The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-09
BOWSER's FAIRY TALE.
1t Is Started Never to Be, Fin
ished.
WEDNESDAY.

| Mr.. Bowser was bothered. He wasn't
grumpy, but bothered. He was ner-
vous and fidgity. Now and then he
seemed to look into the dim distance
to try and discover when the price of
butter would drop back to the dear old
price of 80 cents pound and all the
| cold storage men hang themselves for
grief. Mrs. Bowser wasn't bothered.
On the contrary, she was placid and
content. She even hummed a soothing
air IS she sat and watched Mr.. Bowser
wriggle around and heard his signs.
| Time brings all things to our feet, and
she knew that in time he would get
! through wriggling and begin to talk
Mrs. BoWser was right, as usual. Mr..
| Bowser finally passed pallid hand
across his pallid brow, and a voice
started at his lower vest button until
! it worked up to say:
Mrs. Bowser, am invited to write
a fairy story for the 'Children's
Fairy Story Magazine
That's NICE she replied.
Il am one of 20 prominent authors
selected to send in a story"
You ought to be proud of the fact"
"Y-e-s, I am
Writing fairy stories is right in
your line. Have you dashed off any
thing yet?"
MOT exactly. It's right in my line.
as you say, but for some reason I
find it rather difficult to start. I have
tried several times today, but 1 don't
quite grasp the subject
Perhaps your stomach is out of
order. They say that when John d.
Rockefeller's stomach goes back on
him he can't do as much literary work
as to sign receipt for a million dol
lar dividend. His hired girl has to
do it for him by making her x mark"
II though you might give me a
hint" said Mr.. Bowser in what he
though was careless tone. You
are not literary, but an outsider some
times grasps an idea"
inL
have you written thus far2"
"Only a few lines. 1 say that there
was once a poor old woman living IN
a forest, and all she had to eat was
raw corn-meal. She snivered all
winter and was all het up all summer.
Every night the wolves came and
howled at her door, and-and-
And itched to get in and eat her
and her corn-meal. of course. You
have a great plot here. and the situa-
ton is certainly thrilling"
IT am glad to hear you say so, but
YOU see. I don't seem to get on from
an old woman in such a fix?"
"U-m-m-m! She must live on corn
meal?"
sShe must
Cant she have turnips with it?''
'fMrs. Bowser, l want to excite the
sympathies of my young readers at
once. 1t might be better if the old
woman had to subsist on the old
es-wringers."
That's an original idea. Yes, change
it from corn-meal to wringer rubbers.
Is the old woman to be toothlesS 2"
What has that to do with it?"
asked Mr.. Bowser, seeming to be
little suspicious all at once.
eff she can't bite chunks out of the
rubber then she must have a horse
radish crater handy by. Your readers
will think of that at once. Well say
that she's toothIess, and that she has to
CRATE her food. What kind of a bed
do you give hero
zone of rags, of course
'"Thats right. That touches SYM
pathetic chord at once. Beds of straw
are played out in fairy stories. Does
she weep when she remembers that
she was once the leading lady in the
play of Shamrock % -
II hadn't said what she once was"
'Then that's a point overlooked.
She must have once owned an auto,
worn a fur coat, and dined at Sher-
rvs as a steady thing. There's got to
be a come-down, you know, and the
longer the drop the more sympathy.
Yes have her weep if her old heart
was breaking. Her feet will be FROST
bitten, won't they?"
Il hadn't decided.
You should have them frost bitten.
by all means, Mr.. Bowser. 1t would
be as we'll to say that she had lost all
the toes on both feet except the big