The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-05-06
The EVENING STORY
Saved from Bankruptcy.
(By Estelle Clairmont.)

Well. they were married and had
gone to housekeeping in a coy little
flat-Arthur Lee and Edith Session. 1t
was love match. Edit knew that
Arthur had a thousand dollars and no
more to go into the gents furnish
ing business in modest little store,
and she knew that she would have
everything to learn about housekeep-
ing. as IL would be a long time before
they could afford to keep a servant
Everything had gone along SPLEEN
didly for a few weeks, both at the
store and at the flat. when that old
maid, Miss Headly. came poking her
nose in one day. She was an acQuain-
lance of both husband and wife. and
had to be greeted. OF course, she
promenaded through the five rooms
and praised nothing. but neither did
she condemn until the bride pointed
to vacant space in the parlor and
observed that it was reserved for the
piano, when they could afford one.
We'll, I expected it,
Expected what?.'
THAT you would bankrupt your
husband inside a year by your extrav-
agance- You'll coax him into getting
a piano, and then will come fur
coat and opera tickets and rides in a
hired auto, and IL you tease hard
enough he may even buy an auto on
the installment plan. I saw by Dunn's
the other day that the business fall
ures in the country last month were
AIS, 70 more than for the same month
last year. The men are not to blame
for 1t, but have been driven into bank
ruptcy by their wives"
But we may not get piano for
two years." protested the wife, land I
walk to save street car fare
"But what are you doing to assist
your husband?"
''Why, I'm keeping house.
YES and having nothing to do half
the time but read novels If I was
a wife situated as you are, I'd be
earning and saving against the
crash"
"Is there a crash coming?"
Certainly, and it's going to be in
the gents furnishing goods. too.
meant to bring the article along / saw
in the paper yesterday but I left home
| in a great hurry. Edith, do you ina
CINE that men are always going to
wear shirts and collars and cuffs
Has it never occurred to you that the
| time will come when they will make
| one suspender do in place of two,
| or wear none at all? Are they going
| to keep on choking themselves with
| neckties? Are they going to continue
to wear socks when all writers on
| hygiene declare that wearing none at
all is the way to avoid colds. catarrh
great change is coming and you
should prepare for it. Any day your
| husband may come in and tell you
that he is bankrupt"
"Why, how can men get along
without shirts and things?'' asked
Edith as she turned pale.
by returning to the simple life
| Adam had no use for those things
| You may yet see millionaires walking
| the street. by advice of their doctors
with only a bed quilt wrapped around
| them"
| "And if my husband goes to smash
| in his business then-then-?"
Then suppose you had the money
| in the house to start him in a delica-
lessen store? There is a business that
1 ions to menace it. There are no doc
| tors holding out warnings. You sim
ply go in and get potato salad anc
sausage and come out again. If yor
are the owner of the store you make
| SO per cent profit. Arthur can slice
! the roast beef and such, while yor
| make the salads. If 1 were in youl
place wouldn't let another day pas
without trying to get something to d.
to save up money for the crash com
ing; but I wouldn't say a word tt
! Arthur to discourage him, and 81
bring it all the sooner
| Having said her say, and been a.
mean about it as she could. the ole
maid departed and left the young wifi
in tears. Something to do? Why
yes. one udu always DSSl dSkeo WI.
she didn't develop her talent for paint
ing. She would begin a little picture
that very day. She would paint one
every day until she had six on hand
and then send them to different ar
stores. Each one would probably b.
/ accepted and paid for on sight Sh,
might start her savings account will
5000.
The young wife dried her tears
brushed her hair, and within an houl
l. NT~xI,
ing was said about bankruptcy wher
| her husband came home. She did no
even mention that the old maid HAD
| called.
Once upon time. before her mar
raige, the wife had had occasion tt
send telegram and a friend had told
her that if it was marked rush" l
| would be sent and answered in hal
the usual time. She remembered this
when her pictures were ready to sent
wrote a rush" in red ink. and ther
waited with bated breath for tn.
checks to come in. The art store!
obeyed the Injunction. They rushed
the pictures back with feeling tina
life and death depended on theil
haste.
Her artistic career was failure
and Mrs. Lee had the sense. even In
her bereavement, to recognize the fact
There must be other things at which
money could be made, however, an6
she consulted five or six hundred ad
vertisements, and finally found ons
where persons were wanted to address
envelopes for liberal pay. That wal
just the thing. BY the time she hat
addressed thirty or forty millions tina
delicatessen, store would be SURE
thing in case of the failure of thu
other.
| She applied at certain street and
number. So did about a hundred
girls. fifty old women and a numbel
of boys. The man in the office call
ed her my dear" and gave her {
thousand envelopes to take home tina
he might see what sort of a hand sh'
wrote He also exacted a deposit o
fifty cents for their return He alst
took her for a young widow. and re
| marked on his gladness to see he,
| | li.,ixasr ir,