The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-25
JUST A GIRL
BIZ JANE PHELPS


Kenneth Lawrence had told me
when talking of his ranch that he
where u reach him. 1 had asked him
who had authority when he was away.
He had a sort of superintendent, but
nothing of any moment was done
without consulting him.
1t seemed perfectly wonderful to me
that a young man could be SO smart.
The boys / knew just played around
most Of the time, even those who
were pretending to work. / know
Tony Deland went into his father $
office when he left college. He told
us once that his salary wouldn't pay
for his smokes. l don't suppose he
meant it literally. but 1 guess it was
all he earned If he had.
Then there was Jack Pryor.
Jack was bright and quick. Dad
once said that he would have made
success as a business man if he had
been poor so he would have had to
exert himself. But 1 am sure Jack
couldn't earn a postage stamp. He
didn't even attend to his own invest
ments-he had some money from his
grandmothef that had been turned
over to him when he was twenty and
he let a lawyer manage that for him.
said ence--lt was after knew ken
meth:
looking after your legacy yourself. II
WOulu give you SoHieNhiA6 10 W.
"Oh, l manage to keep pretty
busy -
swered my own question: play polo
and tennis, dance and eat. Oh, yes,
you must be everwerked."
att would be a shame to work
when don't need to. Zena. You must
have read how wrong it is for men
with money to take jobs, and so take
the food cut of the mouths of the
wives and children of the working
men"
Nonsense, What you would earn
wouldn't buy their salt, let alone any
food"
"Do you really mean. you think a
fellow ought to work when he doesn't
need to, zena?''
eyes. Jack. I do! 1t makes a man
respects a fellow who work whether
he has to or not. Then, Jack. your
father has worked all his life. So has
mine. Why shouldn't you work, too,
instead of living upon his brains as
we'll as his, money? For isn't that
what il amounts te?"
81 believe you are really serious,
Zena I hope you aren't going to de
velop into one of those women with
advanced ideas we hear so much
about,~
II think women are awfully smart
now-a-days Why, they are doing eV-
erything men do-almost."
THAT'S all right for women who
have to. But what an awful thing 1t
would be if all the women wanted to
wear pants"
"Dont be horrid, jack"
knew, in spite of my talk, that I
never could do anything outside of my
home. I also knew I couldn't marry
poor man, or one with his way to
make 1t would be perfectly ridicu-
lous for me. brought up as I had been,
to think of such a thing.
Still was restless, uncertain OF my
self. a good deal of the time. Mother
had hired a personal maid for me; she
said I took up too much of Helene
tine-her maid. So had even less to
do Dad had given me a car, and a
chauffeur of my own. How could a
girl whe never had known what it was
to go without all the luxuries of life,
begin after she was grown and had be-
come accustomed to them?
heard mother say once that II was
harder for people who had had money
to lose 1t than it was for those who
had always been poor.
Jack Pryor now proposed to me
about once a week. l simply laughed
at him and treated his proposals as
joke. 1t peeved him terribly.
was very careful not to tell mother
every time Jack asked me to marry
him I knew she favored him. and so
I kent it from her that / refused to
become Mrs. Jack Pryor about once
every seven days. But dad was on
to be slangy. He hardly missed day
that he didn't ask:
well, did Jack propose again to-
day?"
(Tomorrew-A regular fe1low!'O