The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-10-29


around the theatres. They're wher-
ever a pretty girls comm from work,
tired enough to long for a little fun
and square meal with trimmin's.
And wherever that girl is, there's usu-
ally a man ready to give 'em to her.
Still, most mothers think the theatres
tie devils reception room, and the
hand of evil is just waitin' to grab
their girls when they come out of the
stage door. So they shoe the poor
kids off in the safe, placid waters of
stenography or clerkin' "away from
temptation" Amt you heard 'em say
that? They always drawl it out ITEM
p-ta-tion"!
Gee, it sure makes me faigued!
Course, don't s'pose I'd make a large
hit with the folks at home if the
handsome young minister saw me in
the chorus of "The girl from Chris
tely's" and took me back to the con-
gregation with a gold lop in my
third, left, like they do in the nov
els; but l amt as bad as some others
that's worse for all that! An don't
have to feel any shame when buy
my silk stockin's and ham-and with
my little eighteen plunks-(twenty-
five on the road.
Back home I've got quite rep
Nothin' extra sensational; they just
look on me as Twin illustration of
what not to do with your daughter.
l serve as a bad example-like the
pictures in the magazines of good
and bad taste in mantels and wall
paper.
1t don't worry me much, though.
I'm seldom there, anyhow! don't
need to tell you where my home vii
lage is; it's just one O. those ordinary
tanks most peoples pasts is buried in.
You know-they always call it "the
dear little old place.! You bet,
they're swell dumps when you amt in
'em!
But was home last summer. Bein'
all in when we closed in the spring,I
just packs my buds and beats it for
home an mother! Only it's my aunt
l stay with. II amt had the bene-
fit of mother since l was a kid! l
stayed there for about two months;
an that's how l come to know about
Maggie Dunning, which is what 1
started to tell you.
You see, the Cummings live right
next door to my aunt, an Maggie
KNOWN about me, stored it away in
her attic that fame and coin awaited
on the stage. o. course she wanted
to play emotional roles; nothin' short
O. Camille or Juliet would do her.
They're always like that-at eighteen
When they're forty, they make eyes,
try to dance and want Anna Held
parts.
Well, mother puts the veto on the
drammer! She's the kind of mother
was speakin' about. She goes to the
movies and reads risky novels with
Thackeray covers over 'em SOS the
ladies' aid wont get shocked. And
her idea of the stage-door game is
swell, but not practical. She always
see the chorus ladies leavin' the the
atre at a. m, dressed to kill; evenin'
scenery, open-faced shoes, silk stock
ms, paint, and a vamp smile. And
you know what's waitin' for 'em;
handsome man with Turkish cigar
cite character, and collapsible stove
pipe costume in classy limousine
with liveried chauffeur.
1t looks so good to her it's wicked.
You know, some folks are that way;
if a thing gives you any pleasure
there must be something wrong with
it!
So she had Maggie study stenog-
raphy. Now, l amt knockin' stenog-
raphy; though girls no safer at that
Jleu dIy IuluS CloC, dlu IL ohO NV
ambitious for another life, it's kind O.
hard to spend all her years in a stuffy
office poundin' out, "In regard to
yours of the 17th," on two-cyclinder
typewriter, with the little g an the
capital S stickin'!
But Maggie graduated from the
local business college, and with her
certificate in her hand, and her best
dress ON, she starts out after job
Course, it's a job in the home town
she's lookin' for. That's another OF
mothers pet ideas: Let Maggie &c
to the city-right into temptation!
Gee, you'd think all the evil in the
world had been chased inside the
city limits and quarantined! Some
folks always look at the city with
black glasses on, and lamps their OWL
villages through pink specs.
Well, about the time Maggie wen