El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-03-20
FRS. DRINKWATER is going to
iV move away" announced Mrs.
Jamesworthy, "and she offers

- Jamesworthy, "and she offers
me her sectional bookcases at one-third
the original cost. They are such a bar
gain I think we ought to take them"
IF there's one thing I'm not suffering
for" replied JameswOrtby, Its a bunch
of sectional bookcases. Such Injuries
are for the idle rich, for the malefact0rs
of great wealth, Mrs. JamesWorthy.
Its a most astonishing thing to me
that you seem unable to realize the pres
ent condition of our country. The cities
are crowded with the unemployed, and
even men who have steady work have
to practice retrenchment in four lang
uages, and the burdens the average hus
band has to bear are making cOrns on
his shoulders. A dollar, at this writing,
looks larger to me than the whole Hud-
son bay territory, and yet you stand
here without turning a hair, and suggest
that we buy several cords of second
hand bookcases Go forth among your
friends and see il you can't find some
old hen who has lot of stuffed snakes
for sale. Run over to Mrs GildershoOt's
and see if she hasn't a Cardiff giant
for sale at bargain prices. Il we are
going to blow ourselves for all the Junk
in the neighborhOod, let US Go the job
according to HOyle.
"In the palmy days when prosperity
reigned in this country, and the work
mans tin dinner pail was full of pies and
sweetmeats, [ felt able to indulge in a
few of the small comforts Of life. Now
and then I spent five cents for a real
cigar, which had tobacco among its in
gradients; and in the evening, after a
heroic days work in the changing mart,
I'd buy an evening paper and read it as
l rode home on the street car Then life
seemed full and sweet, Mrs. James
worthy, but those halcyOn days are gone,
and apparently forever. The effort to
accumulate a few taels becomes more
heartbreadng every day.
"NOw and then a candidate comes
along and gives me a torch, but at other
times 1 have to suffer IN silence. l can't
afford to buy even the cheap grade of
spinach smokes. In my Office L have a
clay pipe that cost one cent, and when
I am alone I smoke it, but the humilia-
ton is almost more than / can bear. I'm
always afraid some prospective custO-
mer will drop in unexpectedly and find
me smoking graduated tanbark in that
CLAW pipe. And the idea of paying for
a ride home on the street car Is too pre-
pOsterous to be considered. [ walk
home the whole nine miles, to save a
nickel, Mrs. JameswOrthy, and when I
stagger into the house, exhausted and
soul weary, what do I hear? What do
I hear. I ask, in thunder tones Why,
I hear that some old beldame has a cart
load of bacB-number bookcases for sale,
and you want me to soak my watch
and my Sunday clothes so you can buy
them.
Suppose 1 was so feeble minded as
to do what you ask What would happen
then, Mrs Jamesworthy? Tomorrow
evening, when I come home, you'd say it
was a sin and a shame to have all those
fine bookcases and no books to put in
them. And you'd tell me that Mrs Vine
car has a complete set of Sir Walter
Scott's novels, in excellent shape, only
that the binding is gone and most of the
leaves are missing, and YOU could buy
them for Just half what they cost when
new. And the next day you'd have dis
covered a complete set of Bulwer, and
then you'd have a line on the sacred
works of Confucius, and by the end OF