Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-05-09

TO 40 was Ito feeX It up with Kitty.
This young lady was somehow COM
municated with, and descended In q
DISQUALIFICATION with shawl over her
head, to meet them at the factory en-
trance. She was thick-set, vivacious
little person. with broad. good-hum-
ored face, and an air Of galloping de-
cision; and when she talked there was
not bit Of her broad, good-humored
face that did not join in and help,
beginning at her mouth, and quivering
up her cheek, and wrinkling her nose.
and waggling her eyebrows, and
streaking her forehead; and she could
listen just as theoretically. and every
word You said ran over her like q small
earthquake.
Matt liked her at once. and she liked
Matt and the preliminaries were soon
settled and earthquaked all over her.
So he would not think it beneath him
to drill a lot of girls, and he would not
scold them If they made mistakes, and
got all tangled up. And was ten dol
lars week enough, for they couldn't
pay no more than twenty cents each,
and 1t would even be a trouble to jolt
that out of some of them? And how
short ought their skirts to be, and need
they wear gloves? Gloves were ele-
giant, but many of the girls thought
white ones would make their hands
look too big. What did the lieutenant
think about gloves, and was 1t too
much like policemen? They didn't
want to be called the lady cops, did
they? And, of course, they wanted
Sunday drill too-one every night ex-
cept Saturday, so as not to miss the
balls, though they would give one Of
their own before long to raise money
and show the boys how cute they
looked.
In this headlong and rather incoher-
ent fashion Matt found himself en-
gagged: an appointment was made the
same evening for eight o'clock, and
Captain Kitty stepped back on the
freight elevator and disappeared from
view. Dorotka. who was employed in
another part of the building, excused
himself and scurried away; and Matt
left alone beneath the vast rumbling
structure, though what strange world
it was, and how good and kind some OF
its least considered people were. He
thought too, not without pleasurable
vindictiveness, that here was an &C.
cupation that was Mr.. Kay-proof. He
had been showed out of the Y. M. G. A.,
and shoveled out of the garage, but
if Kitty were anything of a sample of
the White Cadets they We're to be
relied on through thick and thin. His
drill was probably somewhat anti
quated, but was all the better for that.
He had been trained in the school of
close formations, which from the
spectacular point Of view were consid-
erably more effective than the modern.
What the cadets wanted was not SOL
diering, but brisk, pretty ballet-zip,
zaff, zoof as Dorotka had said-wlth
fifty white CATERS stepping out with
precision, while all their respective
Dorotkas looked on and applauded.
They should have it, by George, and
it would be no fault of his If the White
Cadets did not create sensation, and
cover themselves with glory.
Looking back on 1t afterward those
drills in the loft always stood out in
his memory with peculiar pathos.
The girls were so poor, so willing, so
gay and so infinitely painstaking; the
jaunty caps set 50 anonymously on the
tousled heads; the homemade CATERS
encased such very thick legs; the
hands that held the toy guns and
waved the tin swords were so calloused
with toil-so grimy and large. And
the solemnity OF It! The tears that
flowed down those pale, puffy faces,
when again and again they Numbered
and misunderstood! The little hunch-
back with the bugle, who forgot her
deformity as she sounded the blfthe
calls-inspiring and inspired. And the
elephantine tramp of those hundred
feet as they shook the floor in mea-
sured reverberations!
Mats popularity was unbounded;
his earnestness, patience and good
nature gained fir him an idolizing de-
votion. Erect and handsome, swinging
his light cane, he was to the girls their
ideal OF everything distinguished and
aristocratic-their realization Of those
story-book heroes of romance whom
they had dreamed Of but never known.
It became the custom to wear little
stamp pictures of him in guilt brooch
es; a word of praise was cherished,
and repeated rapturously; Celestine,
the hunchback, was regarded as the
most favored OF mortals, for 1t was to
her-and to her only-that Matt al
lowed himself to show any preference;
and many sturdy cadet would have
changed places with her gladly, hump
and all.
The corps was success from the
start In a week It was sixty-three
strong, and divided into two compan-
les, with company officers, and Kitty
promoted to majority. No one de-
faulted on her twenty-cents; and Kitty
who was also treasurer and secretary,
checked off the roll every Saturday
night, and handed Matt bulky bag OF
dimes. The general progress was re-
markable; the girls we're twice as
teachable as men, and not nearly SO
backward or stupid; they saw the drill
as a new and complicated dance. and
interested themselves in it with the
same ardor. From a gawky, ridicul-
GUS, uncertain hodge-podge they were
soon transformed into faultless and
alert body that 1t was pleasure to
watch. White CATERS whisked In per-
feet unison; wooden guns banged the
floor or rose in white arms with an In
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