The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-08
EVENING STORY
Candy Girl.
BY r. RAY BAKER.

was the candy girl" of ALLOWABLE, and |
the most sought swimmer in the
matrimonial sea. She was the candy |
girl in two respects She was de-
clared to be the sweetest and the neat |
est but also the most elusive belle that |
ever wrung the heart of man.
Her abode was on Turnip Hill, but |
Matte spent little time there. She was
not social idler. She believed in
work and she did it before a high
desk and a proportionately high stool
in the business office of the Bon Ton
candy factory.
Matte had rejected the four mosti
desirable young men in the village.
They were desirable by their own ad-
mission and they had bank books to
prove it, The bank book, however.
had proved of no more avail in the
wooing of Matte than so much waste
paper.
Each member of the club had spent
money like sand in the desert in his
campaign to make Matte his wife.
She accepted all the attentions until
they wearied her, and then she calmly
and scornfully rejected the quartet of
admirers. The collective rejection was
as follows:
you go about trying to win girls
affections just as boilermaker would
operate a typewriter. Think I'd
marry a man with no more initiative
than you? I should say not, en-
phatically. 1 want a husband who
ge.5 an idea now and then. The
fellow who thinks up something new
| in the way of counting girl is the one
! that catches me. See?
Then the Mutual Consolation club
! came into being. Each OF the TOUR
| discovered simultaneously tina the
others were after the falr Matte. II
happened that they came together
! just outside the Malvoude residence at
| the top of Turnip Hill.
Tom Grayson was peerinss over
long box of roses Fred Hooper was
| Juggling a chatting dish he had pro-
cured from Chicago mail order
| house. Sam Upkins puffed under the
| weight of table lamp, while Albert
Terry looked sheepish because all he
| had to offer to the god of love was
tickets to- the county fair, and they
| didn't make much of a showing in
| his vest pocket.
| They compared notes and were
/ about to draw lots or flip coin to
| decide which of them should have the
honor of keeping his engagement for
| the evening with the idol of their
hearts when the idol in question APP
peared on the porch and delivered the
| extemporaneous address quoted above.
| Thereupon the brideseekers ad-
| journed to the insurance office OF
Sam Upkins, at the foot of Turnlp
| Hill, and the roses were put to re-
! pose in the garbage can, while the
| chatting dish came into use as an ash
| tray; the lamp fulfilled its mission by
dispelling the gloom which was fast
| gathering in the office and in their
| breasts and the fair tickets were util-
| lied to carry fire from the one match
which the quartet possessed to the
/ cigars which furnished the ashes that
| were deposited in the chatting dish.
| By mutual consent each of the four
| desira bles detailed his journey along
the brink of matrimony in quest of a
place to plunge in. Each had under
| gone the same experiences, invested in
| the same presents for the elusive Mat
| tie and met the same rebuffs.
| Under the self-constituted presi-
| dency of Mr.. Terry the club thereupon
| took upon itself the task of discover
| ing a key to the paddock on Matte
| Melvoude's heart.
| "She wants some one who. has in
ventive genius-some one who has an
| idea" said Mr. Terry, addressing his
| fellow members. "Thereupon, it be-
hooves us to cola and find some
novel way to her affections. When we
| have come upon a scheme that looks
| feasible, we will hold lottery and
| the lucky man will be allowed to try,
| without interference from the rest, to
win the prize on Turnip Hill. If the
| scheme fails, we will try another, using
the lottery again. In that way none
| of us will encroach on the preserves
| of the other, and one of US ought to
FInal1e our dream of happiness come
true. Collaboration-thats it,
The club adjourned to the next day,
/ when each of the members was to
submit his plan for the capitulation of
Matte Melvoude.
/ Promptly at 2 o'clock in the after
noon, Messrs. Grayson, Hooper, Up
lsins and Terry assembled in the in
| surance office. Each of them looked
expectant, for. having failed to evolve
an idea of his own, each expected
there would be three other plans sub
mitted.
When the session was called to order
and the deplorable situation became
known. four bright smiles turned to
four detected frowns. and four pipes
were lighted and eight feet deposited
on the mahogany table.
President Terry. Have none of us
an initiative? Are we going to let
this girl escape marriage with one of
| us four most desirable men in the viii
1 lage? Are we going to let her wear
her life ANY,, her beauty and charms
unappreciated,, in that sordid candy
factory?"
The other three drew long and CUR
glingly on their pipes and wreathed
themselves in smoke and said moth
ing.
Finally Mr.. Grayson reached out and
plucked the ALLOWABLE Weekly Times
! from the table.
IT tell you I'm about ready to give
up, ne eAIIHoQHSSd, anu " prove he
had lost interest in love. he opened
the paper and began scrutinizing it
with an air of absorbed interest.
The others smoked on in silence,
which was broken suddenly by Mr..
Grayson, whose feet hit the floor with
q resounding bang, and who rose,
ciutching the newspaper with one
hand and his hair with the other.
Listen to this. would your" he
fairly shouted. They withdrew their
feet from the table and pushed back
their chairs, all with due deliberation,
for the Mutual Consolation club was a
Il more or less deliberative body. New
! ertheless, they were startled and some
what apprehensive as to Mr. Grayson's