The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-31


months-old baby, sat in the
wicker rocking chair in his room in
the New York boarding house and
slowly smoked Fumigato cheroot,
the kind he had always smoked in
Oroduna, Iowa, from which thriving
Town he had come to New York to
start in the profession of bunco-man-
Opposite him, at the other window
of the room, dear old Grandma Bun
ker sat knitting socks for the Bel
gians.
Seems like" said Mr.. Bunker re-
moving the cheroot from his mouth
and looking at it reproachfully
through his gold-rimmed spectacles,
seems like these here cheroots is
gettIn wuss an wuss."
o, l shouldn't think you'd smoke EN-
# they taste SO bad. Jabez," said Mrs.
Bunker gently.
We'll, l dunno" he said. az sort of
got fond of the taste of burnin' glue
they had out in Iowa. A man don't
smoke cheroots except to economic,
and when you smoke burnin' glue,
you knowe you're economizin' or you
wouldn't be smoking it. 1t makes
you feel that you're saving money
every Whit. But the way these here
Fumigatos is gettin' to taste nova
days
"Jabez," said Mrs. Bunker, letting
her knitting fall in her lap and look
ing tondly, but a little. reproachfully
at her husband, Il don't want to say
nothin' to hurt your feelin's, but If
you was to tend to your bunco busi-
ness little more regular. and not sit
around the house so much, maybe you
wouldn't feel like you had to econo-
mize by smokin' them cheroots.
'Tain't for a woman person to tell
her husband his business, but the
bunco business is a nice, clean, re-
spectacle business, and if I was you
I'd work at it a little more than you
been doin' lately. If you DON'T" she
said with more asperity than usual,
I'm goin' to take some of that mon
ey you gave me an buy you a box of
segars. A woman's place is In the
house and her husband sits around
home, Jabez, but when the only home
she's got IS a room in a boardin'-
house and her husband sits around
and smokes things that smell like
Marthy Littlewatt cleanin' her chick
en-coop an burnin' the feathers the
Plymouth Rocks has moulted. it amt
There, there, NAL" said Mr.. Bunk
er. Now, l never thought for a
minute you minded the smell. You
didn't used to be SO tender-nosed."
q know" she answered. Maybe
it's the New York atmosphere work
in on me. 1t amt like Twin where
all the neighbors has pig-pens an
cow-barns right alongside of your
fence Sometimes, out to Oroduna,
when the wind was comm from to-
wards Marthy Littlewatt's chicken
house, them cheroots of fyourn used
TO be a blessed relief. faint so in
New York With all the ladies wear
in perfumery onto their clothes, and
the air SO clean,and fresh-like, a nose
gets sort of uppity. l feel like buyin'
that bottle of Viola di Riviera perfum-
cry was sinful waste. Five dollars
for bottle of perfumeryp
Now, motherP exclaimed Mr..
Bunker.
Whenever anything vexed Mrs.
Bunker's usually placid SOUL she re-
vera as to Mr.. Bunker's greatest
sin. The worst of it was that Mr..
Bunker felt the purchase had been an
inexcusable extravaganza. In her de-
sire to make life pleasant for her IA
vorite boarders, Mrs. WINNER had
taken them to the sale held by the
ladies of the Italiar-American League
for Aiding the Wounded Italian Sol
diery, held at the magnificent hotel
where such affairs were now of every
day occurrence. She had not ex-
anything at the sale; she herself went,
like many others of her class, to see
the display of notable women who
stood behind the tables selling things;
but Mr.. Bunker, infatuated by the rich
Italian complexion and real beauty oil
Mrs. Paolo Gatti, wife of the well
known Paoli Gatti, perfumer, had
stood before the table where that lady
was selling dainty little bottles Of
her husbands perfume until she sin
gled him out.
asked. picking up a little bottle Of
the famous Vio1a di Riviera and of
fering it to him. "Thees bottle is
"'Tis, hey7" he had said. We'll, !
reckon a bunco-steerer from Orc
duna, Iowa, can afford to blow In
that much for the dago soldiers an
not miss it. I'll just buy that bottle
of perfumery."
He put nickel on the table.
"You funny joker-man" laughed
Mrs Gattt- Y on try to make me
laugh so you see my dimples-yes
Five dollars, please. Ali You know
that all the w'ilep
He couldn't very. we'll get out of 4
then, when she had laughed and
laughed and showed her dinples, and
he took a hve-dollar bill from his
comfortable roll and bought the per.
fume. When he handed his purchase
to Mrs. Bunker and she had drawn
the stopper and shifted the rarely
delicate odor of vio1ets, Mrs. Bunker
had said what she thought.
well, Jabez, faint often I have
reason to tell you've been a fool, but
I reckon this New York air is gettin
in your blood an you're gettin' to be
as easy to bunco as the New YORK
folks" she said. 1.-THE idee of yor
pawn FIVE dollars for a bottle of per
- Il. h,:-,. h,-d1,r 80 a......f