The Press., 1921-01-27
Lottie Overlooks
 a Bet By CLARENCE L: CULLEN
(Copyright.)

NCOpyTlSuJ.D
 Greetings, you naughty hOyden- yuh see Pm back. wearin' rubbers and nuthin' under 'em but the first act stockinettes." observed NLottie Lem OndrOp. front-Iiner on the end of the merry-merry, to the dashing drug clerk of the aIl-night. TenderIOin pharmacy.
 ''SO perceive. little one" replied the dashing drug clerk, dabbing ad juStingly at his Ascot with his right hand, and draping himself in an ire sistible posture. with the soda foun- tain as a base.
 "And it's higher and nObIer town for your return. no matter what the circumstances of that return may he, believe me. heart of gold"
 ''Yuh kin wrap the nix-deSign around all of that warm steam. yuh hAnd- some tease" answered L0ttie. ''Yuh couldn't dish any of that fluff conNRr- satiOn into little winSOme LOttIe with hypO-Syringe and eight ,pfanO-m0v- CTS to hold me while it w;Is happenin'. Yuh know me. yuh di$sipated Des- mOnd."
 Be any such attempt far from me, amethyst eyes," tliScaimed the dash Ing drug clerk.
 Say not SO that dc not believe everything that I say uni" you. cher iShed one, and even more. infer from your reappcarancP that the pro- duction of which you were tbe recent ornament has clOSed."
 "Yuh kin infer that. Cut-Cp Carlo, . and then tack the rest of the. bank roll onto it as little side bet for y"Ur- self" replied LOttie.
 She sighed heavily,
 The dashing drug clerk replied that he saw nothing about her except a strange and haunting beauty.
 ''Oh they ain't no use in your try in to jOcund me along. SUnIocks of the Western Sea-" went on LOttie. i've got my numbah. all right. I'm Jere- miah to it, that I'm doomed to he working gell all my days"
 "Then what" inquired the dashing drug clerk. "seems to he the immedi- ate occasion for all the visible an- guish, if may ask, Charlotte, my SOul?''
 "Oh. nuthin'. 'ceptin' that fOur-eEed JOnahdOO that's been doIgin' my trail every day of my life since ! ustuh go to Sunday school a cOupla years af- ter the Black Hawk war;" said I-ottie sOrrOwfully.
 "Say. if miIliOnaires was to he picked up on the rummage counter of the five and-ten-cent store. I'd fall over the back of my taxi hefore I could make a dash to grab one of 'em and rag him before a alderman.
 "That's what lucky little clip I am when it comes to Iayin' mp. little somethin' for myself aganst the rainy day like hull lot of these back-row blOnses that never seen the day they had my figger or my winnin' ways.
 .I4is'n. When the show makes Pitts burg, three days before 1t closes in Allentown. line O tourin' cars afTout as long as from here to the Bronx pulls up in front of the hotel, and q young John with a gardenia in his coat steps into the hotel and invites all the gels of the show to ride out to the big machine shops and take a slant at the wheels g0in' round.
 ''Do we fall? Does seal eat fish?
 "NfOtOrin' out to machine shops, where they's liable to be oh-such-Iarks to come. is the On'y kind of medicine we use in the nick towns.
 "So, after powderin' the shiny beaks and applyin' a little dash, O red to the hectic cheekbOnes. we pile into the buzz buggies. a gay and chatter in layout of seminary gels, and are chuffed at about ninety miles to the calendar hour to the machine shops.
 "When the mOtOrwagOns make the front of the works, lot of spruce Sammies pile out of the offices and help us out. and begin to ladle out that nick town line Of south breeze.
 "There's pairin' off. Careless little LOttie not bein' one of the kind that takes a runnin' jump and leaps down the throats of these JayviIle JOhnnles, catches nuthin' whatever with a spit lock and a leer But I don't care.
 "So trail unattached. the other gells, with their little Johns, handin' me the cat snicker as we nudge into | the shops.
 Business of the big lOOk-arOund at the machine junk fin the shops. I'm 1 of in a corner, away from the main bunch. pretendin' to be interested in a little bit of a machine that turned out an engine for a Ocean-gOin' tug just like gettin' your shoes shined while you wait, and sort of hopin' that the bald-headed boss of the plant will breeze along and hand me that l 'Ah, little one, why so pensive? line l of Durham.
 I "What happens? Why, lumberin' l heavy-built young hired man Of the plant, in OverallS-gOOd-lOOk horny hand, gotta give him that-and with 1 grease On his face and bunch of waste in his hand, has the nerve tC edge over to where I'm standin', an grinnin' mechanicky and cheerful like r says he:
 Madam, see that you have de E tached yourself from your party. nc doubt Intentionally. If you will per init nie, 1t will give me great pleasure | to show you about and explain any thing that might interest you. E Sounded like the class. didn't it. But was all hep to that kind of va | porings. had him numbered before ] he'd got that bunch of chrp$ out O1 | his chart.
 "He was takin' the English litera- choOr course at correspondence school, an he was practicin' on me. That's the way I salted him away right from curtain-rise. So handed I him the freeze. <.
 "Tmpart that to your cousin HO- gan,' says to him. 1t sounds like l the makin's, but 1t won't smoke if you put 1t under a blow-plpe.'
 Really. madam say he to me with more of that grin stuff, T don't