Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-11

waited for the rattied-off dictation It
didn't come. She drummed on her note
book with her pencil. The man made
huge effort to concentrate, and die
tated half a dozen letters that somehow
lacked pith and meat. and he knew it,
and the girl knew it, and she viewed him
out of the tail Of her eye as she started
for her machine, and decided that he
must have had speedful previous night
although he was known TO everybody
as f1rst-rate and highly tanned domestic
male.
The morning was endless. AS it wore
on the man was confronted by several
business problems that required quick
thinking and quick decision. He tried
TO walk around the problems, to evade
them, to shuttle them off, to sidetrack
them, but he decided them somehow
though he wasn't confident that he'd done
the right thing as to any Of the problems
and he felt hang-dOg and meaSiey as il
he'd begun to LAY down on his job.
When he went to the lunchroOm for his
midday snack the one big object that
nailed his vision and kept his eyes in
steady focus was the nickeled coffee urn
on the counter. He'd never noticed It
particularly before. il was like a lunch
room coffee urns. but now he gazed "A.
it fascinatedly, woitishly, longingly; the
little jets of flame underneath ii flick
cred before the eyes of his mind like
enticing will-o'-the-wis and the fra
GRANGE that issued with the steam of the
Urn dIIHOS' intoxicated MN so mat ne
swayed. The CHEEKY young men walk
ing about the room. carrying their mugs
of coffee seemed like Young fellows who
somehow or another had gained a para
disc from which he'd been forever eX-
Guided. The chaps who'd ordered little
individual pots Of tea for themselves. anu
were sitting at the little tables pouring
it out and slipping il, seemed 10 be sloa :,
ing over him: there was a feer in their
expression they looked him over. he
oil nd urIla Inc cat with 10
mug of non joltfu. non-upliftful cup Of
cocoa he fancied that he heard q little
gale of tittering run along the length u
the room. although his reason told him
that this thought was idiOtic and tina.
lie wasn't even being noticed
Outside the lunchroOnn, as he lett. he
had to pass through the mob OF cheerful
coffee-and-tea-c hirky men. who all were
lighting up their cigars Or pipes or
cigarettes before beginning the t"udee
pack to their places of business. and the
mingled fragrance of the tobacco they
we're burning was so overpower. that lie
fel, as if he'd have to reach out un-
steady hand and clutch an area railing
10 hold on. The Office again was heavy
with the clouds Of drifting, layer-like to-
hacco smoke when he got there. and lie
opened wide his mouth and nostrils and
breathed it in and enjoyed a veritabla
vertigo OF vicarious absorption of nico-
tine that vet was so acutel!' tantalizlng
and provoking that he had to fight to
keep from muttering objurgatlons.
He doesn't remember how he got
through The afternoon. But when he
got home, with filmed eyes and strange
expression on his face, his wife looked
alarmed fancying that he must have
been drinking on the way home, He told
her to make coffee in the largest pot on
the grounds She did fle ate no din
ner, but drank four cups of conee with
his two rolls. Then he smoked two herty
cigars and three pipes In consecutive sue
cession, and thus he came back to nor
mality. -
But his wife, who had been silent, sur
veyed him sadly. disappointedly
john she said to him when sh sol
her embroidering going and he was on
the third pipe. II am truly disappointeo'
indeed I am Are you willing-you Die,
strong, determined successful man-aIe
you willing to acknowledge that you re
q sul-lave to such foolish things as coHee
and tea and tobacco
Yes, Heart of Gold. replied Johh,
blowing a cyclonic cloud of pipe-smoAe
at the slumbering cat, Il am.