The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-22
Euening Story
When Betty Struck.
BY JANE OSBORN.

L
to get on to it. First thing. they'll be
calling me Uncle Ferdie' or something
like that" :,
well, then-Ferdinand
That sounds lot better" and the
professor put his gold Trimmed spec
tacles back on his well-shaped nose
and went on with his reading.
What was going to say is this
when are we going to be married?"
Ferdinand closed his book without
putting in a bookmar:l, a most unusual
event in his well-ordered life; took off
his spectacles, shut his mouth tight
and looked at Betty.
To be sure. he and his young secre-
tary were engaged. He had fallen in
love with her when she was a student
in college and, keeping the fact of his
love for her a secret had convinced
her that she wanted to Specialize in
economics" and, having. guided her
thru a year of postgraduate work in
that science. he had convinced the fac
ultX that he needed an assistant and
that Betty was the assistant he need
ed. Then he proposed, and Betty. who
had been very much in love with the
good-looking young professor all
along, accepted. Betty had been his
assistant for two years and, tho at first
they spoke often of the time when
they would be married, they had hard
ly spoken Of it within the past few
months.
professor took some time TO consider
before he answered. 1t seemed to him
a slightly unfeminine question to ask,
tho he was an avOwed believer i'll
equal privileges for the sexes, spoke at
all the feminist meetings and was
looked upon as a champion of the CO.
eds in the university.
"Of course, I'll have to get my book
finished. That will take several
months. With that on our hands we
Il n II fn i11lr
Ferdinand was deeply interested in
this book of his, which was a study
of strikes in ancient Egypt He con-
sidered that it would be a really valu-
able contribution not only to EgyptoI-
ogy but to the cause of labor in
general. 1t seemed to his academic
MI d that the present labor aEitator
would have SO much more paWer be-
hind l::m, would be able to further his
cause SO much more convinci1sly il
lie had the precedent of ancient Egypt.
II he could assure the capitalist tha
the engineers of the pyramids mad ha
to make concessions to organized labor
whit a boon it would be. But in
order to undertake this work Ferdl-
naLo had had TO delve dsapy INTO
hieroglyphics and had had to- spend
hours in conference with the depart
Inent OF Egyptology at the university.
1.-The labor situation is growing
more insistent every day." he went on
to explain, ''and I must have my book
with the publishers before the year is
over. 1t would never do to pause now
And then after that / was thinking
of spending my summer in one of the
Industries that is likely to go on stcike
SO that l can give my actual bodily
support to a strike. want to feel
that l have been in a strike-that 1
have rebelled against capital, that
-
well. you can strike if you want
to, but can't say that I'll have any
sympathy for you if you get your nose
broken, Ferdie-Ferdinand. dear. I'm
not so sure that striking is the way
that labor ought to go about it 1 am
not so sure that the strikers are all
ways in the right
To the enthusiastic Ferdinand this
was rank heresy. Tho he had hardly
Dor in his courses of economics in
the university. he had hoped that the
result of those courses always had
been to create a prejudice in favor of
la Dor and against capital in the minds
of his students-this in spite of the
fact that the university in question
owed its existence, and he owed
rather generous compensation, to the
benefactions of a certain liberal capi-
talist. There was something of the
fanatic in Ferdinand.
There is no other way to get what
nounced he. ''To attempt diplomacy,
to wheedle, to compromise-those are
the methods of insincerity, and labor
is always sincere. If you believe you
are in the right. if you know you are
why accept less than you want?
Why not fight for it? Nothing has
ever been gained without some sort Of
fighting. Every great advance in this
world has always been made by meth
DDS that are analogous to those of the
strikers"
Now, althn Betty had heard all this
before, she listened with an attention
that was unusual. Likewise it was
flattering to Ferdinand. He felt that
he was interesting her, as he had ap-
parently failed to do of late. But as
he continued his laudation of the
striker Betty's attention seemed to
wander. She was apparently intent on
something far off. She was no longer
needing him. That night when Betty
left Ferdinand's office in the univer-
sity building devoted to economics she
carried with her a small volume from
his shelves on Methods in Striking"
The next day Betty arrived as usual
at slightly before 9 o'clock She went
thru the routine of the morning until
Ferdinand departed for his 10 o'clock
lecture. Then she was busily writing
on her typewriter. She made frequent
corrections and then made fair copy
of what she had written. This she
placed on Ferdinand's desk and de-
parted for lunch at II. He would be
back from his second morning lecture
shortly after that time.
When Ferdinand returned from his
class he found a neatly written type
written note from Betty. It was en-
tirely amicable But after he had reac
it Ferdinand realized that Betty had
told him that she would terminate her
engagement with him at once unless
he would give her assurance that she
would be married within a reasonable
length of time. She approved of mar
riage for women, and she did not ap-
prove of long engagements. A long
delay would ruin their chances of even
finding happiness together later.
OF course. it was perfectly unreason-
able. In the first place. that was not
the right way to go about it. Ferdi-
nand was out of all patience with