Arizona republican., 1910-05-09


 AA little tiny girl to paraphrese
 \" the epilogue from Twelfth
 Night" and when my best girl friend was just not quite so little nor quite SO tiny, 1t chanced one day that the wind didn't blow and the rain didn't rain. and SO the thing we had been planning for weeks happened. It vas a foolish thing and a naughty thing But we were very young and very foolish too, and. as 1 look back on 1t now, it was so ludicrous that the folly of 1t and the naughtiness or 1t are lost ir, the humor of it. That phase of 1t. however. could not have suggested itself at the time to two families who for forty eight hours nearly distracted. or to the newspapers that were printing big headlines about us.
 Yet even the families. after everything had sinimered down and all was well again, realized that during our escapade we had had one experience worth treas urire. because it proved that the rough est human exterior may hide beneath 1t gentle and kindly nature That ex- pcrience and is sequel are what lead me to tell this story. Without them it sim ply would have been an escapadc of two foolish young girls. With them 1t mas q touch of something very human. and in the end something very un- ususl-something 1t seems to me worth the telling. 1 presume that by this time e.reader has guessed the nature of the escspade to which I have referred. and .h5t, l may venture to whet curiosity hy stating that. when we were safely back m the folds of our respective fam flies, our people advertised far and wide. t-t vainly. for tramp who had acted toward Us like a knight of old, and whom. ten years later. 1 discovered amid strangely different surroundings, trans lvfnled in. appearance and in a wholly changed station in life.
 l come from "the coast" and at the time when what I am about to relate happened. was living with my parents in San Francisco. I was only eight years old-a schoolgirl There was at tha. time in San Francisco an excellent French school kept by Madame Zitska, and ii was to her school that 1 was going Eo member of my family was ID any way connected with the stage, Ditt seem to have had an inborn love for it. San Francisco's favorite actress then was Ellie Wilton. She was a heroine in my eyes. so it was quite -atural that when discovered that one of my classmates was Ellie Wilton's niece, I singled her out from among all the other girls at school for my fast friend. She Ladored her aunt. I adored her aunt and 1 think what drew us SO strongly to each other was the opportun- ity our friendship gave us to adore her aunt together.
 My parents had no special fcndness for the theatre. They enjoyed it in about the same manner that the average theatrercer does. and they certainly did not encourage me to go 10 1t, but rather the reverse But Ellie Wil.on's niece being my best friend and going more .S less 10 see her act, l was allowed to 60 too To us little girls the orchestra Stalls were seventh heavens, and the ssage realm far bc:ond this earth. We nade no allowance for tinsel and foot Egsts l. vas real 70 us and we longed tc be part of +. I believe my little friend had thrown oct a suggestion at home that she wanted to become an ectress Ike annie" and had bee. promptly @sorclehed." and by no one more promptly than said "auntie' never cared breathe a word at home about my own burning ambition, but ] know both my friend and myself thought it very "queer" that the hint she had thrown out had met with such ar ,infsvorable reception from her pcop,e. However, we were close mouth ed little oonspirators, and however much we talked between ourselves about our Al IL sl we g,ve no one else an inkling of them. Madame Z:tska's school was situated in what then was known as the Western addidoD." + now is residence section. The house in which the school was held in time went the way of most houses in city sections that are being "im-