Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-12-30
THE MANICURE LADY
Rv William Z. Kirk.

By William F. Kirk.
tI wish this life was lot longer,
George, " said the Manicure Lady. eff
we could stick around here four or five
hundred years, we might learn about
all there is to be learned. This life is
too short to get the right dope on the
universe, even by going to univer-
-sity."
eyes, but if you could live five hun
dred years you wouldn't begin to know
everything anyhow said the Head
Barber, r"and at the end of the five
hundred years you would want to live
to be thousand"
"You must think am awful bone
head not to learn about everything in
five hundred years" declared the
Manicure Lady. ~ amt the wisest
fish that ever breathed, George, but
goodness knows that even at my tender
age I have got jerry to lot of things,
and if few years could teach me more
than most of my customers seem to
know, 1 ought to do pretty good in
five centuries.
"I was telling Wilfred that | would
like to be five hundred years old be-
fore / died, and he said / was balmy
in the bean. He reminded me that
most women begins to show the wear
by the time they were fifty or sixty,
and l must admit that it did make
me think how wrinkled girl would
be at the ripe old age of five hundred.
But / woudn't t mind the wrinkles so
mach if l could know lot of things
that have puzzled me-"
'People don't get no happiness out
of knowing a lot of things" said the
Head Barber. ~ was happier when
[ was kid than I am now, and
didn't know anything to make me
sad. "
at don't seem to me that you know
enough now to make your heart ache
TO the breaking point" asserted the
Manicure Lady. "You amt the kind
of n gent, George, that goes through
life yearning for more knowledge. Ii
you have good line on the possible
winner in the fourth race, you don 7
bother thinking no more any one day,
but it's different with thinker like
me. I sees so many things going on
in this world that don't seem right to
my way Of reasoning, and that is why
! would like to live long enough to
learn the reason why they go on the
way they dol"
"Folks ought to mind their own bus
mess more, " said the Head Barber.
"Thank you for the digl" snapped
the Manicure Lady. "It came from
you, though, and people that wants tC
progress in this world ought not to
mind the sneers Of simple-mnded peo.
pie that never progresses at all,
. suppose whom that feller Gallyho said
that the world moved folks like you
was there to tell him to mind his own
. business. l......
= "Aud when Columbus discovered the
, Pacific ocean and the Mississippi
river | suppose lot Of nuts asked him
why he didn't mind his business and
leave them be undiscovered. ! gues,
after this when / want to talk about
any Of them deep, logical, scientific
' things | will talk to some customer
, with brains, and not to you"
"a customer with brains usually
comes in just to get shaved, though,
said the Head Barber, cor to get O
hair cut, There is some exception.
but you might better talk about deer
things with me than with most OF
the Jos that gets their nails did il
here"
"Yes George, I suppose you are
right" sighed the Manicure Lady
"'rhis shop amt no proper environ
ment for thoughtful girl like mt" "