The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-07
EVENING sroRY
In Desperation.
-(By c. B. Lewis.l

Phineas Talbot was bashful as a
baby If any neighboring woman
came in and lifted him up, he cried
because he could not hide his face
He was bashful as a boy. When he
attended school nothing SO gave him
the fidgets as to have his teacher call
him or pretty girl smile at him. As
a youth he was still more bashful. His
mother had to coax and bride him to
get him to go on an errand to the
store If girl came to the Talbot
house, away went Phineas on the run.
Phineas grew to a bashful manhood.
He learned piano making, and, IN
time, he opened a little agency. 1t
was almost torture to have two or
three young ladies enter his place and
begin to talk music to him. Bashful-
ness hurt his business, and men often
talked to him about it, but he was
born to blush and stammer. He
might kick himself a dozen times
day, but it would do no good.
There was something in store for
Phineas, and the perspiration stood on
his brow at the mere thought OF IL.
He lived with his mother and lived
very contentedly, but she was old ana
growing older, and the day would
come when he would have to set up
home for himself A single man,
bashful or not, cannot make a nome
for himself. He has got to have
wife to do it. Great heavens. Phineas
mad got TO ask some WOIIldH " DS MS
wife, and it filled him with terror.
He let the weeks. and months ana
years>slip away. and he fairly prayed
that his good mother might live to pc
a hundred years old Bashfui tho ne
was, Phineas did not turn his eyes
away from good-looking young wom-
en-. He looked at them in a furtive
way and he knew that they were
created to be the companions OF men
That was all right, but there must
be an introduction courtship-fall-
ing in love-a proposal of marriage,
and how was he ever to get thru with
it without being made a cripple for
life.
Every. morning when he went to his
place of business he passed mouse
where there was a good-looking girl
Sometimes she sat in the WINDOW
viewing the street. and sometimes she
was working among the flowers In the
front yard. OF course she never smil-
ed at him, and of course he took one
look and then looked away. If her cat
had wandered away, which 1t never
did, and she had softly asked Phineas
If he had seen Tabby up the street,
there's no telling what might have
resulted. It would have been InSnt,
anyhow.
On a certain summer morning the
unknown maiden ran across the street
bareheaded to speak to a young lady
of her acquaintance. Just then phin-
cas- Talbot came along. Just then, as
well, a man came along leading a COW
That COW came from the country, ana
the man leading her had agricultural
soil on his boots. Where he was 60
ing to lead that COW to makes no diff
! ference. Tt wasn't his first visit to the
! city, and he didn't gaze around with
! open mouth, but walked right along
and strictly attended to business. Not
| SO with the COW, however. Every sight
| was a new sight with her. She missed
| the blackberry bushes and bull-thistles
growing in the pasture. She didn't
| see any. rail fences or family wells
| with an old oaken bucket hanging n
plain sight. She was nervous she
was perturbed. Presently she grew.
excited and afraid. The man leading
her might attempt to lead her into one
of the thousand brick houses she saw
lining the streets, and a broken neck
might be the consequence.
All at once that COW concluded that
she would return home before some
thing awful happened. She started on
her return down the street Just as the
good-looking girl started across the
street for her home. There was moth
ing savage about that COW. but she
didn't want her way blocked by any
body She, therefore, made for the
girl with below and her head held
low down. There was a scream of
terror-other screams from pedes-
TRANS, and Phineas Talbot had
realized everything in a moment 1t
was his duty to go to that girls res
cue. Bashfulness chained his feet for
half a minute. Then sort of crisis
seemed to come. He must do it or die.
He rushed out into the street and
grabbed that COW by the horns and
prevented tragedy. The COW tossed
her head and lifted Phineas clear off
the ground She swung her head to
and fro and swung him with it, and
in one of her swings intended to land
him on the roof of a house, she fell
down and her owner came up and re-
covered his rope
Phineas wasn't much the worse for
his hero work. He had accumulated
some dust and dirt. and his hat had
been trampled underfoot. He did not
stay for any thanks. He was gone al
most before the good-looking girl had
realized her danger and recovered
from her fright. A small crowd gath
cred and she was conducted across
the street, and every one had a word
of praise for the daring young man
who had seized the opportunity as
well as the cow. Phineas hurried
down to his shop, and he sat down
to commune with himself, and he soon
saw another ghost rise up before him
Altho he hadn't been in society much,
he KEW the rules of good breeding
He had saved that girls life and he
must call upon her to talk the mat
ter over. If he didn't call she must
think him boor. His mother would
advise a call, and would insist upon
it. Yes, Phineas would have to call
If the young lady shouldn't come to
the door and take him for a potato
peddler-
But Phineas Talbot must face the
battery. 1t haunted him all day, and
when he went home at night he went
by lighted street. He told his moth
er as soon as he got in the house that
he had been feeling strange all day
and thought he would go to
doctor. The old lady was looking for
something like this. and she told him
straight out that he must make that
call Phineas could not get out of e.
He DELAYED and DELAYED. and he went