Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1921-01-16

an appealing character, 1 1eel
that it would be distinctly I'M
scrupulous to deceive you on that
point He was a observation-disclosures
dyed-in.the-wool, ninety-nine three
quarters per cent Jelly-bean and he
grew lazily all during Jelly-bean sea-
son, which is every season, down IN
the land of the Jelly-beans we'll below
the Mason-Dixon line.
Now IL you call a Memphis man
Jelly-bean he will quite possibly pull
a long sinewy rope from MS mp
pocket and hang you to convenient
telegraph pole. If you call a New
Orleans man a Jelly-bean he Will
probably grin and ask you VINO IS
taking your girl to the Mardi Hras
ball. The particular Jelly-bean patch
which produced the protagonist OF this
history lies somewhere between the
two-a little city of thirty Thousand
that has dozed sleepily for many
wears in southern Mississippi. occa-
sionally stirring in its slumbers ana
muttering something about a war that
took place some time, somewhere anu
that every one else has forgotten long
ago.
Jim was a Jelly-bean. ] write that
again because it has such a pleasant
sound-rather like the beginning OF
fairy story-as if Jim were nice. II
somehow gives me a picture OF nun
with a round, appetizng race ana all
sorts of leaves and vegetables grow
srrv of iS i
and thin and bent at the waist from
STOPPING over pool tables. and he was
what might have been known IN the
discriminating north as corner
throughout the undissolved Confed-
eracy for one who spends his life con-
jugating the verb to idle in the hrst
person. am idling, l have idled, L
will idle.
TIM was born in a white house on a
) green corner. 1t had four wealth
er-beaten pillars in front and great
amount of lattice-work in the rear
that made a cheerful criss-cross back
ground for a flowery. sun-drenched
lawn. Originally the jewellers in the
white house had owned the ground
next door and next door to that and
next door to that, but that had been
20 long ago that even Jim's father
scarcely remembered it. He had. in
fact, thought it a matter of so little
moment that when he was noisily and
alcoholicly dying he neglected even to
tell little Jim. who was FIVE years old
and quite miserably frightened.
The white house became boarding
house run by tight-lipped lady from
Macon. whom Jim called Aunt Mamie
and detested with all his soul.
He became fifteen. went to high
school, wore his hair in tangle OF
black snarls and was afraid OF girls
He hated his home. where four women
and one old man prolonged an inter-
mer about what lots the Powell place
had originally included and what sort
Of flowers would be out next.
Sometimes the parents OF little girls
in town. remembering Jim's mother
and fancying a resemblance in the
dark eyes and hair. invited him to
parties. but parties made him shy and
he much preferred sitting on discon-
nected axle in Tilly's garage. rolling the
bones or exploring his mouth endless
money ne picked up odd jobs. and it
was due to this that he stopDed go
ing to parties. At his third party
little Marjorie HaiRht had whispered
indiscreetly and within hearing dis
lance that he was the h,.. BOY ~ so
instead Of the two-step and polka,
Jim had learned to throw any num-
Der he desired on the dice and had
listened to spicy tales OF all the
shootings that had occurred in the
surrounding country for the last fifty
He became eighteen. The" war broke
out and he enlisted as COB and
polished brass in the Charleston navy
yard for a year. Then. by way OF
brass in the Brooklyn navy yard for
q year.
The war over he went home. He
was twenty-one. his trousers were too
short and too tight. His buttoned
shoes were long and narrow. His tie
and pink marvelously scrolled: and
over it were two blue eyes faded like
a piece of very good old cloth long
EXPOSED to the sun.
In the twilight of one April even
ing when a soft grav had drifted
down along the cottonfields and over
the su'try town. he was vague fir'Ire
leaning against a board fence. whis-
thing and gazing at the moons rim
over the lights of Jackson street.
persistently on a problem that had
held his attention for an hour.
The Jelly-bean had been invited to
a party.
Back in the days when all the boys
had detested all the girls. Peter De-
lanoy and Jim had sat side by side in
school. But, while Jim's social aspi-
rations had died in the oily air of the
garage. Peter had alternately fallen
in and out of love. gone to college.
taken to drink. given it up and. in
short. become one Of the best beaux
az The town Nevertheless Peter and
Jim had retained a friendship that.
though casual, was quite definite.
Jim took a certain conscious pride in
knowing Peter, and Peter. on his side,
felt somehow that Jim would be a
good man to have with him in fight.
Peter was Jim's hand in the air. Jim
was Peters foot on the ground.
THAT afternoon Peters ancient
- fivver had slowed up beside Jim
on the sidewalk and. out of a clear
sky, he had invited Jim to a party at
the country club. The impulse that
made him do this was no stranger
than the impulse which made Jim ac-
cept 1t was probably an unconscious
ennui. a half frightened sense of ad-
venture. And now Jim was very So
berly thinking 1t over.
He began to sing. drumming his
long foot idly on stone block in the
sidewalk till twabbled up and down
in time to the low throaty tune:
One mile from bone IN JeIly-bean town.
IAves Jeanne. the Jelly bean queen.
She loves her dice and treats EN- nice:
No dice could treat her mean.
He broke OF and agitated the side
walk to a bumpy gallon.