The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-03-20
EVENING STORY

(By Jane OSBORNE

The girl who sat before the roll-top
rectors office of the Star Motion Pic
ture company had signed the name
George Bird SO very much oftener
than she had Ann Evans that she
sometimes was half convinced that
she was George Bird-a sort of
shadow or second nature of George
Bird-and that Ann Evans had been
lost in the scuffle. And it had been a
Scuff1e for Ann. She had come to the
city with aspirations and here she was
at %, still pounding the typewriter
working for SIS a week as George
Birds letter answerer. You couldn't
have called her Georges secretary,
for she seldom, saw the radiant
George AMI almost never talked to
her. She just absorbed her nature
and temperament as best she could
from a careful study of the reels in
which George starred, and thought
about her till she could write a letter
that had more of Georgies radiance
and loneliness in it than George could
possibly have put in it herself. George,
you know, was at the height of her
stardom. Leisured folk at Palm
Beach no less than lumbermen in the
frozen woods of the north waited i'm
patiently for the release of every one
of Georges films.
OF course, among those who ad-
mired the brilliant little actress there
were always many who wrote, and to
answer these letters with heart-to-
heart enthusiasm was the best sort of
advertisement for George That is
why 1t was worth while to pay Ann
SIS week. When the writers asked
Tor advice she gave it wisely; when
they asked for sympathy Ann poured
out her own heart to them in all sim
certify. If they wanted Georges pho
tograph she sent one-she had a pile
OF hundreds always on hand for that
emergency and scrawled with love
from George" across the lower cor
ner IN Just the sort of handwriting
that any one would have supposed
George to possess
Often there were proposals for
George In her pictures had none of
the naughty beauty that filled her he
holders with awe as well as adn;ra-
ton AS you watched them the ewes
OF Georgia seemed to seek Won ont
from all the spectators, and smile
wlnsomely. frankly. lovingly out to
you. Usually the proposals came
from men who, never having Thought
or heard much about the life or
Importance of a popular moving mir
tire actress fancied that she was in
reality Just what she usually appear
ed 10 De IN the picture. a simple, ap-
pea1ing, Woodworking little girl.
II know you girls that work in the
movies have a real hard life" wrote
o sutton. It's a hard life for any
woman to lead, and if there aren't
any city fellows willing to step in and
help you and give you a home whv
just let me tell you there is one out
here in the wilds that will I'VE
| made quite pile-at mines at cattle
and one thing or another guess
it's close to 100000. And just the
sort of a girl I'm looking for is nice
| little homebodylike you without any
| Tugs or style or smart manners So
what I'm getting at is this. I'm not
going to spend any of my horde till
find a girl just like you to share it
with. I'm sending you a picture of
myself SO you'll see what look like
| I guess you would say that it would
| break e moving pictpre machine to
get me in because they II say I'm a
| hustler. Well. maybe I am. And
| just you say the word and I'll hustle
right across country to your city and
get you. I'll meet you any place you
say. I got your address from the
man that runs our movie place out
here. He said to send the letter to
the boss of your concern and he
| guessed maybe you'd get it. Just let
me know and I'll take the next train
Elst. A pal of mine that made good
out here is in your burg and he'll
vouch for me. Wen look him up
first thing 1 get there
Ann sighed as she finished reading
the letter. and poked it in a pigeon
/ hole in the desk marked proposals"
Later that afternoon Ann did some
thing that was waste of time. She re-
read the letter carefully, and spent
five minutes staring at the face of the
| photograph that came with it.
Perhaps he has got the right idea"
she suggested to herself. "Perhap S
| George would be much better off"
Ann knew that most of the men who
knew the real George would have
been quite incapable of opening their
hearts to her, just in Difference to her
success. First Ann wrote the letter
that was to be sent, very much like
all the other rejection letters: and
then-and that was where she was
wasting time-She wrote the sort of
| letter that George might have written
l-''just for fun as she told herself
And in that letter Ann. who was beat
/ en- down and stifled, Ann, the country
girl, sick to death of the city, dis
/ couraged and disappointed. wrote from
her own heart. For the first time in
| working hours in months she forgot
| George and remembered Ann.
And that was all she remembered
| about the days work very distinctly.
| The rest was routine-folding the let
| tiers in their envelopes. sealing and
stamping them, closing the desk and
locking it. DOMINIC hat and coat and
going to her boarding house. She had
done it so often before that it took no
So1 g.