The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1920-07-22
CITY CLOTHES
BY r. K. JONES
- ~~-~.f
20. 1890. by Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.)

who had assembled at the little rail-
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
jouneying away alone together, un-
chapcroned aud unescorted.
Yet the Journey consumed forty
eight hours, and neither Gladys nor
George had friends at their destinn-
tion. one glance at the rural peda-
gogues 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 ms much as
their frank, eager young faces, would
have reassured. Gladys wore n dark
pleated skirt, and, as every one knows,
the full-pleated skirt In whatever mode
needs some brevity to he 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 prodlgal to her TO have
new skirt cut Off short when long
/ skirts might come back into fashion,
and you never could make n skirt long
er that had once been turned up short.
She wore a machine embroidery white
| shlrtwaist 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 wooden 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-well, 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 he Mt home In the city
OF more than 10000.
They were going TO one of the big
cities, whore II large university at
trncted hundreds OF men and women
mnturcr 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 ut rural college some years be-
fore. and Gladys was going TO take n
course in "household administration"
with the double purpose of taking
the promotion the following autumn to
the position of domestic science teach
er in Holmes Center high school, and
even more important consideration, of
subsequently making herself the sort
of housewife that she felt so worthy a
person rs 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
take more courses, would have the
greater expense, and to help defray
this 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-
dens in the hot weeks of midsummer
by doing outside work. They had
dreamed of these weeks together In
the great center of learning, and II
the picture they had formed OF that
center was dlssimilar, at least neither
had come any nearer the reality than
the other.
As both had pictured, they felt that
they would see much more of each
other than actually proved TO be the
case. For after they had gone to-
gether from the terminal In the great
city TO the university in the outskirts
and each had gone TO the dormtory
where rooms had been secured in nd
vance, II was never by chance that
they 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
ent 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 go
about together and. as they never