The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-10
SHADOW OF A TRAGEDY
Copyright by Mcclure. Phillips & Co.

IS TO De expected; 1t is the part OF an
Emmy Lou to adjust herself to meet,
not to try to understand, these ways.
Miss Lizzy kept in, but that was only
one Of her ways, she had many others.
Perhaps they were no more peculiar
than the ways of her predecessors,
but they were more alarming.
Miss Lizzie placed deliberate hand
On her call bell and, as it's vibrations
d1nged and smote upon the shrinking
tympanum, rigid and breathless ex-
pectancy would pervade the silence Of
the fourth reader room.
Miss Lizzie was tall. She seemed to
tower up and over ones personality.
One had no mind of her own, but one
said that one thought Miss Lizzie
wanted her to say. Sometimes one
got 1t wrong. Then Miss Lizze's cold
up-and-down survey smote one into a
condition something akin to vacuity,
down. $50
Then one sat down hastily.
MISS Lizzie never wasted a word
MISS Lizzie closed her lips. She closed
them SO their lines were blue. Her
eyes were blue, too, but not a pleasant
plue. Miss Lizzie did not scold, she
looked. She kept looking until one
became aware Of an elbow resting on
tne desk. In her room little girls
must sit erect.
sometimes she changed. 1t came
y suddenly. One day it came suddenly
and Miss Lizzie boxed the little girl,s
ears: The little girl had knocked over
pie or states collected on the plat
form for marking.
Another time she changed r. ,,.s
Wnen the little. girl brought a note
from home because her ears were
poNed. Miss Lizzie tore the note in
pieces and threw them on the floor.
one l1ved In dread of her CHANGING
ONE watched in order to know tbe
Fr1oro r
every characteristic feature of her face
me lean nose that bent toward the
cneek' the thin lips that frightened and
relaxed' the cold survey that travelled
from desk to desk
Miss Lizzfe's thin hands vere na,,a,
sui any more than were her eves
MOST often her fingers tore bits of na.
per into fine shreds while she heard
lessons !. 'AA0 Aiearu
4, Lire Is strenuous. In each reader
the strenuousness had taken a differ
ent form. In the fourth reader # was
copybooks. ~ "e'''
Miss Lizzie always took an honor
IN copybooks, and she meant to take
an honor this year. But the road to
fame is laborious.
She had her methods. Each morn
ing she gave out four slips Of paper to
each little girl. This was trial pa
per. on these slips each little girl
pract1ced until the result was good
enough, in Miss Lizzie's opinion, to go
Into the book. Some lines must be
me ana ha1r-like. Over these Emmy
Lou held her breath anxiously. Others
must be heavy and labored. Over
these she unconsciously put the tip
OF her tongue between her teeth un-
tn 1t was just visible between her
lips.
accommodating of self to the chang
Ing demands of teachers? Tn the
fourth reader it was fine lines on the
upward strokes and heavy lines on
the downward.
Emmy Lou finally found the way.
BY turning the pen point over and
writing with the back Of the point,
the upward strokes emerged fine and
ha1r-like. This having somewhat al
tered the mechanism of the pen point,
its reversal brought lines somber and
heavy. It was slow and laborious and
1t spoiled an alarming number Of pen
points, but then it achieved fine lines
upward and heavy lines downward,
and that is what books are for.
Hattie reached the result different
ly. She kept two bottles Of ink one
for fine and one for heavy lines. One
was watered ink and one was not.
The trouble was about the trial
paper. One could have. only four
pieces. And the copy could go in the
book only after the writing on the
trial paper met with the approval Of
Miss Lizzie. So if. one reached the
approval one was kept in for a half
page Of copybook must be done each
day. And. kept I'M meant staying
after school, in hunger, disgrace, ant
the silence Of a great, deserted build
ing, to write on trial paper until the
copy was good enough to be put in.
Emmy Lou did not sit with Hattie
in the fourth reader. On the frs
day Miss Lizzie asked the class l.
there was any deskmate little cir
preferred. At that ones heart opened
and one told Miss Lizzie. w..
At first Emmy Lou did not under.
stand. For Miss Lizzie prompt!
seated all the would-be mates as fa1
apart as possible.
Emmy Lou thought about it. T
seemed as tho Miss Lizzie did it to b
mean. .
She put the thought quickly ava,
that she might forget it; but the
wedge was entered. Teachers wer,
no longer infallible. Teachers were
questioned the motives Of pedagogi
deism. e..
: And so Emmy Lou and Hattie were
separated. But there were three nev
little girls near Emmy Lou. Thei
kid button shoes had tassels. Yer.
few little girls had button shoes. But
ton shoes were new. Emmy Lou hat
button shoes She was proud of them
But they did not have tassels.
The three new little girls locke
amused at everything, and exchange,
glances-not the kind of chances whe1
little girls nudge each other and go OF
to whisper. Emmy Lou liked the ney
little girls. She could not keep from
looking at them. They spread thei
skirts so easily when they, sat dowr
There was something alluring abou
the little girls.
At recess Emmy Lou waited nea
the door for them. They all went GU
= together. After that they wer
friends They lived on Emmy Lou
square. It was strange. But they ha
just come there to live. That eS
planned it.
I'm the white house, the whit
house with the big yard" the TALES
Of the little girls explained. She wa
@ Alice. The others were her cousins
- They were Resale and Anlanthu
h Such charming names.
Emmy Lou was glad that she live
in the other white house on the squar
with the next biggest yard. She neve
had thought Of it before, but now sh
was glad.