Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1913-04-26
Return or POLLY
sy s. 3. DINKELspleL.

name became a household word.
''Thomas, the man who writes the
adventures of Polly O'Han, OF, as
he is known at his club, Tommy, the
Polly Man."
Once a week the National pub
hshed further experience of Polly.
The Polly couture became popular,
and the Polly waltz set all toes
prancing.
Polly, be it known, was a pretty
Irish nursery maid, who pushed a
gurgling go-cart in the park, and
pushed it through the walls of i'm
possibility and improbability in a
most delightful manner.
She pushed it into a world of gold
dollars, where she adapted herself
easily to the most agreeable new
state of affairs and set about to
bring to her feet-in thrilling Sc
ries of adventures published every
Friday-the sons Of the wealthy of
theNland, even as she before had tied
to her go-cart the park police and
the paper picker, and the toy balloon
man.
Finally Thomas decided to wed
Polly in one of the many adventures,
and announced that fact to the Ma
tional editorial staff.
Whereupon the staff and Tommy
and Miss Gilhully, the stenographer,
and her girl friend went out to fit
tingly celebrate the event.
Over the lobster Miss Gilhully
sang the Polly waltz song, and over
the coffee Tommy sang some choice
lines of his own-and to 60 into no
further details of the supper, the
following morning Mr.. Thomas
found himself in the throes of pto-
main poisoning. To the doctors
surprise he lived.
Polly, on the other hand, after
few feeble clutches at life, passed
away. Try as he would, the Polly
man could not rouse sufficient en-
thusiasm in himself to even offer as
a final supreme adventure "The Mar
rage of Polly"
And what happened then, you
ask?
How shall / tell in my few pages
of the years that turned Tommy to
W. X. Thomas, then William X.
Thomas, ESQ.,, and finally Old Man
EiIomas?
He lived, grew prosperous, and
slightly bald. He gambled bit,
and drank a bit, and enjoyed the
best cigars. He had written his last
story before the Polly supper.
His adventures on change were as
successful as polly's adventures had
been in the National,
And then the slump came.
At the age of fifty-fve William
Thomas lit quarter cigar and re-
marked to the lined face that
grimaced at him in his mirror:
Tommy, my boy, do You realize
YOU are broke? Boy, do you real
ize it -
He had seen the startling condi-
ion impending for some time, the
mind that had schemed so many ad-
ventures for his heroine could not
now scare up an adventure to bring
him in dollar.
His credit was still good at the
club. There he went each morning
and breakfasted and lit a club cigar.
Then he read his paper, and toward
noon was invited, or, as it was all on
the books, invited a fellow member
TO luncheon. A game of chess in the
afternoon, buffet supper; and,
after all, the day was not so long.
Then one evil morning he was in
vited into the Offices and received a
suggestion that his account had been
increasing rapidly for some time.
Thomas thanked the Office for re-
minding him, passed round club eli
CARS, and then, in cold perspira-
ton, sought his rooms. All night
he sat at his table, doing and pull
ing at a cold cigar, seeking in the
faces Of the passers-by and the flick
ering lights a way out.
In the morning he bathed and
changed his clothes. Discouraged
| he passed down the street "a friand