The Opelousas courier., 1900-03-24

no Fruit! He stopped to the tank-cock
and three experimental jets of steam
sputtered up in impatient bubbles
through the cold water. Somewhat
relieved, he shut the valve and glanced
at the clock on the WALL Apparently
it had stopped like the rest of the
works.
1.-The slowest gang of girls I ever
sawr' he snorted. Dave was q high
pressure boiler, but he frequently lei
of.
A youngish, brown-whiskered man,
in a pink golf shirt, jumped ON the
edge of the tank and balanced there
%perilously. He was the manager OF
the California Consolidated company.
Restlessness and vehemence boiled
down, he often said he paid Dave extra
wages to help him fume. One reason
why the manager managed everything
SO well was because he knew so we'll
how to manage the manager.
"Hang it, Dave!' said he, t'the
minute a girl gets to be good for any
thing, she quits and marries. If I
could keep my best help, life would
be worth living. Come, girls, comet"
It quiekened the workers across the
half-partition, this clarion call and the
glimpse Of the managers tense face.
'9The boss is getting cranky" said
a brown-haired girl with rubber glove
fingers on, hurriediy poking q half
apricot through the little round hole
in the top of the can. All the packers
had their fingers protected against the
cruel curve of the tin. White cotton
rags would do.
"Haye you noticed how the boss
has duded up lately?" asked the
blonde, who sozzled the syrup into
the packed cans with the rubber lawn
hose that came down from the vat in
the attic. She was rather stately and
ambrosial, and reminded one of sHebe
on q frieze irrigating her row Of gods
with sweetened water. The California
Consolidated had dumped a ton Of
sugar into It's nectar pots that very
morning.
Don't you sabe?" asked another
girl. 'Jessie did, pretty pronto."
Spanish adapts itself elegantly to
slang In the southwest.
ooh, you're locoedr' reioined Hebe
swishing the nectarious nozzle from
one little tin god to another with an
elysian disregard of the spill. ssThe
manager viii look above Jessie!" she
added.
ssYou seer
Dave had turned the valve again,
and the steam roared into one OF the
big tanks. Another Kissed and
growled, and the conversation of the
girls vas inaudible. The packers had
caught up with the process-room, and
the apricot factory was in full blast.
How deity the sealer blistered the
yarn of solder around the can tops.
which spun on the revolving disks in
front of him. The metal string ran
down firm O coil over his head, the
whirling car caught it, and the hot
iron tied the knot. The other workers
fall behind, but the sealer could
stand in his tracks, hold his hands
the whirligigs, look pleasant and
keep caught up.
The manager drew a breath of sat-
.lsfaction as he saw the platform of
cans lowered into the Kissing bath.
"Giye 'em forty-fiye minutes this
time, Dave, he said, and passed into
the labelling shed.
IF there was anything that pleased
the manager more than another it was
bis labelling department.; and perhaps
be could not have told whether his
labels Or his labeler gave him the more
pleasure. TO the eye they were
inviting. The cream-and-
undertones Of the eaameled
wrappers appealed to ones imagina.
Jpn; they tasted good. Upon them
> designer had ripened two juicy
l~lEicots, Suggesting that the only bite
IngShe world worth taking came from
the fabufous orchards Of California.
tits the label and not the stock that
sells the pack" the manager would
in q confidential moment. The
apples of the Hesperides would
have humbugged mere people than
did had there been photographers
IN those days.
Jessie's left hand picked mp . glis-
tening label and her right seized d can
If fruit; one end OF; the label hirted
laintily through 4 little pool Of paste
the end Of her bench; The can re-
once and rolled itself into the
wrapper-done! An ugly tin had
;urned into q thing Of beauty. Jessie
lad merely beckoned and it had
Jumped into its yellow jacket. Small
wonder was It that the other girls
bought sheshad beckoned the man.
lger into his pink shirt.
He stood for d moment and admired
aer. The lines Of her fair Young fa.e
ind blooming figure had not been
by the months she bad spent
the cannery, earning her dollsr and
Iixty cents d day. 4 wondsr If i
hall lose her, tool the manager said
b himself. Il would be hard to tell
II that was in his thoughts then.
Most okthe time he was thinking OF
he . Of the company ana the
liGiculty Of keeping good help. HBy
lovels he went Oh, his countenanca
lighting up with 4 business inspira-
ion I'll PIT her picture on the new
lie labels
This enthusiastic intention was in
as i compliment and perhaps
acre. With his absarhirg devotion.
2 the fruit trade and his glory In the