Evening star., 1901-06-29
HIS NOVEMBER VACATION

YES" mournfully said the young $1,000
per annum stenographer in the War Depart
ment, ''the chill. gray. gloomy and gener-
ally rainy month Of November's mine for
vacationizing purposes-permanently, I
guess. don't see any way out of It. It's
been that way for three years now, any
way and It's cinch that it's going to be
that way again this year.
Il see all these pictures In the papers of
the girls in their bathing suits and the
boys in their 1annels. and the bunch off on
the seaside links playing golf and the
crowds sailing on the northern lakes in
| the bright summer sunshine, and all that
sort of thing, and. say, do you know how
l feel about 1t? feel like resigning my old
JOB and going off right smack in the mid
die of summer and trying for a job
waiter in a summer hotel; that's the way
feel. When it commences to sizzle around
mere and your feet begin to leave tracks in
the asphalt and the leaves begin to turn
yellowy with the heat. then's the time that
l long and banker to put in my little slip
Tor my thirty days leave and buy me up
rig and scoot away for fun. But have to
hang on. The others are ahead of me on
the list. and it's the sere and yellow No
vember for mine
The chief of the division finds that Au-
gust Is good enough for him, and away he
goes AT the same time his stenographer
puts in his little application and sails off,
giving all hands the hoot. The 81 200 wo-
man stenographer who never stenogs any,
takes July for hers, and at the same time
three others in the room put on their glad
smiles, not to mention their glad rags, and
depart, leaving me and a few other of the
shunted ones in the gloom. The merry
month of June is eaten up by coupIe of
others and three go climbing off In Sep
tember.
In May. which I'd gladly take for my
time If had any hope on earth Of getting
It, Cnre6 others their annrpved
cations for their thirty days leave in my
race as they pass my desk, and away they
go. Five of them take April In order to
attend to their gardening-they'v got
shacks out in the country-and enough
shoot away in October-because it's a beau
tnui month, in the early part, anyhow
10 make 1t impossible for me to get my
ieaVe during that time.
linen come the dead ones in the office
IKE myself, who have to take the leavings
1ney re all ahead of me- though The best
OF EN- take December because it includes
the holidays. The next in the dead ones
class go away for their month in January
because they have to, and the same
March.
Every time the summer comes around 7
commence to put in some extra energetic
l1cks around the office, and then 1 slide in
my little ticket for leave during one of the
not months. Each time they hand me the
slow, quizzical smile, and tell me they'll
see, and that's all 1 ever hear of it. 1
simmer around through the summer, oc-
casionally going down to the stations just
to punish myself by seeing other ducks
drilling off to the lovely seaside places
that I've never caught glimpse of ex-
cept In the picture papers-for I'm from
the West-and then the chief always int-
mates to me, around the end of October,
that If l put in my application for leave
for the ensuing month-November-he
see that 1t Is granted. And that's when 1
go, sure pop. every time. And I get
chilled to the bone, and rained on, and all
sorts of things, during that month, be-
cause l wear thin duds and try to pretend
to myself that it's still hottern blazes-
and it's all a hash, that's what it is.
There are a lot of idiots around the
departments who try to pretend that the
folks who go away their annual leaves
during the hot months of summer are
jays and all that-but they don't know
what they're talking about. Just let 'em
get stuck In a situation where they can't
get away during the summer, whether
they want to or not, and they'll become
the loudest hollerers-like I am. Hear me
holler! and the young man doomed to
lifelong vacationizing in the clammy
month of November picked up the top one
of huge stack of pictures of impossibly
shapely young women in bathing dresses
and regarded the same wolfishly.