The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-27
EVENING STORY
Simeon SiIchester.
(By Jane Osborn.)

from school girls, old soldiers, young
married women, western miners and
other kinds of folk. But they were all
addressed. not to Miss Jane jerks, but
to Prof Simeon Silchester, handwrit-
ing expert of the Hearth Compan-
ion." Jane jerks was the youngest
member of the editorial staff of that
widely read periodical. AS part of her
duties she had to write the monthly
article on What Your Handwriting
Shows" Meantime she had to answer
letters from west, east, north and
south from subscribers to the maya
zine whose egotiSm had been aroused
sufficiently to submit specimen of
their own handwriting in order that
Prof. Simeon Silchester, 'world-known
expert on the science of handwriting,
might forward them "a complete an
alysis of their character as indicated
by the sample submitted"
Jane jerks didn't really know very
much about handwriting, but she knew
as much as any other member of the
staff on the Hearth Companion" and
as she had originated the identity of
Prof. Silchester, she felt certain
amount of satisfaction in her many
letterS-letters that indicated that her
monthly articles had a pull with a
certain class of the magazine subscrib
ers.
Jane was pretty, though perhaps it
didn't often occur to the folk at the
Hearth Companion office to notice
that fact. Had there been more of
outdoors in her life, more air in her
lungs and more blood in her veins, she
would have been very pretty. Some
times she dreamed of the day when
she might save enough to leave the
city and go off somewhere in the wilds
and get "a ranch or something and
run it, True, she didn't know any
thing about ranches, but, reasoned she.
she hadn't known anything about
handwriting and yet she had made a
success of tat least success enough
to satisfy her own limited ambitions.
And SO the letters came pouring in,
and Jane answered them all. When a
smooth, even, vertical handwriting ar
rived she told the sender that he or
she was young but possessed within
himself the making of a great and
brilliant future. When a letter penned
in the faltering writing of age came
she wrote a letter of encouragement,
mentioned a life well spent, with wide
tho unrealized influence. Scented let
tiers with the uniformed writing of a
woman of little intellectual develop
ment called forth from her a letter
of reproof for too great frivolity, too
little independence, too great love of
self and pleasure. And so they went.
Really, she grew to believe that she
had some way of telling thru the let
tiers she received the characters of the
senderS.
Once a letter came from a CORE
pondent who signed her name Mon
tana," and the writing rather puzzled
Jane jerks, as she sat at her desk
in her dingy little office in the Hearth
mpanion" headquarters. But she
hesitated only a moment, for really it
didn't much matter to her whether or
not she made a true character study.
The writing was legible, and therefore,
she made the statement that the writer
had a methodical, honest nature. 1t
was slightly awkward, and for that
reason she added that he lacked men
tai experiences, that his greatest fault
lay in inaccuracy and indecision.
There were certain waverings in the
line and this, she said, indicated timid-
ity. II believe that you are not mar
ried,'' she added with all the authority
of Prof. Simeon Silchester to back her.
II believe that the reason why you
are not married is because you have
never had the deep, inner courage to
look about and find for yourself a
woman good enough for you. You are
cowardly," she went on, and what you
ought to do is to stand up for your
rights. You are small in stature,'-
this because the writing was miniature
but that does not mean that you
should also be timid- Some of the
bravest men in history have been I'M
dersized. You have great ideas if
you would but express them, and the
power of making your life far more
/ important than it is" Jane dashed
this off on her typewriter, signed the
, letter with the assumed signature of
Simeon Silchester and LAID II with the
hundred others that awaited the seal
| ing and stamping treatment of the Of
fee boy.
| Three weeks later the same boy en-
tered the door of her office prec1pi-
lately one day. 81 said you weren
Prof Simeon chichester, he insisteo
| with startled backward g1ances, put
he says he's got to see you. Hes as
| tall as old Abe Lincoln and l think
he's mad. What'll 1 say?'
Before Jane jerks had time to say
that the only thing to be SAID was
came to the office the tall, irate per-
| son had entered her office.
ct want to see Prof. Simeon Silches-
| ter he said deliberately. The boy
withdrew, the tall one closed the door
and looked adamantine as ne stooo
| towering down at the girl at the desk
There were letters addressed to the
professor on her desk, and one, signed
| by his name, lay open, the ink OF the
signature still moist and camp. see
you are his secretary" the man con-
| tinued, land I've no doubt you expect
| him soon. I'll wait.
Perhaps 1 could take the message,
said Jane feebly.
/ mo woman could take the message
| Just as 1 want to give it, and few men
| could. What 1 want to ask the pro-
fessor is how in-I'n add the embel-
lishments when see him personally
| how he dared to call me cowardZ 1
wrote TO him and this is the answer he
| sent me-" The man from Montana
| threw the opened letter on the desk
| and Jane jerks recognized it as the
one she had recently sent
| I'm very sorry Jane pleaded,
feeling just little amused in spite OF