The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1922-04-20
FIGURES
BY ROSE BAKALAR

3, 1922, by Mcclure Newspaper syndicate
1t was the first of August. The
dingy little Boston office tucked away
in corner of the third floor of the
Sumner building was sulfocating, Wilt
ing like a rose In a too hot house, Rita,
bookkeeper stenographer, salesgirl and
telephone operator combined, at pres
ent filling the first and most important
Of her varied callings, toiled up the
monotonous, seemingly endless, numer-
ical columns.
The accounts receivable trial bal
ance was 30 cents out of the way. The
other balance sheets We're not yet
touched. A stack Of charges had to be
reckOned, bills made out and mailed
Her wearisome mental ascent was in
terrupted by the entrance of a finicky
customer. Next, the switchboard
claimed her attention. And between
times she hunted for that 30 cents.
Noontlme. her mind In a figured
whirl, nerves on edge, utterly disgust
ed with life and herself in particular,
she slammed the books on the disagree
ing sum, stuck a notice Of "Will Return
at /" on the door, and left for lunch.
On the street she shifted the sizzling
dust-laden atmosphere and heartily
wished it were closing time, so that she
could 20 home. Home on the little hill,
shaded by the trees, meant cool, fresh,
health-giving air.
She directed her steps to a ple-plus-
ice-cream dining place. Those detest-
able figures, successfully put out of
sight persisted in dancing a contlnu-
Gus tormentng jig within Rita's vision.
At the counter she shut her eyes for
a moment, as if to Danish those abom-
Unable numbered prosecutors. She
must-will-forget figures, at least
during her short stay away from them.
Unfortunately a male "jinX' near by
grunted, "Yup! I'm FIGURING on the
mortgage to help me OUT
Rita gulped her coffee ana left hast
lily. Couldn't she ever forget the word
FIGURE even for a momentl She
stopped to admire some hats in a win.
dow, hoping thereby to drive the fig
ured invaders from out her mind, when
an enthusiastic feminine voice Jared
her senses with, Aren't the FIGURES
on that hat perfectly ducky"
Was there no getting away from that
devlllsh FIGURE? She hurried to the
Charles River promenade. A faint
breeze played tag with little brown
curl that had escaped from beneath
her chic little hat She took a deep
breath as she seated herself. All here
was real solace.
1.-THE glorious deep is too vast, too
grand to be measured and bound by
petty limited numbers" she murmured
POLITICALLY.
Her relaxation, mental and physical,
was complete. But peace was muir
dered in its prime when she caught the
words, yah! He cut a swell FIGGER
at the dance and" Rita fed. She
waited to hear no more for obvious
reasons.
On her way to the Office she caught
snatches Of conversation. II seemed
as If the whole world were talking in
figures! "Tm FIGURIN it's goin' to
rain" FIGURES cannot lie"
FIGURATIVELY speaking" at
sure was FIGURE A cloth" Every
where joy, sorrow, diverse things and
people were spoken Of in harsh, calcu-
lating terms
That night her dream world was
FIGURES. Monstrous one-eyed elev-
ems stalked stlfly about glowering
savegely Enormous mouthed, rOly-
poly zeroes, gaping, weirdly employing
rollicklng methods Of locomotion, re-
leutlessly pursued her. Curved and
curled giant Fights, twisting and with
Ing the fantastic contortions attempted
to strange her. She awoke, gasplng
for breath Sleep vanished that night,
At the breakfast table, In reply to
her mothers solicltous query as to the
cause Of the black circles under the
eyes, Rita burst into tears. After
somewhat recovering her COmpOsure,
she yehemeutIy confessed 81 couldn't
sleep all night on account Of that
bookkeeping Those figures will drive
me crazy. All day long everybody,
everytlme, everywhere it's FIGURES,
FIGURES, FIGURES, And at night
It's worse. l can't leave my job be
cause it's hard to get another and |
can't afford to loaf. Oh" she walled,
81 don't know what to do"
"Why don't you marry Joe2' chided
her mother. Hes been after you for
the last two years, aud you keep put
ing him Off because you got a silly
notion of financial independence.
You're % now and ten take most a
lifetime to get as much as Joe is get
ting A girl is different Meanwhile,
you'd be wasting your whole life's
happiness
That evening a private conference
was held and satisfactorily settled to
MI parties concerned.
Some years later we find Rita dill
gently cultyatng her back yard gar
den She figured how many rows
could be laid out in that little plot and
the amount Of seed that would lie re-
CURED In a local magazine she had
won first prize for sending In the best
planned housekeeping budget Five
year.0d Tommy was the pride Of his
mother. He could digger like
'llghtnln'" and carry" IN his head,
And her most cherished verse in her
autograph album was May your life
be like urithmetlc-happiness multi
nlInd- cnres Divided snrrnMs snh-