
her of his affection.
Every day that love grew and waXcd
greater, ana every day he chafcd and fret
ted In his soul because no opportunity af-
fOrlcd for his declaration until he began
to grow thin and white and wonder If he
had not best get another girl for his letter
writing, so that he might have timo to tell
this one he wanted her for his wife.
Then, utter all he did to stop it, he broke
out one morning into poetry. | say broke
out, which is II very inclcgant expression,
because that Is exactly what his other
friends would have said. He wrote four
very fair verses, which brrathCd an honest,
tender and true love, addressed to "Some
One, and written in Wits wrctchCd
chirogrnphy. When he had finished them,
no walked stenlthily across tho floor and
laid them upon Ediths littlc table and
walked back again. She picked them up,
looked rapidly over the sheet and was
about to speak when u visitor rushed into
the office with some important news from
the proprietor, and he was gone with tho
newcomer before she could say what she
had to.
have neglected to say, find, that Mr..
Baker also sometimes sent his verses to the
magazines They were invariably returned
to him, and that speedily, but he did not
lose heart and faith that they would some
time find npublishcr, and to this end Miss
Marvicw always copied them for him ON
tho Typewriter, ~ he asked her to- So to-
day, whom he handed her these last, with
out other instructions, she supposed, of
course, they were for her to copy. But rs
soon ms he had gonc--and sho was suro of
it--with several very becoming bushes,
Miss Marvicw got out the sheet of black
carbon paper which she sometimes used
and proceeded to write the poem, two cop
les at once Why did shcY Because this
very hrn2cn young woman, II Is said, was
quito as much In love with her employer
rs he was with her. And because these
verses were SO pretty and fcrNid, and
brcathcd SO much of the great love she had
felt for him for the last month, she just
imagined down IN her dear little heart that
she would like to have II copy of 1t always,
to read every day and think it was her
dear one who had written Them, for Miss
Mnrvic was cmincntly sensible at times,
hc the quickest way to get herself copy
before Mr. Baker dashed back again from
his GRAND
So ii was done and her own copy laid
carefully away in the drawer of her little
table, white the original was placed In an
envelope, rs she had dome many others I've
fore, and addressed tothc editor Of -, to
he filled in Ivy Mr.. Baker himself.
That night he noticed that the poem of
hi lay ON the desk beside him, and his
heart sank. Then She did not loNC him,
she even returned that innocent little
nvuwal in rhNm r-and--and--wcll 1t was
all over and he WAS wrCtChcd But rs he
was closing mp for tho night, II thing he 81
ways did, he happened toopcn that drawer
to replace u sheet Of heavy paper that had
been missed Ivy Edith, and there before
him lazy that manifold copy For II mo-
mcnt hr WAS puzzled, for he had thought
She had purposrly misunderstood his iutcn-
tions and had copied the poem in tho bust
nrsslikc way To show him this, hut now II
all came over him She really cared for
him, for his verses ANA had thought enough
of them To-
He stopprd suddenly, and small wonder
Miss MNrvirw, having returned tor Il