The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-05-21
TIE EVENING STORY
Winninc Iois-
~ Frank q. sweet. ]


whats that? How did I come to
give my consent2 Wen. don't know
as ever did. It was one Of the things
that just come about-happen, you
know, as if twas made to be so. I
never did have much use for white
hands and store clothes and a soft
voice; seemed to me they went mostly
with card sharpS and men who wa n [
willing to work, and Lois felt the
same. Her great idea in a man was
anything that seemed right, especially
il a woman was in it, and to US that
kind of man had big. brown hands
and broad back and loud voice, and he
always wore rough clothes, which
showed he want afraid to work and
never thought about how he looked.
so when Jim Furness saw her from
parlor car window one day, and
threw his baggage off and lost his
ticket, just through a crazy idea of
winning her. Lois turned him down so
quick that I didn't have a chance to
say a word, mad as I was. You know
how Lois is when she's stirred up, like
this. She just looks and turns away,
and there's no need for her nor any
body else to say word.
well. with other folks that would
have ended it; but Jim he just turned
round and got a job firing on a local
engine that helped pull freight up our
side of the divide. You see, he seemed
to understand by instinct that Lois and
believed in work, and didn't care for
dressed up effect. But pshawi you
know how it is with Jim. Put him on
the dirtiest job going, and his hands
viii stay white and soft like a girls,
and the toughest clothes ever was
have a way of hanging on him like
they we're tailor made; and as to his
voice, il you turned his engine end
over and down the mountain, when it
got to the bottom, Jfm's voice, If he
had any left, would be as soft and
drawing as ever
I'VE saw a good deal of Jim now,
Tor with me as station agent and our
living in rooms upstairs, Lois and 1
were sort OF chums with everything on
the railroad. Maybe that was what
started Jim to getting his job so quick,
and having it so he could switch back
and forth in front of the station every
few hours, and stay in our town over
night Maybe he figured that just be-
ing a railroad man would be a sort of
recommendation
But If SO, it didn't seem to help him
much. There were big, strapping en-
gineers on the road who had done
things, risked life and looked square
at death without Winking; and there
were conductors and section bosses,
and one local superintendent, and
passenger agent, who liked Lois, and
who would have been glad for her to
have liked them, and nearly all had
done things. You see, our section right
along here is a tough piece of road,
and all the employees who have been
on it a few years and are not killed
have stories to tell. Now but Lois
hates personal talk that touches on
brag. so 1t doesn't matter.
But as I was saying, pretty much
the whole road liked Lois; and Lois.
she liked the whole road, as a whole,
but wouldn't single out any one in
particular. And as for Jim, she scorn-
ed him openly, and he knew it.
Now, I didn't like Jim myself. so of
course I couldn't feel the pity for him
that J would for anybody else. But
pshawi If he felt it he never showed by
any signs. He just came and took his
scOrn and joked and laughed and made
US laugh, and then came back for more
seorn the very next time his engine
pulled IN. Now I ask candidly what
you can do with fellow like that? The
others laughed at him, and he laughed
with them. then after a while some of
the more rough ones, thinking him soft
and good-natured and without back
bone, went a little too far, and his
white fingers closed together like steel
springs and more than one of them had
to lay off for repairs But Jim didn't
seem to hold any grudges He laughed
and talked to those who treated him
the worst until they had to laugh and
talk back; and then, the first anybody
knew, they were all the best of friends.
but the strangest part of course,
was about Lois. Jim never did a single
brave thing so far as / know, risk his
life in saving a train of passengers, or
something like that; and he spent a lot
Of money in helping people in one way
and another,-a good deal more than
his salary could possibly amount to-
and either of these things was enough !
to keep Lois scornful. She had no use
at all for man unless he was brave, |
and no use for one who wasn't absO- /
utely honest-and of course spending |
more than one earned would seem to /
have only one meaning.
However, Jim kept right on in his /
quiet, good-natured way until he had |
made the railroad men his friends, and /
even Lois and began to look forward /
to his spending an evening; things |
went off so swinging and pleasant like.
mo, don't know as he ever did |
ask me in so many words for my con-
sent, or even II he asked Lois. It all .
came about as if twas made to be so,
minister and all; and It want until
after they were married and gone to
mis- home that we found out he was
one of the biggest owners Of the rail-
road, with more money than he could
throw away. That first time he saw
Lois he was Just from college, and
gone into partnership with his father,
and was taking an observation trip
over their road.
His father like it, Seemed so. Any
way, he's never said or looked a word
against it when I've been there; and
he's just as proud of Lois as Jim him
self. And Loisl why. up there the city
5 just full of society queens, as they
call them, and Lois leads the whole
OF. Takes to It naturally. they say
lust like she's always took to every
hing. I go I'D once a year, and they
LII treat me like a king: and Jim. espe-
sially If he's got some big nabob visit
ng, as he generally has. buttonholes
ne and tells that story about=but
Lois hates personal talk that touches
IN brag. so # doesn't matter. You see.
he might hear."=( Copyright, 1906.
~ Chas H. Sutcliffe.)
Pathos in q Name.
There is a story about Gen. Sam
Houston of Texas, and a practicing
physician who did not like the old gem