Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-24
The Manicure
Lady
By WILLIAM F. KIRK.

66TTHINK it is too terrible for any.
thing the suffering they ara
having over in them Balkans"
said the Manicure Lady. 'The paper
yesterday said that there are hun
dreds of thousands literarily starry.
ing to death. There has been so much
war over there that the soldiers has
destroyed all the crops and ate NJ
all the live stock. So all the Door
women and the old men and the chill.
dren amt got thing to eat Honest
TO goodness, George, 1 can't see whers
this wonderful world that we are all
the time talking about is getting anv
better. Certainly it can't be getting
much more civilized when they will
stand for a war that will let hun
dreds of thousands, mostly women
and children, literarily starve to
DEATH
You don't mean Iiterarily:' YOU
mean literally" interrupted tina
Head Barber. you are all the time
calling me down about my grammar
but you make more mistakes than
do"
George" declared the Manicure
Lady, sometimes l think that You
have a heart like stone and brain
like a shriveled up bean. Here was,
telling you about the terrible and
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
about a woodland you wrong at that.
Sometimes 1 get to thinking abou:
your lack of all them finer feelings
and swear that you and me will iust
pass the time of day hereafter, and
then 1 get lonesome and realize that
l have to talk to somebody or &c.
foolish so | talk to you"
81 didn't mean to interrupt you
said the Head Barber. Il guess yol
are right; conditions must be awful
| over there. I notice that good old
Uncle Sam is right there to help ou,
too-and England, and the other CIV
| ilized countries. That is why ! say
the world is better than it was in g
them dark ages. In them days when
| there was famine and fever and war,
there wasn't any civilized nations to
step in and help them out of their
misery. They just died like rats
Now, when there is anything awfu
i like that comes up, it gets into the
| newspapers and the people that has
anything to give is quick enough conf
| Ing across"
Yes, there is something in THAI"
admitted the Manicure lady. 81 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
| Wilfred 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 | 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 like
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 mer-
chants in the neighborhood 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 the
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 TO
make us contented with what We
have. Gee. business is awful, amt
| it?"