The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-04-08

| because some man might be treadin'
on her rights. By God! Rights! All
the rights most of the women now
adays need is the right to have their
hearts broken and their souls all
manglcd and cut up SOS they can
know the meaning of fellow-feeling
and home-lovc and sympathy Be-
cause when woman's woman first
and other things afterward, George,
she doesn't need to worry none about
her rights. She'll get her rights,
al right, without hiring any halls
or buying any brass bands or break
ing up homes or going out and grab
bling a mans pay-envelope!"
The waiter came with the drinks
and Nib took three at once. Prompt
ly she bccanrc still more ,hystcrical.
"Look at me, George! You'd never
think I'd ever been famous lady,
would you, George? You'd never
think I'd come from a sweet, pure,
little town up in the hills of New
England and been married to a good
man with money enough once to buy
this street? You'd never think I'd
had a home with fourteen rooms and
three baths and lawn where you
could hold moving picture carnival?
Never think I'd been to Europe four
times and spent more money on
jeWelry in week than I'll earn now
for the rest of my life? Never think
all those things, would you, George?
I'm a beauty now, amt / George?
I've a face like a pan of dough and
a shape like bundle of iniquity!
I've got a home that stinks of straw
and slops, and jewelry now
that Woolworth lays in by the ton.
I've got all the happiness out of life
that life has to give excepting the
happiness that comes from sacrifice
and repression and generosity. I've
been thirty years carefully avoiding
the unpleasant things in life-and
met suddenly the brink of the preci-
pice that yawns down into the chasms
of abandon!"
The frayed poodle watched her
furtively; he began to dismiss
thoughts of getting that five with
Mibb in such a state and momen-
tarily growing worse.
"It's all right to have good time
while your young, George! It's
smart to call the girls who marry for
love and settle down quietly into
homes slow and laugh at them
for being content to struggle on with
only fifteen a week in the mans
envelope. It's quite the proper thing
thing to avoid having babies and
keeping your figure and follow the
styles and live generally on the
while others are
growing care-worn and anxious
eyed with the struggle and the worry.
It's all right-for a time, George!
But it's all a mess of tin
sci and mummery and bad taste
in your mouth, the morning after,
George. There's old age to be reck-
oned with; there's time to be taken
into consideration. And time asks
its pound of flesh and the years find
your pals all gone. And the nights
are quiet and lonely, George, and the
days drag by in mockery. Oh God
God! God! I'd give more for one
racked, twisted, furrowed-faced,
gnarlcd-fngcred, sock-darnin', food
cookin', hymn-singin' old woman
reachin' the Empty Years at last but
with her brats grown up around her
into strong men and gentle women,
than all the silver-slippercd, low
nccked, fizzle-headed sissies you can
find from Grants Tomb to Bowlin'
Grcenw
"Dont Mibb. You're crossin' your
drinks bad, by orderin' that"
"Lct me alone, George! l know
what Pm dom About thirty years
ago tonight, it was, made bet with
Mary Purse that I'd beat her hands
down at the game of matrimony when
each of us were fifty-seven. l made
that bet, George. But I've lost it.
I've had my fling, George. I've had
my rights I've been entitled to live
my own life in my own way and I've
done it. And it's gall in my heart,
George,-it's NORWOOD in my soul!"
Her voice had become high and
wild. People turned and stared.
George saw his opportunity was lost
and slipped away. At the cashiers
desk man summoned a burly
waiter.
"That's enough of that, over there
at the corner table. This is a re-
spectacle place, Zelfi"
"It's a down-and-outer trying to
tell the world the sad story of her
past life"
go over and tell her to take a
walk"