Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1910-02-12

CcIeub, was DckluulhB W uhioiu Alo
dead white, heavy odored petals.
Dulcie stopped In store where
goods were cheap and bought an imi-
tation lace collar with her so cents.
That money was to have been spent
otherwise-15 cents for supper, 10
cents for breakfast, 10 cents for lunch.
Another dime was to be added to her
small store Of savings, and 8 cents
was to be squandered for licorice drops
the kind that made your cheek look
like the toothache and last as long.
The licorice was an ~extravagance-al-'
most a carouse-but what Is life with
out pleasures?
Dulcie lived In furnished room.
There Is this difference between fur
nished room and a boarding house
In furnished room other people do
not know it when you go hungry.
Dulcie went up to her room-the
third floor back in a west side brown
stone front. She lit the gas. Scien-
lists tell us that the diamond Is the
hardest substance known. Their mis-
take. Landladies know of compound
beside which the diamond is as putty.
They pack 1t In the tips of gas burn
ers, and one may stand on chair and
dig at 1t In vain until ones fingers are
pink and bruised A hairpin will not
remove 1t; therefore let us call 1t I'M
movable.
SO Dulcie lit the gas. In its one.
fourth candle power glow we will OBJ
serve the room.
Couch bed, dresser, table, washstand,
CHARIOT this much the landlady was
guilty. The rest was Dulcie's.
On the dresser were her treasures
a gilt china vase presented to her by
Sadie, a calendar issued by pickle
works, a book on the divination Of
dreams, some rice powder In a glass
dish and a cluster of artificial cherries
tied with pink ribbon.
Against the wrinkly mirror stood
pictures of General Kitchener, william
Muldoon, the Duchess Of Marlborough
and Benvenuto Cellini. Against one
wall was a plaster Of paris plaque of
an O'Callahan in Roman helmet
Near 1t was a violent telegraph of a
lemon colored child assaulting an in
fiammatory butterfly. This was Dull
cie's final judgment In art, but 1t had
never been upset. Her rest had never
been disturbed by whispers of stolen
copes; no critic had elevated his eye
brows at her infantile entomologist.
Piggy was to call for her ut 7. While
she swiftly makes ready let us dis
creetly face the other way and gos-
sip.
For the room Dulcie paid 81 per
week. On week days her breakfast
costs 10 cents. She made coffee and
cooked an egg over the gaslight while
she was dressing. On Sunday morn
ings she Toasted royalty on veal chops
and pineapple fritters at "Billy's" res
taurant at a cost of % cents and tip.
ped the waitress 10 cents. New York
presents so many temptations for one
to run into extravaganza.
She had her lunches in the depart
ment store restaurant at cost Of 60
cents for the week. Dinners were
$1.05. The evening papers-show me
a New Yorker going without his daily
paperI-came to 6 cents, and two Sun
day papers, one for the personal col
umn and the other to read, were 10
cents. The total amounts to $4.76.
Now, one has to buy clothes, and
I give 1t up. l hear of wonderful
bargains in fabrics and Of miracles
performed with needle and thread, but
1 am in doubt. hold my pen poised
in vain when would add to Dulcie's
life some of those joys that belong to
woman by virtue Of all the unwritten,
sacred, natural, inactive ordinances of
the equity of heaven. Twice she had
been to Coney Island and had ridden
the hobbyhorses. IT'S a weary thing
to count your pleasures by summers
instead Of by hours.
Piggy needs but a word. When the
girls named him an undeserving stig-
ma was cast upon the noble family
of swine
The words of three letters lesson in
the old blue spelling book begins with
Piggy's biography. He was fat; he
had the soul of rat, the habits of a
bat and the magnanimity of cat. He
wore expensive clothes and was-a con-
lnoisseur in starvation. He could look
at shopgirl and tell you-to an hour
how long It had been since she had
eaten anything more nourishing than
marshmallows and tea.
He hung about the shopping dis
tricts and prowled around in depart
ment stores with his invitations to
dinner
Men who escort dogs upon the streets
at the end of a string look down upon
him.
He is type. I can dwell upon him
no longer. My pen is not the kind in
tended for him. am no carpenter.
At ten minutes to Dulcie was
ready. She looked at herself in the
wrinkly mirror. The reflection was
satisfactory. The dark blue dress, At
ting without a wrinkle. the hat with
its jaunty black feather, the but slight
ly soiled gloves-all representing self
denial, even of food itself-were vastly
becoming.
Dulcie forgot everything else for a
moment except that she was beautiful
and that life was about to lift corner
Of its mysterious veil for her to OBJ
serve its wonders. No gentleman had
ever asked her out before. Now she
was going for a brief moment into the
glitter and exalted show.
The girls said that Piggy was a
"spender." There would be grand |