The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-12-13
Wanted: A
Wife
@0
BY OSBORN JONES


per Syndicate.)
AS Paul Bolton glanced at the dozen
u so freshly typed letters on his desk
toward five In the afternoon on New
fears eve he reflected that they were
The last letters dated 1917 that he
would ever sign. Therefore the me-
chanical act Of affixing his signature
would be somewhat more momentous
Than that performance usually was
d would be in some slight measure
bpochal, because it registered the pass
ing of another year. Therefore he
hook the pen from the pen tray with
Rather more than usual care and dipped
lt In the heavy glass ink bottle that lay
I9before him on his monster mahogany
desk. Drawing the top letter on the
pile to him he started to sign, but the
I2pen made no mark. Irritation imme-
Ndiately supplanted any interest that he
may have felt in the signing. 1t was
&1ntensely exasperating. The ink bot
Vile had been allowed to go dry and
HOnly a gummy mass of metallic black
l|Ehowed In the bottom of the inkwell.
Nit was really almost pathetic, he re-
Injected, that he, the president of the
Hgreat concern of Blank & BridgeS-he
whose time was worth to that concern
some twenty thousand dollars year
-should have to waste that precious
+ time fretting over empty ink wells.
Every modern convenience of eficien-
\ cy in business methods had been in
stalled in his office-there were silent
typewriters and automatic letter
| openers and girls lunch room and
| employers insurance and annual
Donuses-all the result Of his desire
to show consideration for his en-
| ployees-and yet he-Paul Bolton
had to fret himself day after day
about such things as empty ink bottles,
undusted desks and chairs, unwashed
drinking glasses and untitled water
bottles. He was tired from an extremely
trying week and SO instead OF rising in
wrath and storming at Office boys, Sec
retaries, Stenographers and every one
else within reach of his voice-and
Paul Boltor was quite capable of hav-
Ing expressed his feelings in that way
he was filled with self-pity. No one
really cared enough for him to spare
him those annoyances. He went to
stenographer's desk, found an inkwell
that happened to be filled and signed
/ the letters dejectedly.
Then he went to his nearby apart
ments where he reigned in bachelor
supremacy and his experience there
showed him again that no one really
cared. There were no fresh flowers.
! Bolton especially liked to have yellow
daffodils and jonQuils in his rooms on
I cold, raw winter nights and he had
told his Jap so on more than one ocs
casion. The CRATE fire was not lighted.
The Jap explained that no coal could
be got. Well, the Jap ought to have
got a skuttleful somewhere. II he
had cared for him as much as he
seemed he would have got a SHUTTLE
ful somewhere. And dinner wasn't
exactly what he wanted, and his slip
pers hadn't been warmed and the wa
ter was too cold. The Jap ought to
have known by that time that he
didn't like ice water.
So 1t was that the next day, when
Bolton began to think about New
Years resolutions, he registered two
resolves, brief yet important. To get
really efficient private secretary-a
young woman who would care enough
10 see that the inkwells were filled,
and to get wife. A wife would see
to the jonQuils and the slippers he
was sure.
Before a month had passed Bolton
had achieved one of his resolutions.
He had obtained from an exclusive
agency young woman Of unusual
merit-Alice Blair-who had proved
herself to be worth considerably more
than the forty dollars week that she
had demanded. So Bottoms days were
passed with an absence of confusion
and irritation. Miss Blair seemed to
get inside his mind and find out just
what he wanted done before he had
time to formulate 1t even to his own
knowledge and she always did things
with perfect ease. She didn't have to
ill the inkwells or dust the desk, but
what showed her forty-dollars-a-
week value-she saw to 1t that the
office boys did. 1t was always that
way with her. She never seemed to be
especially busy and yet everything was
done.
But Bolton stiil had no wife and the
Jap did not improve. Another Jap
would have been no better. Bolton
was sure Ii was only wife who could
make his cup of happiness complete
And yet there were wives and wives
The wife he wanted was not like those
of any Of his men friends. In the
first place she would have to be com.
panionable and sympathetic and slim
ulating when he was weary from the
Office grind ana then she would have
to regard her task of being his wife
and home maker as seriously as hi
regarded his business of being pres
ldent of Blank and Bridges. Boltor
began accepting invitations to dinner