The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-05-11
This Weeks Novel a Week!
New Story of Real Mystery

me- ioi Noitpctitlou was ttIilitt.
He had TO be on the lookout for
the latest capillary wave, the lat
est style OF collars, hats and trim
kets. IL was he who brought
back the Grecian band; and i'm
mediately school girls and shop
girls and show girls went to and
fro with heads that looked for all
the world like those little fern
pots tasteful housewives place in
the center of their dining tables.
However. forbes was a mighty
sensible chap. He did not take his
work seriously; nor more did his
confrere. Mr.. Popular Piffle.
They had had many a laugh and
Jest together.
They carried about in their
heads no nonsense about this
thing which some wag has called
poor lar" (L'art pour larD; II
was a legitimate business, and to-
gether they entertained a vast
audience with innocuous pleas
ure.
Forbes was philosophical, too.
When he was dead he would be
very dead; the Hall of Fame and
the Temple of Forgetfulness
would be all the same to him.
At present he liked travel,
good clothes. good food, curios;
he liked to give expensive teas
in his beautiful studio; he rather
liked the innocent admiration Of
the schoolgirls, ct al; and he
wasn't too proud TO accept an oc-
casional thousand from the break
fast,,food people and the tinted
soap manufacturers.
Give us a new fiz, Forbes"
said the editors; this one is
growing stale"
All, those editorial degrees of
enthusiasm, which began with
slaps on the back, paused at
luncheons, and finally petered
down to the non-committal
"umums." A new face; he must
have 1t; and for two weeks he
had combed the town in vain.
Popularity had its drawbacks;
one had continually to find new
props to keep the thing from
tumbling about ones ears. Popu-
larity the new collar, the new
hat, the new shoe kind of popu-
larity, which changes completely
every six months, which has to
be renewed and twisted about
and readjusted.
And besides, there were those
younger chaps always bobbin3
up, with fresh invention, a touch
of unusual, a new color.
He renewed his bitter ar
raignment of Jillson and his bally
house warming. For now he was
sure that the girl with the milk
white skin and the copper-beech
hair had been fortune, knocking
at his door for whole week
with that persistence which she
accords only her favorites, often
numerically.
And all he had done had been
to sit tight in his chair and won
der who she was! Well, she
might pass again tomorrow. He
would throw formality to the
winds, rush across the street and
speak to her, plead with her to
help a poor devil of an illustrator
who was working like sixty toI
hold his job, who in the best of
times during the sale of some
beauty book never made more
than twenty-five thousand the
year.
Forbes climbed back to the
studio. He found the dachel
the soft lead which had
huch funny, cool, sweet taste;
of the cedar there remained no
evidence what ever. The puppy
growled an invitation for a romp,
which the artist accepted; and a |
great time they had, sliding over
rugs, banging against the walls
tapestries, over softs and
chairs and divans, till at last
Forbes, dizzy and breathless, SUBJ
sided upon a divan.
The tireless puppy jumped up
beside him and licked his face. |
He was a very valuable dog. Only |
last week he had almost ruined a
superb digestion while lunchins
off a Observation-Disclosures drawing
which his master had carelessly |
forgotten t o put back into the
portfolio.
The elevator boy opened the
door and tossed in the evening |
newspaper. Thereupon Forbes
filled his calabash, sought the
under the reading
lamp and idly went over the days
events.
The puppy, shifting the tobacco |
smoke which he thoroughly de-
tested, retreated under the divan
where he had his lions den of |
bones, palette knives, old tubes,
brushes and what-nots. From