Atlanta Georgian., 1914-02-24
The Manicure
Lady
By WILLIAM F. KIRK.

GeTTH1Nk it is too terrible for anys
thing the suffering they ara
having over in them Balzans!H
said the Manicure Lady. "The paper
yesterday said that there are hun
dreds of thousands literarily starv-
ing to death. There has been so much
war over there that the soldiers has
destroyed all the crops and ate I'D
all the live stock. So all the poor
women and the old men and the chll-
dren amt got thing to eat. Honest
to goodness George. can't see where
this wonderful world that we are all
the time talking about is getting any
better. Certainly it can't be getting
much more civilized when they VIII
stand for a war that will let hun
dreds of thousands. mostly women
and children, literarily starve to
DEATH"
You don't mean Titerarily;' YOU
mean literally" interrupted ths
Head Barber, you are all the time
calling me down about my grammar.
but you make more mistakes than I
do"
George" declared the Manicure
Lady sometimes l think that you
have heart like stone and brain
| like a shriveled-up bean. Here was,
telling you about the terrible ana
heart-rending things which is hap
| pening over in them Balkans, and
there are you, not paying a particle of
attention to the agony that is going
/ on there, but correcting me instead
4 about word-and you wrong at that,
! Sometimes l get to thinking about
| your lack of all thom finer feelings
and swear that you and me will just
| pass the time of day hereafter, and
| then l get lonesome and realize that
! l have to talk to somebody or got
| foolish, so 1 talk TO you"
Il didn't mean to interrupt you7
| said the Head Barber. II guess yo1
are right: conditions must be awful
| over there. l notice that good old
| Uncle Sam is right there to help ou;,
| too-and England, and the other CIV
ilized countries. That is why 1 say
the world is better than 1t was in
i them dark ages. In them days. when
| there was famine and fever and war,
I
step in and help them out of their
| misery. They just died like rats.
| Now, when there is anything awfu,
! like that comes up. 1t gets into the
newspapers and the people that has
anything to give is quick enough COM
ing across"
Eyes, there is something in that"
admitted the Manicure lady. Il didn't
used to know what the power of the
press meant. l used to think that It
meant how strong them big machines
! was to run off so many papers. but
| Wtlfred explained to me that 1t meant
| the influence newspapers has in the
| world. The old gent had to come in
/ then with his knock against the pa
pers, because once when he was run
ming for office l guess some of the pa
pers got after him pretty hard, and
he ran second instead of first. That
was his last deal in politics. but he
| has hated the papers ever since.
"Wilfred had some wild scheme
| fixed up to get few boy scouts Ike
him and start for the Balkans with
money and provisions, but when he
started out trying to collect the let
tuce nobody would kick in with no
| dough. He tried to get all the n1er-
chants in the neigbhorhood interested,
but none of them knew anything about
| the starvation in the Balkans, and
only one of them even knew that
there was a place by that name, and.
besides, none of them would trust
| Wilfred no more, anyhow, after tbs
way he got into them.
Il guess them awful troubles is sent
here, George, to make us realize that
we amt so high and mighty, and %
make US Contented with what we
have. Gee, business is awful, afn'5
it2"