The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1919-07-21
o MA TRAIN

Joan Dearest:
I've started Just as 1 wrote you I'd
determined to. In my left stocking,
far from the ankle mot to show. is.
OF are, four hundred and ninety.five
Of the best dollars I ever made. The
stockings cost five extra for clocks)
or there would have been that much
more.
However, this o not the main point.
The point, dear, is that l ann off on the
trail Of ate. whether she knows it
or not. Your family-disapproving smile
which ] can see as you read, o. try
70 read. these words written rather
wrtEgley with Randy's fountain pen
az the train tiggles-cannot deter me.
Nothing can. The bridge Is burnt
the die 81 cast, the fats in the fire,
and all those other poetic things which
mean there IS no turning back.
hope ! have inhabited the revolu-
ticnary spirit of my sainted ancestor
Dorothea Saltsonsta1l, who wheedled
q Hessian officer cut OF his war or
ders! I need to think so anyhow, for
now my adventure is embarked upon,
/ have symptoms Of stage fright.
However, / refuse to be named Doro-
thea Saltonstall Vartck for nothing.
It sounds brave. And / shall be brave.
I shall come back with my shield on
I'll
Seriously, Joanie, ] do not want you
to understand. Hero am I, twenty
SIX, and my sweetest years slipping
like beads off a string. Not a single
real love affair. Nothing a head but
a life of countless dictations, cardiff
ing, indexing, tipping filing and count
less d4ctAtions!
Twenty-sx and only Mrs. Stuart's
boarding house for a home! Twenty
SIX, and the man nowhere in sight.
And the years gathering speed, slip
ping by always faster and faster and
faster
loan. You know l am not a mere
man hunter. I am Just a natural girl,
with a girls longing for a man of her
own. a home of her own and kiddies to
work for and fuss ove and dream
about. Fluff heads OF nineteen and
twenty have these things. Girls with
out half my looks have them. Yet
Fate always passes me by and leaves
me empty hearted.
Tho men at the office? Those who
were worth hooking at were always
married. The men at the boarding
house7 Two stuffy old bachelors with
paunches. A few impecunious young
near-sports who dote on their free
DOM and their being mot the marry
tnR 4nd.m A NANCY Httie clerk with
nat feet who lures me to play casino!
ooot!
The church club? cold and. blood.
less. Run by rich society women who
talk upitft and permit US to ask our
men friends once a month. ! had
none to ask. For each man who did
come, there were ten girls who fought
for them. And the shyness of those
men! They seemed to see in every
smile a net dragging them down into
q morass OF rent and clothes and gro
Gerry bills and other matrimonial obli-
CATIONS. I took pity on them-and
left them free.
My vacation? Two weeks and fifty
dollars to do It oni eYt I used to
get some cheap little rags together
and exchange my comparatively com,
Portable winter clearinghouse for an
uncomfortable summer one. Just when
l was getting acquainted and begin
mig 70 have q decent time, ! had to
come back TO the grind with nothing
to show for my season but a peeled
nose, fiat purse and the memory Of q
ntpped in the bud romance or two.
No, dear, It needs a holiday mood