El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-12-28
bad Company His Wife
This Got the Poor Woodworking
Man Into Trouble; Wife Can't.
See the Point.
Winifred Black

HE sat before me the other day
the wife of the thief. She had
~ come to ask mercy for her hus-
band, who had been caught stealing.
She was young and she was pretty,
and her black eyes shone from under
a hat of late design, and she wore a
coat of fine cloth, and the shoes on
her small feet were good, and the
gloves on her little hands were not
you see,' said the wife of the thief.
it's this way: l was away and he got
lonesome and wanted me to come home,
into bad company, and he is not strong
minded, and they made him think II
was all right. And that's how he got
into trouble-bad cOmpany-thats the
whole thing. I hope you won't prose-
cute him"
what was your husbands business?~
said 1 to the wife of the thief
'BoOkkeeper-
Fifty dollars" said the thiefs wife.
You make your own clOthesg
The thiefs wife swept her modISh
dress with the tail of her dark eye and
laughed a little, like a mischievOus
child.
who me?" she said. ct can't sew
you do your own washing, then?
The thiefs wife looked down at her
little white, useless hands.
Why, no., she. said I never did
that kind of work"
How do you get on with the cook
ing2 You do that, of course"
The thiefs wife's smiled this time,
and what a dimple she had, to be sure.
That amt so hard she said.
There's delicatessen store and get
everything, or almost everything, from
there. I don't know how to cook"
Fifty dollars a month the thief made,
and his wife does not cook, can't sew,
Ia -
and she says he is in trouble because
he got into bad company. I didn't say
& word to the thiefs wife about the
company.
locked up--as a thief should be- He
sat on the edge of his cot and he looked
as if he had been crying, and he told
me about the trouble.
I lost my job" said the thief. "and
my wife went home on a visit. I had to
give up the flat and I couldn't pay my
room rent, and owed the laundry
people, and the delcateSsen man was
after me, and I went into this flat
you've heard about and took what
could see"
How did you lose your job?'
- don't know" said the thief. They
just let me out, that's all"
DO you know who took your place."
Yes. A fellow that lives in the same
house where our flat was"
The new boOkkeeper'S wife wasn't at
all like the thiefs wife. I went to see
her and found out. She isn't as good
looking as the thiefs wife, but she is
sweet faced and rosy and her eyes are
bright and true and loving, her hair
is pretty and her neat little house
dress was well made and hung right
She made it herself she told me;
makes all her own clothes, oh, yes, in
deed. She could not afford to hire
them made.
Her hats. too. she trims, and the
laundry-well, the collars, she sends
hr1f he 10
The delicatesSen shop; is there one
near by? She didn't know. She does
all her own cooking. It is cheaper so,
and better, and her husband does not
like ready cooked things.
I went to see the man who pays the
bookkeeper's salary
Yes, we let him out" said he. NO,
nothing definite against him, you might
say, but he and his wife were picture
show fiends, went every night, and
once saw them there and the wife
was dressed better than my wife. I
can't see where he got the money for
that hat. He handled money for me
sometimes and I didn't think it was
fair to put him under such strain, so
I got a different sort of man."
"A different sort of MANI
We'll no, not exactly. I mean a man
with a different sort of wife. It
amounts to the same thing Don't you
think so2"
Bad company, that's what got-poor,
weak chinned thief into trouble.
There's no doubt about that. The worst
kind of company. a silly, vain, selfish,
lazy, Wasteful wife