The Dolores star., 1920-09-24
CITY CLOTHES
ls. IsgV. ey MecIure Newspnper syndIeatsl
Ry B. K. JONES

road station one late June afternoon
there was nothing extraordinary or
unconventional In the fact that
Gladys Brock and George Ogden, the
blue-eyed young school teacher and
the school principal TO whom she had
been for some time engaged, should be
journeying away alone together, un-
chaperoned and unescorted.
Yet the journey consumed forty
eight hours, and neither Gladys nor
George had friends at their destina-
tiou. One glance at the rural pedn-
gUyues as they boarded the train there
at Holmes Center would have dis
armed even the most suspicious
Madame Grundys.
The clothes they wore and the way
they wore them. quite as much as
heir frank. eager young faces, would
have reussured. Gladys wore a dark
pleated skirt. and. as every one knows.
the fuIl-pleated skirt in whatever mode
needs some hrevity to be effective. But
Holmes Center had escaped the Paris
revival of the abbreviated skirt, and
Gladys. sensible Gladys, would have
worn hers long anyway.
II seemed prodig gal to her TO have n
new skirt cut OFF short when long
skirts might come back into fashion.
and you never could make a skirt long
er that had once been turned up short.
She wore a machine embroidery white
shirtwalst of the sort that retail at
Holmes Center even In prevailing high
prices for two ninety-eight, and by way
of a wrap that she might possibly
need she carried over her arm neat
ly folded woolen scarf.
The mail-order catalogue had as
sured that these scarfs were taking
the place of separate jackets, hence
Gladys had invested In one for her
projected trip.
And George-weIl, he wasn't dressed
like wild Westerner nor like your no.
tiOn of a farmer or hayseed. His suit
was of conventional shade of gray
and his hat was not much behind the
style-but from the angle at which
that hat was worn to the thick black
polish that he had applied to his own
heavy-soled shoes that morning you
would have known at glance that he
was not one to be at home In the city
of more than 10000.
They were going to one Of the big
cities, where large university at
tracted hundreds of men and women
maturer than their regular students to
drink at their wells of learning for
six or seven weeks in the summer.
George was going to finish the work
needed to complete his requirements
for the degree that he had started to
earn at rural college some years be-
fore. and Gladys was going to take a
course in ''household administration"
with the double purpose of taking
the promotion the following autumn to
the position of domestic science teach
ar in Holmes Center high school, and
even more important consideration, of
subsequently, making herself the sort
Of housewife that she felt so worthy
oerson as George Ogden deserved.
They had read the catalogue of the
big university together, and together
they had made their plans. They had
figured expenses, too, for neither
wanted to cut too deep in their little
hoard of savings that had been put
aside to feather the nest In another
year or so when they should be mar
ried.
George because he was going to
fake more courses, would have the
and tn haln of
his he had determined to do some
sort Of work in the city, although the
university authorities advised those
taking n full course of summer work
not to attempt to add to their bur
iens in the hot weeks of midsummer
by doing outside work. They had
dreamed of these weeks together in
The great center of learning, and If
he picture they had formed of thai
renter was dissimiIar. at least neither
had come any nearer the reality than
he other.
As both had pictured, they felt that
hey would see much more of each
other than actually proved to he the
rase. For after they had gone to.
-fill'i lIblII Nil' III llt great
ity 10 the university in the outskirts
and each had gone to the dormitory
where rooms had been secured in ad.
yance. II was never by chance that
hey met. Their work lay in buildings
quite remote.
Their dining halls were as distant,
and even the social activities that
were conducted under entirely differ
cnt management. They were farther
apart than they would have been had
Gladys lived in Holmes Center and
George two counties off
George took the only work that of.
fered itself-that OF clerical assistant
to the night clerk of one of the down.
town hOtels-so there was little
leisure for George and Gladys TO 20
about together ard. as they never
seemed to meet by chance In the great
university center. sometimes days went
by when their only means of inter