The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-25
EVENING STORY
what's in a Mamie?
eBy Vincent G. Perry.)


The village of Wattsville was hardly
large enough to support one news
paper. and here it was with two. Fred
Burnett, proprietor, managing editor,
pressman and compositor of the Watts
vile Advance. walked up and down the
little room in front of his plant which
he called the office, and bit at match
furiously. WattsviIle had been with
out a paper for a long time, and the
idea of starting up a weekly again was
originally his. He was sure of that.
He had come from the city and looked
over the plant of the Echo. paper.
that had not been published for ten
years, and had decided it wasn't in
good enough shape to put in working
order. Not to be beaten in his effort
to make himself a recluse from his
friends, he bought out the plant of the
Wainwright Advance and moved it TO
Wattsville to the little building it now
occupied. In the meantime the Echo
office had been sold by a real estate
broker in the city, and the purchaser,
who had bought the plant without
looking at it, was coming to Watts
vile to publish a paper To make
matters worse in the eyes of Burnett,
niece of the Widow Spur, OF the viii
lage.
The idea of the thing was prepos-
ferrous, he thought. Nobody could
woman woman wasn't much
use around newspaper office, any
way. There was only one whom ne
had ever known that earned her sal
airy, and she could do the work of
two men. Like him, she had been
brought up in a newspaper office and
knew the business from A to T. But
there wasn't another woman in the
world like Norma Cousins, he was
convinced. just the same, it both
cred him.
Poor thing-if she does know any
thing about newspaper work she will
get a shock when she sees the Echo
plant" he muttered
He was right. Margaret Spur did
get a severe shock when she saw the
Echo plant. The real estate broker
had told her it was in splendid work
his statement. She was foolish 20
take the word of either, she thought
She should have visited Wattsville
before making the purchase, as she
had intended to do. The real estate
man was trying to make a sale, and
her aunt didn't know any more about
newspapers than she did about auto
mobile manufa cturing-she should
have known that. Then there was
this opposition paper. 1t was just like
an unfeeling man to come and make
things miserable for her, as if they
weren't miserable enough. Why
couldn't he stay out? But what good
would it have done even if he hadn't
come, with a white elephant like the
Echo plant on her hands? She asked
herself this question again ard again.
If Margaret had, belonged to another
profession she would have wept but
her newspaper training had fortified
her for just such disappointments as
this one. Perhaps the plant wasn't
as bad as it appeared. she thought as
c4o1- Tod IL,
shape. As she worked over the type
cases her mind went back to the city
and the life she had left.
1t was to find an occupation to take
her mind off the biggest isappoint-
ment of her life that made her give
up her position on the Times in the
city and invest her savings in the
country newspaper that proved to be
so unprOmising. The winter before
she had been introduced to Tommy
Mckay at the Ironworker's conven-
ton. He was representing the Trib-
une and she was reporting the con-
vention for the Times. Tommy had a
pleasant and attractive way, and. as
they sat side by side, chatting gaily.
she couldn't help thinking that per
maps all the girls that wrote to her
advice to the Fair Sex column were
not as silly as she had thought The
next day she missed her car and was
late Tommy lent her his notes, so
that she would not miss the important
points of the mayors speech. After
that Kindness she couldn't very well
have refused his invitation to the
theater that evening. After the thea
ter they went to a cabaret He was
the brightest boy she had ever known,
and his sense of humor appealed to
her
The next summer they had their
vacation at the same time. They met
again at a seaside resort. The moon
light nights helped a lot, and before
they had been there a fortnight they
had decided that they couldn't very
well get along without one another.
Their happiness was brought to an
abrupt ending when Tommy was sent
for to take a position he had applied
for in the north. 1t meant a much
larger salary, he explained to Mar
garet, and would be quite a comfort
able one for two. Margaret had had
a strenuous, nerve-racking winter; so
had been granted a two months va
cation. Tommy promised to write
regularly to her beach address. When
no letters came the first week Marga-
ret supposed the position was a little
harder than he had anticipated, and
that he was probably too busy getting
things in shape to write letters. She
wrote him every day. AS the days
grew into weeks and no letters came,
she realized that she was waiting in
i vain. 1t took long time to become
reconciled to the thought that he
wasn't going to write and hadn't been
sincere. She did not stay out her full
time at the seashore, but returned to
her work.
Margaret couldn't help running this
all over in her mind as she worked.
1t dawned upon her that she was
doing Just what she had come to
Wattsville to avoid. Could she never
forget, she wondered
The editor of the Advance stopped
! in front of the Echo office. The blind
was up and the door was partly open.
but no one was in view in the office.
His opposition had arrived, he
thought. He was about to pass on
when curiosity reused up within him.
1t wouldn't be out of place to call on
this Miss Spur. He could find out
what she. thought of the Echo plant.
Nara RET heard the stem in the