Evening star., 1919-04-06
EHEMIAH is a cat.

VhA uIyStcTl0S anu ut0 AuS0lh"
gence Of q quality that would have
put him in the sacred class had he
lived in Egypt along with Cleopatra.
Maybe he did. You never can tell.
but
His present kingdom Is a cute little
, carnated despotism over his one vas
sal. the woman who keeps the small
place of papers. magazines and post
cards. with an agency on the side.
She Is supposed to own the cat.
Nehemiah knows better.
1t is the custom Of the court that
Nehemiah be fed with fresh meat
each morning as soon as the vassal
shall have flung wide the palace por-
tails. which means the shop door and
lace-frilled window with a flower
on the sill.
But customers are important beings,
and when they take an extra notion
to select post cards or to admire the
tiny spot which a woman's bravery
ed into Bofflnish combination of
shop, library and just feminine hint
of home. 1t means that Nehemiah
must wait.
And, to be quite candid. Nehemiah
doesn't like 1T.
On the occasion of such delays the
Vassal having no time to run to the
store across the street, is accustomed
along toward o'clock to telephone
over to the clerk to bring the cats
meat. Nehemiah knows exactly what
will happen. The instant his vassal
takes the receiver he stations himself
at the door and watches the store
with the official intensity of an ordi-
nary cat watching an ordinary mouse
hole. And the meat always comes.
The Other morning a happy inrush
of misunderstanding the vassaps view
of it-delayed even the telephoning.
In fact, the woman was so taken up
with tourists that she didn't give her
cat thought until she heard
familiar sound-the telephone.
And there was Nehemiah on the
telephone table with his paw juggling
at the receiver, When he considered
himself through with his order for
meat he sprang to the floor and
watched for the clerk to bring it
over.
Which shows that Cleopatra's sa-
cred cat hadn't thing on Nehemiah
in the matter of wisdom.
she had black-coffee skin and a
~ double deck of teeth. as white as
any snow you ever laid eyes on. Also
she had a seat in a car.
To be exact, she had three, for,
with voluminous disregard of fash
ions dictum, her wide width taffeta,
that was SO handsome and so old
TINY as to suggest that she had
taken 1t out in washing" overflowed
two seats ahead on the side bench Of
n
over the quiet. self-respecting COM
panion seated next. Furthermore, she
was pridefully conscious of her boa
Of straggly blue cock feathers. a car
toon Of hat with more cock feathers.
only pink. an adjustable pompadour
squeezed into kid gloves the color and
size of a suit case-only that isn't ex-
actly true, so forget it-but:
The star feature Of her get-up was
hole in one gloved finger through
which bulged solitaire diamond
made out of rhinestone set in gold
that was brass.
Sometimes she shifted the "set' be-
fore her eyes for her own admiration.
Then she displayed her hand on her
portly frontage so that the passengers
could have share in the shine. And
this alternating program gave her
such open and childlike satisfa ct ion
that it seemed pity that the quiet
voiced brown woman with her should
put In whisper of protest. The
passengers around couldn't help
knowing 1t was whisper of protest.
because the womans reply was made
with a frank loquaciousness that
made confidant Of every soul around:
mo, indeedy, Sarah, 1 amt gwine
kiver up nah reeng. I cut this hole
purpose. l benner wantin' dimon'
reeng too many yeahs to hide it now
i got 1T. / paid my good SO cents for
this reeng. No, fndeedy. chile, amt
er gwine shet this dimon' under no
glove. 1 cut this hole SOS she could
come out an shine foath like the
Good Book say"
And while she was freeing herself
of these convictions the dear old soul
beamed promiscuously around at the
passengers. And the passengers
bealned back. Each recognized the
Jewel of genuine happiness that spar
Killed. in the black woman's eyes.
And happiness lis a splendid thing.
A SMALL girl stood by n door in q
dusky street and looked up a stair
way that was swallowed in shadows
big, black ones full of bugaboos n
everything.
She had to go up that stairway to her
nome over store that had shut IN for
the night and she was laid. She was
so AFRAID that she just had to stand there
ana wait until somebody came along to