The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-08-05
ARTISTIC REVENGE.
Made Life Miserable for the Stout
Stenographer.

The elevator boy was a genius, al
though nothing of the kind had ever
been charged up against him. When
the fat-that is to say, stout, for only
men and the lower animals are fat, wo-
men of that style Of architecture being
invariably ''stout"-when the stout
stenographer on the ninth floor repulsed
the admiring advances of the elevator
boy she did not know that she was lay
ing mine for the destruction of her
peace of mind if not of herself. The
elevator boy brooded upon the snub
bling he had received and resolved that
he should be gloriously revenged.
But how? as the cheap novels say.
The elevator boy did not know at
first, but the next time the stout stem
ographer entered his car to ride to the
ninth floor an inspiration came to him.
The inspiration came on a Monday
morning.
AT noon Of the same day the elevator
boy, shooting downward from the PIN
nace Of the building. found the stout
stenographer waiting at the ninth floor
to go down and get her cup of coffee
and peach pie a la mode.
Nine down." piped the stout stenog-
great dignity and politeness the eleva-
tor boy opened the door. The stout
stenographer entered. The moment her
foot pressed the floor of the cage the
elevator sank two inches. The elevator
boy closed the door without a word, a
glance or a smile, and the downward
journey was resumed. The three men
who were in the dropping box, however,
IL ~i,ocr exy
sion on their faces. When their eyes
took in the proportions of the stout
stenographer a satisfied look came into
their countenances. They understood
why the elevator had dropped two
inches under the pressure. The stout
stenographer colored a rich autumnal
red and looked daggers, sabers, broad
swords and other cutlery at the boy.
He said no word-other than Main
floor-all outi
After the luncheon hour the stout
stenographer sauntered into the rotun
da of the big building once more. She
had forgotten the incident of the two
inches Going up!" cried the elevator
boy, and she accelerated her move
ment toward the lift. Four men and
two women We're inside. The boy
again, with princely politeness, held the
door open She entered. At the pres
sure CT her foot the elevator promptly
dropped two inches. The four men,
aroused from after-luncheon reflections
by the sudden lurch, looked about in
quirngly. They saw the stout stenog
rapher and smiled. The two women
smiled with smiles of even greater di-
mansions and duration. The boy was a
hewn monument of imperturbable dig
nifty The stout stenographer glared
about her. She half suspected, but
could not be certain.
In the evening it was the SAME way.
When the stout stenographer entered
the elevator to ride down to the street
she gave it a two-ineh start on the way
The other inmates looked at her rather
sympathetically, and she knew that
they were wondering how in the world
she managed to stand the hot weather,
but nobody spoke. The boy was a pill
lar Of icy calm.
It was in this fashion that things
continued for six days. She tried to
catch the boy off his guard and slip
into the lift when his attention was at
tracted to other things-the cigar stand,
for instance-but all such endeavors
We're unavailing. That fatal drop of
two inches always manifested itself.
She felt that she was a marked woman