Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-12-14

Wanted: A
Dumb Woman
By Mona Cowles


"Wanted-A stenographer who is
dumb but not deaf; must be over thir-
ty. No others need apply. Call Mon
day morning at Congressman Pragg's
office at the Davenporte."
Perhaps the single affection of being
dumb without being deaf is not-a rare
one, but in Washington on the Sunday
that this advertisement appeared in
the local papers, women so handi-
capped were not numerous. Or, If
they were, they were not stenogra-
piers in search of a job. OF the half
dozen dumb applicants, there was n
whose hearing was keen enough and
whose stenography was good enough
to justify the congressman's young
man secretary-who sized them up
when they came to the office-in refer
ring her to the congressman himself.
That was Mardy Mapes, and she was
not entirely what the congressman had
asked for in the advertisement. She
admitted to the secretary in writing,
on the small tablet of paper that she
carried around with her, that she was
under thirty, and anyone could have
told at a glance that she wasn't yer
twenty-five. However" she wrote to
the congressman when he objected to
her on the score Of extreme youthful
ness: 81 am old in my ways and l
can look much older if l dress in plain
dark clothes"
The congressman frowned a little
= - l. 49, Ii. hrf
consoled himself with the thought
that If he kept her in his employ long
enough, she would eventually reach a
suitable age. On general principles,
it seemed, Congressman Pragg had an
objection to young ome Some peo-
some early disappointment In love, but
those who knew him better knew that
In the congressman's uphill climb from
q poor farmers boy to the leading
man of his state, there had been no
time for Irritation or love-making.
"You may consider yourself en-
ployed," said the congressman, and
the smile that came over Mardy's face
showed that she heard perfectly in
spite of her total dumbness. "Now, /
want to explain why l wanted a dumb
stenographer. I have had several
women in my employ-good stenogra-
piers they were, too-but they drove
me almost crazy with their innocent
babbling. When they weren't chatting
with my secretary out there, they We're
talking over the telephone to the girl
downstairs at the switchboard or ar
ranging with the people at suffrage
headquarters to make street-corner
speeches on such and such a night.
And after hours they babbled to their
friends all my business, OF tried to
retail inside political information TO
their soap-box audiences. Washington
Is nothing but a village In lots of ways,
and people soon get to know that Miss
So-and-So is working for Congress
man Thus-and-So, and the first thing
I'd know people would be telling me
over at the capitol more about my
own business than l knew myself.
These women didn't do 1t malfciously,
you understand, but they were so fond
of hearing themselves speak that they
couldn't help it. That is why 1 wanted
a dumb stenographer. Your youthful
ness is against you, but / don't sup
pose l can do any better-never mind
the references-you look honest, and
my secretary says your s~tenography Is
more than fair. Report here tomor-
row morning at half-past nine."
Although the ambitious young man
from the congressman's home town
had the distinction of being his sec
rotary, Miss Mapes oon did practical
ly all the work that Is usually con-
nected with that post, and the young
man In question occupied his time
largely with meeting the congress
mans callers, mixing with people
whom the congressman might find it
useful to know, In hotel Hobbies, club
rooms or wherever he might contrive
to find them, and making hurried trips
back and forth from various of the
congressman's constituents to Wash
ington.
Mardy Mapes seemed not to have a
responsibility or tie in the world-at
least in Washington-outside of the
congressman's Office. She boarded
somewhere over in the northeastern
indefinite section so far as the con-
gresham was concerned, and "trol-
lied' back and forth from there to the
congressman's office in the hotel,
where he lived, near the White House.
She never worked overtime" because
all her time, presumably, was possible
office time. And If she stayed in the
congressman's office till midnight TAX
ing down notes for an important
speech that he was to deliver, or lis
tening critically to him as he re-
hearsed such a speech to her, tongues
in the hotel never wagged to her dis
credit because of 1t. Perhaps this
was because poor Mardy's own tongue
itself was incapable of %wagging. She