Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-07-21
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Viz 1
Water May Be Free,
But Baths Are Not!"
Paula Tells Margie

"After Jane had gone, Margie," con-
tinued Paula, Il began to undress
and make ready for bed.
~ am not going to describe to you
that hall bedroom up three flights of
stairs. kept thinking to myself as
spread my beautiful toilet articles
on the rickety old bureau, had al
ways thought the descriptions Of such
rooms were all imagination when |
read them In stories, but here was
right in One-and when | stretched
myself on the bed it seemed to me
that never would be able to adjust
myself to it's bumps and hollows.
Il was tired was. lonely-I was
discouraged was heartsick, Mar
gle, and all at once l found myself
sobbing and shaking with all the piled
up misery and grief that fate seemed
dealing to me. s3ss. s j.
II was alone in this great city, in
which not one soul except my little
acquaintance of the night before knew
that there was such q girl as Paula
Newton.
Strange as that may seem, his
thought, instead of making me de-
spair, seemed to give me courage,
determined I'd win. ..5q
81 sat down on the side of the bed
and carefully counted my money. |
had just 500. My room rent was paid
for a whole week. Surely l could
get something to do before that was
gone.
II bathed as well as I could in a
bowl of cold water.
"Margie, / don't Wonderland poor
people are not clean. Water may be
free, but to get enough of it heated
to take bath sometimes takes more
energy than tired girl has left after
her hard daily toll!
II know that | have often tumbled
into bed when l should have bathed
my hot and tired body, and have tax
en- the extra half hour sleep in the
morning instead of the bath that my
parched skin needed-and you know
l was called the daintiest girl in the
school. "
ut is very different, however, when
you have someone to prepare your
tub in the perfect bathroom and lay
out towels and perfume and scented
soap, from taking a sponge bath with
a small bowl Of water and coarse
soap and coarser fowls s
IF, as someone has said, 'Cleanli.
ness is next to godliness,' then it does
seem to me that some OF these good
people who are always preaching
oh 1x1anioC 70, nj or6
bright should pay little more at
tention to the bodies of humanity
"And then the fOOd--Oh, Margie,
hope you will never. have TO live on
the food have had to eat. Truly, l
have had recourse to handful of
dates, few nutmeats and an apple,
because the person who cooked the
food at my cheap boarding house alb
solutely spoiled it. .~t
Isn't it queer that most of us take
so little care of this wonderful ma
chine we call our body. We seem
almost to take delight in abusing it
in every way possible, and then we
are surprised when sometimes 1t re-
bells and pays us back in our own
coin. @ r
81 shall never forget that first night
in that little hall bedroom and that
first breakfast in the smelly dining
room-and yet the woman who kept
the house was kindly soul. She
did not know how to make the best of
what she had. --s.. T.. g..
II would not let myself get hope
less, however, and Immediately after
breakfast | started out to find the
theatrical manager I knew"