The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-03
EVENING STORY
Sugar Shortage.
BY BERTHA CURRIE PORTI

By BERTHA CURRIE PORTER.
'T don't see why you said we'd give
them tea for, when you know we
haven't any sugar."
What difference does that make?
Some Of our best families don't have
sugar nowadays
well. I'll bet the Clarkson girls are
rolling in sugar!"
= IF they are, all we need to do il to
shake them over, the cups, and there
you are!"
''You needn't joke about 1t. Anne.
I have some pride IL you haven't, and
I'm not going to have those rich Clark
sons coming here and thinking we're
not as well able to have things as they
are. even If they do carry fifteen dol
lar knitting bags, all covered over
with pin-cushion fruit, and tassels.''
II don't know how you're going to
get it. I've telephoned to every store
I can think of and they all say the
saiI.e thing-'no sugar."
Telephoning and asking face to
face are two different things. I'll run
out and see what I can do"
Josephine Bruce, not in this bad
weather?
But Josephine had vanished into the
bedroom of the little flat.
1t was the worst day of that never
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS." winter. There
had been heavy snow fall, a thaw
and then a sudden freeze. with thick.
black ice over everything. And in the
night the weather had moderated and
rain had fallen in torrents on the ice.
This morning it was still raining, with
heavy wind. 1t was a day when
rubbers. and other people lost their
pride in the good old Biblical way.
Josephine appeared, clad in a very
becoming brown raincoat and little
tan hat. She wore brown boots and
ridiculous low rubbers, and carried a
brown umbrella.
Sister Anne stood at her tower win
dow and watched Josephine slip down
the hill, using her folded umbrella as
staff. Anne began to chop nutmeats
cratic sister, might be doing. The
reality was this:
In the nearest store, Josephine
marched bravely up to the counter.
Two poun6s of sugar, please" she
said. with her sweetest smile.
mo sugar in the store" growled the
| harassed clerk for the one hundred
| and thirty-seventh time that day.
There's no sugar in the store" the
next grocer told her. land more than
that, there's no sugar up to my own
| house, and I'm in the grocery business
What was yours. MADAME to a sleek
haired italian woman in a red shawl.
Josephine went out on more ice.
For an hour she slipped and slid
from one ore to another, and heard
the game story in fifty-seven varieties.
| Josephine paused on a corner to COL
| lect her forces and decide where to at
tack next. This particular corner was
at the foot of a hill-this city was
| built on more than seven hills-and
the sidewalk sloped at an unpleasant
angle; also the building on that lot
projected in such a way that pedes-
TRANS coming down the side street
| were completely hidden from those on
the main thoroughfare. Josephine had
seen SO many people fall that day that
| she now mechanically watched them
| all. Perhaps that was why she noticed
the gray raincoat behind the big
| market basket.
New style coat" she thought, and
| looked again at the basket She
gasped! Not for months had she seen
a sight like that. She looked again.
1t was absolutely true. In that basket,
camouflaged by Tapping paper COW
ering, but with tell-tale little yellow
! sharp corners sticking out, were six
| two-pound cartons of sugar! And the
! food commissioner had ruled that no
dealer should sell more than ten
pounds to any one person. And she.
Josephine Bruce, had not one single
grain!
| She looked above the basket to see
who this plutocrat might be, and met
a pair of serious blue eyes staring
straight into her brown ones. She had
|
| breaker was young and very good
| looking when his feet appeared where
had been his face--he bounced up and
| down, landing on the woman who had
| slid down the side street, and vanished
in the midst of arms and legs and
bodies that came faster and faster
| until they piled up in slipping. slop-
ping snarl of humanity. And high in
| the air. flying merrily toward the blue
| sky before descending to the soaking
sidewalk, went the six packages of
sugar.
Josephine lodged. She escaped the
pedestrians because they all slid into
! the gutter. but a couple of pounds of
sugar landed on her stylish little tan
| hat and bounced down into her yawn-
ing knitting bag. Josephine had no
recollection of opening her bag, but
| she knew exactly when she closed it.
And then, with the most outrageous
politeness, she stopped and picked up
two of the other packages. She hand
ed them to the young man in the gray
raincoat, crawling out from the chaos.
"Your sugar, SIR" she said, smiling,
and went on her way, entirely unre-
pentant.
/ Perhaps the precious ballast In her
bag preserved her equilibrium. She
hurried toward home. and after din
ner Josephine and Anne awaited the
I Clarkson girls. In the little kitchen
cite a teapot waited, with a fat little
red jug of cream and plate of nut
and cheese sandwiches. And four
cheerful little red Chinese cups and
saucers And a sugar bowl that didn't
match, but whose glass sides displayed
proudly its white and glistening con-
tents.
THE walking isn't a bit better" OBJ
served Josephine, looking out the win
dow. II suppose they will come in the
machine. I'll bet the chauffeur has a
hard time getting up this hill
But no struggling automobile pre-.
coded the ring at the bell. The Clark
son girls called up from the door
Just a minute till we take off oul
creepers. We don't want to scar youl
stairs-take yours off, Jim-hurry."
There was a deep tone among the
| 1rnices in the lhruer hall Anne neenaf