The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-17
The Euening Story
Anne's F'elIow-Boarder.

Anne sat before her dressing table
and surveyed the satisfactory result
of her latest attempt at millinery. The
tiny ose-colored toque with its wreath
of shaded pink roses emphasized the
corresponding tints in her smooth skin
and carmine lips, and made her dark
eyes look darker still. But as she
looked the color paled on her rounded
cheeks, her pretty mouth quIvered into
usefulness and her big eyes looked
plaintively into their counterparts in
the little oval mirror.
Whats the use of it all. Anne Muir
ray?" she asked her reflection. Here
you are, four and twenty, with
peaches and-cream complexion,
pretty hat and a decent suit, but who
really cares whether you are thus or
whether you are four times twenty,
with wrinkIed skin and a bonnet
and shawl?''
Although no answer to this question
was forthcoming, Anne presently re-
Sumed her soliloQuy.
mo use at all, my dear, for you
don't fit anywhere now. You've grown
away from the personal viewpoint of
your native village, you've kept aloof
from the slangy girls in the office
where you work, you've found the
| boarding house beaux either stupid
sticks or wouId-be sports, and you've
found that the men you knew years
ago before they came to the city and
|
an occasional call or a trip to the
movies or theater. No, they are climb
ing, and life is too short for climbers
to be hampered by having old friends
from home tagged on to them. So.
here you sit all by yourself, Anne"
INDUCING in thoughts like these
had brought Anne to a more or less
pessimistic viewpoint of life in gen.
eraL The next morning, as she went
to her desk in the offices of a big
- IcnrnOr3 ton she felt little int or
ambition in her work. She had hardly
time to put her purse in its accus-
toned place in her desk and to open
the typewriter shaft before an Office
boy came briskly up.
; The big boss wants you in the
stock ROOM" said the boy, an he
; says to bring your note book. There's
somethin dom around here, but so
far I can't quite catch the drift"
Anne smiled absently at the boys
comment and fastened away to COM
ply with the unusual demand. Her
work before had never before taken
her outside the private suite. She
found her employer a stout, middle
aged man with a bristly gray beard
engaged in a conference with the
manager of the stock department, and
} she was instructed to make notes of
E the questions asked and the SuggeS-
tons made by each man.
Later they went to other department
|
a had made the rounds of the various
departments and Anne's notebook
n held enough work to keep her stead
S lily busy all the afternoon. To COM
r plete the task, she remained quar-
:. ter of an hour later than usual. and
as she left the building some thought
5 less boys who were also late in leav-
ing gave the revolving door a big
S push just as she entered it, and its
= suddenly acquired speed and force al
most hurled her out against a man
VINO had preceded the boys and who
stood lighting a cigarette as a news
BOY stuck an evening paper into his
{ hand As the man recognized Anne
: he tossed the cigarette aside, raised
e his hat and asked whether the
Il thoughtless boys had caused her any
!, injury.
mot at all, thank you, Mr. Mills, ~
i responded Anne, as she recognized the
e manager of the credit department
= whom she had met for the first time
= that morning. There flashed through
her mind the thought of how it often
happens that people who have been
II nearby out unknown to one another
8 Tor a long period keep bobbing I'D at
e frequent intervals after the first meet
ing. This thought again came to her a
few moments later on the street car
= when she found herself standing
crowded close to Mr.. Mills In an i'm
| personal conversation about the
"Che1icI, the CROWDS and the latoneSS
= OF the quitting hour Anne found that
Mr.. Mills had strong and interesting
. race and a directness of manner that
Just escaped brusqueness.
Mr. Granby's little quiz this morn
d ing was a part of his 'get-acouainted
e scheme. 1 suppose" began Mr.. Mills
but seeing Anne's puzzled look. he
AIDED; AT meeting of all the de-
= partment managers the other day. Mr.
% Granny told us that the lack of gen.
| E-fa
ers and the employers was becomins
serious defect in this company's
e management, and he purposed to try to
- orlng about better understanding al
around; SO he asked US to be ready
with suggestions for our department.
, whenever he should call on us fol-
# them. 1 supposed you were in or
'I the little plan"
. on, come, now" laughed Mr.. Mills
spoke, "stenographers especially wbeT
they happen to be girls, are expectet
I'll TO De Just automatons, without desir.
III or capacity for initiative thinking O,
III actng any more than any other offic,
y fixture So, after awhile, one feels al
utter mlsflt in any sort of human re
e lationships"
~ s on, come, now" aughed Mr.. Mills
- you re in the very frame of minC
.nat l was before Mr. CRANKY CAV,
p US tnat corklng good talk the othe
IN gay, but l got to thinking that per
ss maps my own mental attitude hat
more to do with my difficulties thai
VS. anything else, and so 1 sat down TO
of oiie who're evening and looked mysel
in IN the face, as it were, and sized nv
self up, with the result that I've de
-, termlned to get right with myself an,
~ otners just as soon as possible"
=. And suppose you find other
~. ~ wholly Indifferent to your attitude O
~ to your existence unless you repre-
81 sent means of profit to them p
In Anne shrugged again.
m going to circumvent that pos
e. sibility in two ways; I'm getting ava,
ne from a set of people who are climb
a erS and who therefore use every
al body who con help them climb high
er. and / am gOipQ into cir