New-York tribune., 1921-03-13
UDO you kve here, mamma
L. IN Just this one roona?"

L. IN Just this one roona"
and opened shop as dealer in real
estate and fire insurance. For a
year or so he managed to seem fair
ly brisk at it, but the years and the
sorrows were telling. He lost
weight. The wrinkles deepened and
multiplied about his eyes. The
double chin shrank into baggy folds.
And his clothing showed wear. After
the second year he was reduced to
desk room in Curtis's real estate Of
flee, and there he continued to stick.
But living grew continually hard
er. During the years in the Dono-
van block the couple, with the shad-
owy Lily, occupied a small house
over on Filbert Avenue, where rents
were low. Later they drifted un-
comfortably from boarding house
to boarding house, ending in a scant
two rooms by the tracks, going often
without sufficient food, though Lily,
who was teaching in a grade school
in Milwaukee, sent home what she
could.
VIM. P. was an unhappy man now,
old though still short of sixty, a
public failure. Mrs. Mason's thin,
dour face was framed in white hair.
Nearly eleven years had passed since
Minnie ran away. Her name was
never spoken.
George Haven Henderson jr., of
the Chestnut Avenue branch of that
family, returned, a parsonage after
eight or ten years in German uni
versities-for we were still, then,
under the German Intellectual hege-
mony--to assume an assistant pro-
fessorship at the College of Liberal
Arts, up the shore. He wore his
beard cut vandyke fashion, smoked
cigarettes and talked calmly down
from the top Of things 1t was said
that he made despite the cigar
ettes) an excellent impression. Ac-
cordingly, when word reached dear
old DR.. Hopman, acting dean of the
college, that Nelson w. Appleman,
the twine man, was having his will
| drawn, that venerable educator, in
stead of going in person, sent George
Haven jr. down to Peoria to plead
for the college.
AS Mr.. Appleman DECLINED to talk
finance on prayer meeting night,
George Haven jr., finding the eve
ming warm and the hotel hardly d.
verting, walked about the streets
and patronized Peoria. Before a
dingy theater entrance he paused,
adjusted his gold-rimmed nose
glasses. The three-sheet poster that
had arrested his attention exhibited
a young woman in full length flesh
ings and wide smile that exposed
remarkably large and even teeth,
with the legend" Minnie Mason's
Own Show-the Merry Maids Of
Broadway and the Six Diving
Bellies"
A flicker Of impish memory stirred
the somewhat settled brain Of George
Haven jr. For, tucked away in an
all but forgotten past, were a few
i,npulsive incidents in which the
young Minnie Mason had PLAYED no
small part.
RuT now--well, the memory
family stirred. He glanced up
the street and down, then bought a
seat near the front.
Minnie proved, surprise. She
clearly ranked as a beauty in the
curious world of buriesque. She was
shapely and agile Her abundant
hair was redder than in her girl
hood. The old wide grin had now
become professional asset. She
had developed a vein of rough humor
that took the form of sometimes
startling comment on thu appear
ance of girls of the chorus and Of
good -natured banter with the au-
dience. That this audience (nearly
all were men) knew and liked
Minnie Mason was loudly evident.
And George Haven jr., carried out
Of the building at quarter to II in