The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-09-15

| The Epeniag Story
An Empty s1nEeEooeA.
(By John Philip Orth.1
Harold winters and Nay Evans were
There was nothing in this fact to
turn out the fire department or to send
for an ambulance.
matter with pencil and paper discov-
cred that exactly 200. 900. 900, 50, ooo.-
16z couples had been engaged since
Adam met Eve in the Garden. and he
told her that he sort o. loved her. and
would set spliced and 90 to living on
something besides bananaA
| Harold Winters was = portrait
painter.
May Evans was q sculptor.
They both had studios in tho Same
building. and they both boarded with
the same landlady.
All this would not have attracted ~
much attention a. Z raise in the price
they were always in Q quarrel II he
criticised her work or she his, folks
could understand why there might be
rancor. But they never criticised in
that direction.
Miss May would look at q portrait
he had finished and note that the
fingers were too long, ears too large.
| the chin unnatural and the eyes on
| the blink, but would she advise her
true love to go and hunt q Job paint
l ing an icehouse? Certainly notl
| And when she modelled q Venus ana
| he stood before It and said to himself
that he could do better with . hoe
and 100 pounds Of dough. did he for
1 - Mo- 1H~r
q joyful!
what they quarreled about and what
surprised all their friends was q fea-
ture OF crime-mysterious disappear
ances- A burglary or murder did not
hold their interest q little bit. II .
Black Handler had blown up their
studios they wouldn't have wasted a
minute wondering what he looked like
| or what he had to eat next morning
for his breakfast. It was when the
man or woman, had mystertously dis
appeared under certain circumstances
and the police had sent out q general
alarm that the artists dropped their
work and fished for q theory. and
then began to quarrel az to who was
right
| It is fair to say that Mr.. Winters
was right three times where Miss
Evans was once. That was because
he knew human nature better than
v
NIT it. Tney would read in the papers
that q girl was sent to the store or
started out to her work. and had been
missing for two days. The earth had
satisfied with her home life and had
/ had nothing to depress her. Then Miss
Evans would deduce:
Some Villain has kidnapped her." "
she has been coAxed into an elope-
ment.''
s.She went to Coney Island and was
drowned while bathing.
'She was killed by an auto"
Sometimes Miss Evans would tele-
phone these pointers to the police and
sometimes she would be satisfied with
calling them q lot OF fools. Then MI.
Winters would deduce:
THE girl was kept under restraint
at home, and was dissatisfied. She
was not allowed to use any OF her
money for her diversion. The mother
lies about 1t.
ence."
"She may have been invited to stay
At the house Of one OF them while tho
| two of them ran around together for
q good time"
and take in the movies"
I'm two or three days the missing
girl will walk into her homo with .
defiant air"
Once in a while the missing girl
was found drowned. but 1t was 10
rare, and Mr.. Winters was right 20
often. that there was hardly q peace
| full day in tho week for them.
One day the owner Of q new studio
building called to ask them to inspect
his new apartments with q view to .
change. Both were satisfied to re-
main where they were, but OF course
Miss Evans had a curiosity to see the
place. without q word to any one she
set on. and after q street car ride Of
q mile she reached the place. OF
course there was a janitor. He should
have been sitting in chair by the
front door and reading Newspaper,
but 1t happened that he wasn't. On
the contrary, he was In saloon
around the corner with his foot on
the bar railing. His argument was
that man was born before the mon
key, and that Darwin be hanged. and
after waiting for q couple OF minutes
Miss Evans passed upstairs. There
were four floors and no elevators rum
| ming.
She went to the top floor at once
and she was Immediately Interested.
lShe had looked about for q quarter Of
an hour when she attempted to open
a door which she found locked It
q moment she had 1t OPEN There vas
a large closet at the rear Of the suite.
and It had no windows She. was WON
dering what it was designed for. and
she stepped in an she wondered
"Bang!"
closed the door on her, and the spring
lock did the rest. She pushed and bat
tered and kicked and shouted but
nothing came of 1t.