Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-07-13
SAT in Buck Tiernan's beer par
lor waiting for midnight and pa
reto And while ! waited / looked

= reasonabl sense of security, for
somewhere amid that crowd of damp
getters and doss -housers and cruisers
And listers sat Doyle OF the Alliance
Office, fifty appareled as a card sharp,
while at another table Toosey At
trill conversed over her emulsion Of
tanbark and hops with that ever
&atchful fellow stool, Ooley Bey, the
hockey pokey man. And later in the
evening, ] remembered, Wilkins and
Sloan himself were to appear on the
scene.
Yet Tiernan's "ink-pot," Toosey had
given me to understand, was the
worst of its kind, probably the worst
IN all New York.
There was a time when I'd never
have believed lordly city could
nurse under its opulent plunlage such
n louise of depravity. 1t made
me Suddenly sick of low life in all
its forms and phases. 1t left me
hating the work l was ordained to
follow. And / was, at the moment,
thinking more about where l could
find good school for Serena, when
at beerstained table not six feet
away from me I noticed a woman
more youthful than the others.
She sat silent and alone at her
table. with face as white as chalk.
The thin cheeks, so futilely powdered
and rouged, the rebellious mouth with
its fun under-lip, the gray-blue eyes
that looked overlarge and lustrous in
the restless face, all combined to
mark the type, even while holding her
apart from her more sodden sisters.
She hadn't touched, l noticed, the
glass of "suds' that stood in front of
her. She sat staring out across the
smoky room, the picture of preoccu-
pied misery.
She seemed to be watching the
door. Then ! saw a sort of spasm
pass over her body Her restless hand
suddenly pushed back the beer glass.
She sat looking at it with empty eyes
for several minutes. Then she began
to cry, noselessiy, bitterly. ADAM
donedly.
Some power which I didn't stop to
understand prompted me to slip out
of my chair and cross to that white
faced girls table. There 1 dropped
into the chair opposite to her.
whats the matter?" found the
courage to ask.
Lea me alone!" she said. listlessly.
between her stifed little sobs. They
made me think of Serena. And that
left me both more patient and more
persistent.
But hate to see you feel that
way" tried to tell her. She didn't
even look at me.
IT'S nothin' to eat yuh!" was her
sullen retort.
But how do you know I can't help
you?" demanded.
"Yuh can't" she replied.
why can't II" demanded.
Because yuh can't" was her mood
lly stubborn answer
But why can't you get 1t off your
ehest?' 1t paid knew, not to be too
pompous.
Il can't she said. averting her
body.
But you haven't shown me why"
Because this is the night l get
mine" she announced in the patois of
her circle. The phrasing carried with
IT note of hippancy. but tragedy
still crowned that troubled young
face. She leaned forward across the
table, staring at me and yet not SEEM
Ing to see me. I'm goin' to get
what's comm to me-and get it good.
That's what's the matter wit me.'
But what are you going to get?" l
demanded.
She leaned forward little and
spoke in almost a whisper
I'm goin' to get croaked." was her
amazing and altogether unexpected
reply.
tried to laugh at her. but 1t wasn't
much Of a success.
"And who'll do the croaking?" I
asked, wondering, for moment If
this could be some new and ingenious
form of the ancient tricks Of the dunn
my-chucker.
1.-THE guy I gave the throw down"
was her answer.
What guy?'
"Me husband!'
- "Tell me about it," prompted
She eyed me up and down. with
sort of Indian summer of suspicion.