Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-06-18
THE LADY WHO "KNoCKS."
A Woman with a Hammer Is Greatly to
Be Feared.


/ Hammer exercise IS not confined TO
/ women. not at ALL | have known men
by the score who could give an able
bodied blacksmith his choice Of tools, ma
I terial and fuel, and then win out.
! But the Lady with the Hammer seems
+ more conspicuous somehow. Perhaps
( that's due TO the fact that the contrast
between her soft. pink hands and the
brutal instrument they hold Is particular
! IL striking Again. it may be the unusual
appearance Of the hammer She wields
which attracts attention, this hammer be
ing Il vicious but dainty looking thing,
fashioned Of the hardest steel imaginable,
but coated with narrow strip OF velvet.
Thor. the thunder god Of the Morse
men. used to smash giants and mountains
al one throw Of his hammer, which was
called mioellinir. He did such jobs
frankly. brutally, TO this day the av-
erage man knocks" pretty much as Thor
knockcd-without any attempt nj aesthet-
ic workmanship.
That isn't the way of the Lady with
the Hammer, however. The Lady with
the Hammer is an artist, not a barbarian.
Besides. 10 her just one knock and a
smash would not suffice for purposes OF
amusement. She believes in pr0tracted
and continuous fun, rs lid the Pottawat-
tonic or Arapaho Indian III the palmy
days of torture.
To begin with. she selects her victim.
That victim may be a man who hasn't
made love TO her or Il girl TO whom the
man who hasn't made love to her is
making love. 1t may be also some one
against WHOM she has no special grudge,
but who presents tempting tarsct for
her hammer
Anyway. she goes to work Her first
knock resembles Il love tap. It's ali
velvet, adI no steel. The intention of
the world = attention to the victim.
After HAT the blows grow harder, lit
tie 10y lull". \ talented hammcr-lady
will manage her exercise 50 that each
ran falls ~ Exactly the same place.
OF course. the velvet coating of the in
strumcnt is always i'll evidence. Should
it show the least sign of wear and tear
the lady will be certain to renew it.
Aud therefore the ncarsighted persons
generally fail to perceive the cold, evil
steel beneath it. and. as they're hard Of
hearing. too, will not hear the hammer
fall because this yelvet-a velvet of good
breeding aud gentle manncrs-Saccceds
in deadening the sound.
Meanwhile the victims skin is black
and blue. aud hurts exceedingly. The
irony of the procedure may be found in
the circumstance that frequently enough
the victim does not understand how or
by whom he or she is being hammered,
not seeing the steel "pder the velvet.
Not even the dec has as much pa
tience as the Lady with the Hammer,
although the legends of the Middle Ages
credit him with a practical monopoly of
that quality.
She never tires. Her supreme pleas
IRE is to innict the acute punishment as
long as possible without entirely dis
aiding her victim. Refined cruelty be-
holds its perfect incarnation in the Lady
with the Hammer.
In the course of time--three months or
three YcarS--the victim drops under the
final stroke. And then the cxccutioner,
laying her hammer aside with sigh half
of regret and half of satisfaction. will be
the first to turn big. falsely sympathetic
eyes toward society ana say
Its too bad, isn't 1.-THE case of Mr..
Tor MrSl So-and-So? You know, never
quite believed the story.'-H. X. Il.
Icrtzberg in Minneapolis Times