Evening star., 1922-01-22

~ audience so much per for the
assertion that "The only
thing people can talk about these
days is money, and the pleasures that
money can buy"
BY way of contradiction, one of his
listeners tabled down these three bits
from little talks she had heard
throughout that day:
He was telling about it in an office
at lunch time.
A man connected with railroad ad-
ministration was on duty for three
years in little adobe town on the
Denver and Rio Grande 1t was his
business to meet the incoming train
and he noticed that each time 1t was
due woman would come down
mountain trail leading an old gray
horse. She would wait with expect
ant anxiety until the cars moved on.
and then lead the horse back over the
mountain. And she never missed a
day. Not in all the three years.
At first he wondered why she should
be leading the horse instead of rid
ing. but after the novelty wore off he
supposed that, like himself, she must
have business to attend to, and it hap
pened that he didn't think to speak of
1t to the station agent until just be-
fore he was about to come away.
And the agent said:
THAT is one of the pathetic stories
e of western life. When l was new
here the sight of her leading that old
horse down the trail day after day
got SO on my nerves that asked her
about it. But all she answered was:
".He told me he would come back
on this train
"And she has been coming to meet
him for over ten years.
Rush work was over for the day.
and as he chatted over his cigarette
his memory harked back to long
gone trip to the seashore.
"I remember how surprised we
were to see Maggie Mitchell, the ac-
tress, strolling on the beach with her
after a little friendly talk she told
me that she had specially pleasant
recollection of Washington because
of a romantic love affair during one
of her engagements here.
He sent me the dearest little let
ter, though the writer never made
himself known. On the last night OF
my season. however. as tieft the
theater | noticed, standing little
tention some nights before-an at
tractive boy, not grown-who was
looking at me so earnestly that have
always thought that he might nave
been my admirer-no. not mine. eut
.Fanchon's,' as I was old enough TO
be the dear child's mother-and it SO
| pleased and touched me that OF all the
letters that came to me during my years
| on the stage his is the only one have
kept"
il your own memory is elastic
enough to stretch back to that flash
of human sunlight who was Maggie
Mitchell. you will know that she must
have received love letters enough TO
keep a post office going. And If that
ce-on-a-time boy. who was not
50 hn q
humor that kept his callow infatua-
tion on file, he would doubtless go to
his mirror and say to the oldish,
world Hammered man he mot there
secret like that from us. You know
you would. your ownself All OF US
would.
Two women were pitying a boy
who had just been injured by an au-
tomobile, and the one who had read
about it in the paper was reminded
of some other boy-a thing that hap
"Dr. Gregg Custis had him sent to
the hospital. and when he was
brought home with crippled hir the
poor child grieved because he would
DIR. Custis treated him as carefully as
if he had been the son of rich man
and one morning after the boy could
hobble about the room the doctor
brought around tiny cart hitched
to Shetland pony and told him he
could go to work. 1t was his gift to
the boy. And he made a good living
for his mother and himself with that
cart and pony. selling milk-from the
day he started at thirteen years old
until he died. when he was about
twenty-seven."
A COUPLE-both gray and lumpily
contoured-started an argu-
ment in a car. and the passengers sat
around and listened. 1t was not an
equal contest. for the man took her
theory-based~o medical journal
and gave it the thing we call par
ticular fits:
I'll admit that women live longer
than men. but it isn't on account of
mans eXcesSeS-not by a long shot"
wouldn't you think a medical au-
thority ought. to know what it's talk
ing about?"
Not by no manner of means, ne
didn't think that way, as few care
fully censored opinions implied.
You take the average young man.
He has stronger teeth than the aver
age young woman. and Ill bet he
healthier complexion. because he keeps
it free from grease and paint stuff and
he doesn't ruin in with straight front
contraptions-"
But look at the way he smokes
ciga"-but never mind what the woman
said; he didn't
I'm not denying that in life's gen.
eral roundup women outlast men be-
cause l have no statistics to show to
the contrary, but l do protest the the
ory that man-average man. under
stand-shortens his days by excesses
My explanation is that he is overex-
travagant with his vitality; he has
endless years to be gay and rompy in,
while you poor women have only a
little while to be young in-and when
You are no longer young you don't
count-except to the folks who love
you. Therefore, she sees the neces-
sity OF conserving hers
Men are better risks than women,
in my line. sir the dispenser of
knowledge grinned confabbily at the
man, and then, of course, everybody
knew he must be an insurance agent.
Even the defender of the medical
journal grinned back as she retorted:
I'm not surprised. seeing that men
are not as self-sacrificing as women"
AND that about ended that.
A BOY on a bicycle whizzed around
corner and knocked a, woman
down. She must have been built of
something more durable than bones.
for before the boy could right his
wheel and get off it she had scram
bled to her feet. and. seeing his In
tention of first aid, remarked:
THANK you, SON, I'm real Obliged"
The youngSter was awful sorry and