The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-23


 sThank you" said Blackie. ssTn just add that to the memorandum of the bet,' and he wrote it down.
 They all breathed a sigh of relief when Dillon had gone.
 t'I'd have had the St. Vitus twostep in ten minutes if that man had stayed here,' announced Blackie. He re minds me of one of those squivering frog toys that you hold in your hands to see if your nerves are steady Hell end in sanatorium, observ- ed Wallingford. eff he ever succeeds in building his solid block retail store he'll make a quicker failure than the full dress cafe or the New theater.''
 NO! Do you think so?" inquired Siekels eagerly 'sHe wants to buy my theater It's the only important build ] ing in the block he wants to tear down for the site of his new store.'' *sMr Sickels is the owner of the NAvon theater, where Violet Bonnie made her first big hit explained I Blackie.
 ssFhe Avonr' returned Walingford | ..I should think you'd be glad to get l good offer for that, MT. Sickels. It ] hasn't been doing a paying business ] for years, has it ?"
 q should say not,'' confessed Sickels. | ssIt was dark all last season. But I don't feel like selling it for $2OO,o00 ! in the stock of q acoInpany that's likely | to swell up and burst. Ten years ago was offered $400, GOO cash and l wouldn't take it Now it keeps me so 1 broke that I'm a rich man and take 2 I holiday if l have ST In my pocket
 why didn't you sell ?'' was Wal1ing- ! ford's natural inquiry.
 m I~ir1 O. vvarr.r, 71f7 scattering it the full length of the Rue de Nfazsrna. z,
 f You were wishing awhile ago that you were broke, Jim, Blackie remind ed him. ssYou ought to try Dams stunt He wouldn't sell his house of hits to either the syndicate or the in dependents, so they made an objeet lesson of him with rotten bookings. Would Dan's Irish blood stand for that2 No! He leased the house to in dividual producers ard put over eleven ! straight flivvers Now it's the hoo dooed Avon. and lG can't even put moving picture show across"
 A boy came through the bar just then, paging MT. Daw, and that gen tleman, after hrrrying to the telephone. { came back, laughing You're to come out to the house for dinner, Jim," he | sd4ElSGul w tAl111S L4e@1Ga and Violet won't let her go home
 sGiye my regards to Violet Bonnie, won't you7'' begged Sickels .sThe hit ] she made in The Pink Canary was. what put the Avon on, it's feet, and T never had q star in the house that made So little trouble or was such an all around good fellow
  | .,. notes the mail brings you nothing but. trouble complained Violet Bonnie as she returned to the library of the new Daw residence, where Mrs. Walling- ford wandered idly from case to case inspecting the shining new backs of standard books which never had been opened and which probably never, would be. Why, Fannie, right after made my first big hit in The Pink Canary they had to give me six pi-s geonholes in the stage entrance maiI box, and I had to hire a secretary to open ,ny: mail and send the presents back Now if II get letter it's either from dressmaker or an old time ! chum who wants me to steer her daughter on to the stage or warn her away from it.'
 Mrs. WaIlfngford smiled quietly. ''I don't see why either class of letters should annoy you,'' she observed. N ..Yous have good dressmakers. and you don't object to paying the bills, and I should think it would be pleasant task to encourage budding genius or 10 warn weak girls away from the stage"
 ] 1T don't know why in either case I should nurse and bottle feed and bring up by hand grouch against the
  trace of an extra chin. Ut brought me some perfectly good husbands be- i sides Blackie Say, I hate my old ' chums anyhow
 You're making your nose red, Vi" warned Mrs. Wallingford with a hilari- | ous laugh
 Honest. am I?" and Violet hurried 4 to the mirror. T am too fat to get mad" she confessed, ''but 1t certainly does get my Angora for girls I used to know to write me that they have grown up daughters. It makes me feel so old, and I won't be oldr' 1 That's it, is 1t? Who has been re minding you of your only enemy ?'' l Martin Tripp.'' snapped Violet Bon nie, Martha was my schoolteacher mp in Squamosett. She wore corkscrew <! curls on both sides of her face, but she ought to have worn 'em in front, for she was so ugly that she had to get up in the middle of the night to rest from it. If I remember her Melissa, she | was a gangIe shanked brat with freck- les and snub nose Melissa is now in the flower of youth, this letter says and all her mother wants me to do is to show her to a manager Melissa is supposed to do the rest. The balance of the good news is that Melissa is on her way here right now. She will be among us probably by the time this humble missive intrudes itself upon me Martha means by the time I get the letter. Honest, Fannie, never did a mean thing to any living creature in