Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-01
NHEY thought / was mad. The
natives OF that one-horse town
clearly took me for q crazy

man. And ! can't altogether
blame them, when come to think 1t
over. For 1t doesn't look like sanity
to see girl lying nat on her back in
the sun. blinking UP at the dome of
heaven as though she were a She
Swami holding converse with the in
unite. .,.. r-.',s '..'. - e.
But ii wasn't. converse l was after.
1t was two much simpler things--just
freckles and tan. / had to have them.
and I'd only two days to get them in.
Then ! darkened two of my front
teeth with repeated applications of
tincture Of iron, braided my hair up
close and tight and adorned my feet
with a pair Of broad-toed "easies."
And. thus equipped, made my way
back to the land of my birth.
went back to the city looking so
much like the queen Of the rubes that
one-legged small boy leaned against
the subway kiosk and called aloud to
the world: Say. Dutch. did youse pipe
tn boob from tn .burdock patch?"
had the consolation Of knowing
that my destination was a -rooming
house at certain number in East
gath street.. where my. arrival had
been laboriously prepared for. 49,
Under ordinary circumstances, of
course. the prospect of being a slavey
in an East Side rooming house would
have proven anything but appealing
to me. But in this case the circum-
stances were far from ordinary. In
spector Sloan, in fact, had announced
that this same gath street rooming
house, conducted by Mrs. Munger. held
a certain old German ,yho answered to
the name OF Otto schoenfeld, and that
while nothing definite as yet was
known as to Schoenfeld's activities
there seemed to be certain substantial
reasons for investigating that mild
hammered old German and his manner
Of life. b..
That was all I knew. But it was
enough. Mrs. Munger. / soon found,
waa not the type Of woman to make
my task an over-luxuriously easy one.
Under her soft and billowy form. 1
saw. resided a heart of granite. Be
sides four long flights of stairs to
climb, there were beds to make, hallss
to be swept, washings to be carried to
the roof. towels to be ironed. bells to
be answered and a hundred and one
other odd errands to be run. 1 was
installed in a sulphur colored cubby-
hole on the top floor front.
=, To this. however, offered no objec-
tion, for the one other occupant of
that top floor was a mildmannered
old occulist by the name Of Schoen-
feM.
As for Otto Schoenfeld himself. he
save every promise of proving about,
as shy as a springbok. He vanished
like a shadow. 1 found. at the first
sign Of my approach. 1t wasn't until
my third day as slavey, in fact, that
! got a good look at him.
1t wasn't until the fourth day that
! had a chance to visit his quarters,
climbing the three long flights with
frugal parcel Of laundry for which l
was instructed to collect thirty-two
cents. I could hear the hum of ma
chinery as I repeated my knock on his
door. could also hear the sound of
a bolt being withdrawn as old Otto
answered that knock.
His work. I soon discovered. in
volved the continuous receipt and dis
patch of carefully boxed spectacle
lenses Sometimes they came by mes
eenger, and sometimes they came by
registered special delivery. But al
ways they were delivered personally
at Otto schoenfeld's door. 1t was i'm
pressed on me. from the first. that all
such packages were to 60 at once to
that top-noor optician.
had two days Of toll before found
myself presented with a chance of
even 90 much as penetrating the en-
emy's intrenchments. My chance
came with a curt order. from the
mountainous Mrs. Munger, to wash
Schoenfeld's windows. He held out a
COIN to me and asked me il I'd first
pun out to Sd avenue grocery and
buy some cutie bone for his canaries.
The boob from the burdock patch
prided herself on seeing through that
fuse. but she went without a murmur.
:. On my return with the cutie bone
Otto Schoenfeld was all ready to re-