Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1902-01-03
JlMM S a ssh Ga NJ
by ! ] CHARLES W. LAMB. ]

3 s. ny CHARLES ". LAME.
downright, 1900, by Daily story pub "a. /,
Jimmie w alker had spent his youthful
lie u U an atmosphere whose ozone had
been largely feminine; he had devoted
~ lar the greater portion of his college
days TO the Womanly attractions, and even
alter he had accepted much sought after
position on the Press and had commenced
to realize that his education instead Of
being finished was only begun, had not
ceased his attractions to the ladies. but
rather, vt possible, increased them. until
he met Miss knight, tall, blonde Miss
Knight, who, he remarked, would better
have been called Day.
1t was while dining with an old class.
mate one evening that he met her. and at
flrst only remembered the tall girl with the
blue eyes and the sweet smile, in a vague.
pleasing manner; but one day when she
appeared in his dingy city room with the
friends wife and asked him to give her
amateur theatricals notice, he became
aware that there was something attractive
IN the slender face beneath those bright.
wavey locks. |@-
!. he went to those theatricals, refusing a
complimentary ticket, and watched her
play the heroine with far more school girl
grace and bashfulness than histrionic tai
ent, and discovered that he was envying
the young man who took her in his arms
and called her his own. -
SO things drifted along. The spring was
born OF the winters SHOWS and the bios
SONS OF summer came out of the buds and
died in the autumn's blast. and the glow
OF the yuletide candles gave warmth and
beauty to the cold, white reflections from
out OF doors; and he stood beneath the
mlstletoe, and taking her in his arms,
pressed kiss on her lips and called her his
own, and the only applause was in their
hearts, tor this was not play acting
Jimmie was very happy in his engage.
ment to Miss Knight, and looked forward
to the coming fall with great pleasure, for
then was to come his wedding. For her
sake he gave up his visits to the rather
Bohemian Press club, and confined his time
to her or his den where his books were his
company, and even gave up his pipe, be-
cause ne felt that tobacco fumes were not
consistent, with her purity, and that the
money he smoked had better be saved. So
his promotion came with the autumn and
he was transferred to read exchanges and
write editorials. But it happened one fore
noon in September, as he sat at his paper
belittered desk, clipping the extracts from
the brilliant brains of the newspaper world.
that the "old man. sent for him and
shipped" him on an emergency assign.
ment to interview an actress who had inst
secured divorce after highly sensational
trial.
The interview was not long, and was
pleasant, for with all his aversion to the
woman she could be very fascinating. He
found her with her street wraps on ready
to go out, and after the interview she
walked downstairs with him, telling of
wine supper she was to attend that night,
and as he left her at the street door and
turned away, she called after him in
reckless boldness: "Come join us tonight
you'll have good time" And Jimmie
strobe down the street without noticing the
ladies standing in the doorway of the ladies'
entrance just behind him.
That evening Jimmie spent in his den
with Macauley, and after chapter of
Stockton as rest for his: brain, retired
with light heart and clear conscience,
for it was one day nearer to November. !.
The next morning as he sat among his
exchanges, thinking of the call that he
would make that evening, district mes
senger boy came into the office, whistling
the song the actress was making famous
and gave him a dainty, perfumed note,
which he took smilingly and gazed for
some seconds at the superscriptiop. for he
knew it was from her and giving the boy
time to get out of the wayne wished to
be alone when he read her notes-slowly
opened and read it.. The bright smile died
away as he read, and as he finished and sat
holding the open note in his hand, his eyes
gazed away into vacancy, a troubled look
on his face. Gregg, of the city staff, strolled
into the room and greeted him with:
whats up, old man; you look blue. Bad
news?"
"Just thinking, that's ALL" but the under
tone Of the would-be jolly voice was such
that Gregg quietly withdrew.
Bad news! Thinking! That explained it,
for the little perfumed note, written on the
delicate lavender-tinted paper said simply:
Having witnessed your conduct with that
woman at the Normandy yesterday, I will
not be at home this evening nor here
after"
He could not understand it. There was
surely some mistake, and all that day he
worked like one in trance, scarcely know
ing how the moments passed, and as
soon as the paper was on the press, he
closed his room and went directly to her
home. There he was met by the maid the
same as usual, but she brought back his
card wi,if the message on the back: miss
Knight is not at home to Mr. Walker" And
Jimmie went back to his den and, throwing
himself on his couch, buried his face in
his arms and shut the world from him.
So the months drifted by, and the COM
ment of his fellows was: whats the mat
ter with Jimmie?" But they soon became
used to his changed manner and ceased to
talk about it. The glorious Indian summer
with its mellow skies and it's golden air; the
joyous yuletide with it's snow and ever
green; the first month of the new year with
it's ice and billiards. were passed and Febru-
ary was bringing its searching winds when
one day again the cold man" came to him
in hurry and asked him to take an as
Segment and report the annual meeting of
the Children's hospital, and it was a work
in which she was interested. During all