The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-12-01
THE UNEXPECTED GREAT
THANKSGIVING.
Ry Addie Graves,
Copyright, 1921, by the Wheeler
Syndicate, Inc.)

Copyright, 1921, by the Wheeler
Syndicate, Inc.)
John and Joy had been married
happy. Their ambitions and recre-
ations crashed. That is, they
would have had John possessed any
ambition, or desired any recreation,
and had not settled down in salts
fed nUmbness to the domestic bliss
of having someone to cater to his
physical comfort. He was content
to perform the daily work that was
compulsory, putting in the remain
der of his waking hours eating his
Well-cooked meals, smoking his
pipe and reading the daily paper.
His sleeping hours were long and
his personal habits were sloYenly.
Before marriage, doing the work he
then performed, he was obliged to
be neat and was a good sport. Liv-
ing in a lodging house and taking
his meals at a restaurant, he had
none of the comforts of home, so
he had sought companionship by in
viting his friends to the room to
which he invariably retired at the
end of the day.
This led Joy to conclude that
John a naturally a very domes-
tic man, who would be immensely
interested in forming a convenient
home were he to have a helpmeet.
She had discovered that the enter
tainment of his friends. without e
turning their visits, was purely a
T1aFfnr of 111fnnCc. tho 1-F,r4,S,
ed him, he them. He was
lazily selfish in all his relation
ships; he had a thought for
the comfort or happiness of any
one but himself. He was not
stingy-just stupidity numb with
Incidence of mind and body.
OF all things, Joy abhorred an
a~mbitiOnless, slack and unthrifty
person, with no love for the beau
tiful, spiritual, artistic and intel
lectual components of life. The
sordid animalism of John ground
out days of anguished pressure
hat crushed her spirit with re-
lentless despair. Worse than all
this was Johns enviousness. Too
inert TO exert himself to reap the
benefits that would result from
abilities and knowledge he really
possessed to a great degree, he was
so selfish as to stand in the path
OF Joy ii she sought advancement
in any direction.
On the night before Thanksgiv-
ing, things reached a climax. Joy
had decided to leave John and get
a divorce. She planned to resume
the work she did before her mar
riage, for she could earn than
John and required no mans help
or hindrance, as she termed it. She
would found a home where she
could have the companiionship of
musicians, artists and literary peo-
pie, people Who lived the higher !
life, people who were not mere an
imals. She would attend concerts,
lectures. exhibitions, theatres. She
would live, not drone and sleep.
Tomorrow, Thanksgiving day,
she would pack her clothes and the
few things she valued for their as
sociations and go the day after. She
went to bed on the living room
couch with a mixture of relief and
apprehension. John went to their
bedroom, where she soon heard
him peacefully snoring in gentle !
rhythm.
THAT is the only way it affects
him." she thought, ~disgustedly.
Satisfied with the course she had
decided TO take, Joy determinedIy
over and went to sleep. Soon.
however, she awoke with a fright
sinking sensation. The snor-
ing from above had ceased and
sounds Of restlessness reached her.
She had a strange feeling of being
dead and buried, forever to lie