Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-06-01
mentary. In three months John was
wondering what he ever did without

WoAuoIAAS WAdL uo ever 0lu WALAout
her
One day he stared out at the street
and faced startling fact: He was
In love with Miss Kimball!
It rose like mountain peak
above the level plain OF his existence,
detached from it's drab surroundings.
In no sense was it part of them. He
could not see how 1t would ever be-
come part of them. He was, he
candidly admitted, an alarmingly home
ly man. Binnsley, the bank clerk, and
Tom Roper, the grocer, who had al
ready paid Miss Kimball some atten-
ton, we're away above his class when
it came to personal appearance.
So musing, he attacked his morn
ing mail The second envelope which
he slit open contained an appeal for
help from country youth whose girl
had discarded him for better-favored
rival. The other young man. said the
writer, plaintively, had taken her to the
last two church "soshuls;" they fire.
quently went "bugy-ridin together,
and they "giggled" when they passed
him. He signed himself Heart
broken" and wanted to know what he
should do about it.
Smiling granny, John adjusted a
sheet of copy paper in the typewriter,
and wrote one of those biting, quiz
zical paragraphs which was giving the
"Tidings' a reputation throughout the
state.
He reflected complacently there
would be others "giggling" at Hart
broken" and his plight. Then he sent
the letter marked Don't change" and
his comment, up the copy-chute to
Miss Kimball
When the next proof came down
for correction, John blinked behind
his glasses. "Hartbroken's" letter had
been altered as to language, spelling
and punctuation; and the editors
fippant comment had not been set.
Instead, there were a few words OF
kindly, sympathetic advice. Poor
"Hartbroken' was transformed from, a
gawk to be laughed at to shy youth
who suffered.
At the bottom of the proof the
operator had added sentence Of her
own. "He appealed to you for advice;
it wouldn't be right to make him a
laughing-stock'
Wilkie rumpled his hair thought
fully, corrected the proof, and wrote
20. K, J. w." below Miss Kimballs
note. Then he smiled sheepishly, sent
the proof up the chute. and slapped
himself three times on the red, bony
wrist
'Hartbroken" was really responsible
for the "Tidings" most popular column.
Miss Kimball evolved it, mothered 1t,
and kept it alive. The country youths
letter had evidently touched hidden
spring in Trenton, for missives from
the lovelorn came in steady trickle
after that.
John turned them all over to the
operator; he didn't want to continue
shaping his own wrist. She gave the
perplexed advice. ......... ...
Conniving with the foreman, she set
an attractive box head, "Heart-Throbs
and Things" She filled a column
with the letters and her answers, with
paragraphs she clipped or wrote. and
with some Of Johns snappy editorial
squibs. Launched in the ''Tidings," 1t
made an unmistakable hit John, who
had been waiting the chance, raised
her salary.
Winter deepened. So did Johns
love for Edith Kimball He longed
to take her in his arms and kiss
away her capable. self-reliant air;
to pet and tease and adore her out
of the status of valued employe
into that Of wife. and comrade. Many
times he started upstairs, firmly de-
termined to take her busy, dimpled
hands off the keyboard and say mas
terfully, put on your hat; we're
going to be married.
An inspiration came to him one
evening as he smoked in his office
after hours. He selected cheap,
plain envelope from his stock OF
samples, put on his hat and hurried
to the Office of Bob Sears, young
lawyer with whom he was friendly.
There he cut the business card Off
one of Bob's letterheads and wrote
an appeal to the "Heart-Throbs
Editor"
Dear SIR" he wrote, 81 am a
young man of twenty-one and l am
very much in love with a young lady
who works in the same place l do.
I am not at all good-looking, and
there are several paying her atten-
ton that are, so I fear she does not
regard me favorably. I feel that
would make her a good husband, but
am afraid to ask her to marry me,
as do not know that she cares any
thing for me. What would you ad-
wise me to do :" He signed Nathan"
and mailed the missive in the plain,
typewriter envelope in a train that