Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-14

A s famous cigarette manufac-
~ turer once said, "A book of
~ Verse beneath the Dough is
4 i worth two Russian Novels in
the hand"
And the complete truth of the above
statement certainly come home to L
and George, that's my husband,
around this time last year when talk
ing about Valentines led us into the
tangled wildWoodS of up-to-date intel
leCtual reading.
1t all came up through Geo. motto
ing Il comic strip about Valentines in
the evening paper. Geo. read 1t care
full, not willing to miss a word, ana
then he roasted what he loved the
best, the way a lot of people don
Say Jennie, he says To me over me
top of his eye glasses and general
superiority. say Jennie. he says, lSn I
1t remarkable how foolish minded we
was IL the old days, sending Valen-
tines, and aIl2 he says.
And ! says yeh. you mean the ones
all trimmed up with a lace effect only
of paper. the kind that pulled out like
2 camera and shut up like luncheon
set Of doilies? Sure remember them.
SAYS As a rul" they had some
verse inside about True, blue, YOU. do,
M-r-o-n-ui
Well. yeh. says George. only II real
durn fool would send one of them
things. though, even in the old days
whom we didn't know no better then
to waste money ON such trash The
real fun he says, was them old style
comic Valentines. They give Teller
a. terrible lot of self-eXpreSSiou for the
purely nominal price of on" cent
After had bought one uf them comics
about a school teacher and sent 1t To
mine, | was able to stand the strain a
L. Lc- hn
especially if she didn't lind out who
done ii.
Why George Jules, | says. amt
you ashamed to confess such a thing!
Why | think them old comic valen-
tines was something awful, | wouldn't
OF bought one even if they had been
three times the money, Think what
bad taste they was. how cruel and
unretined, Thank Heaven l never
sent such a thing in my life.
wouldn't be that vulgar or unkind,
Well, SAYS Geo. II was pretty bad, |
admit I remember this one | sent
my schoolmarm had a dame on it
with boomers. hlue-stockings and
face like spoiled lemou-pie. Ha!
ha. The verse, [ remember that, too:
East and West the
North wind blows.
Roses are red and
So Is your nose
liza, ha, that was a hot one. ha.
ha
NOV listen here. George | says.
don't think that was one bit fun
ny. Hot Bozo, l says, how would
you like it if somebody was to send
YOU a Valentine like that, huh? Some
thing to the effect:
Ever time l think of YOU
II makes me cough and SneeZe.
You make me sick. you are mess.
You're just hunk of cheese
Huh. we'll he says. I'd laugh that
one off or any other. on account am
no such thing The only people that
gets hurt by receiving a comic is them
birds without no sense of humor-the
poorest man in the world is the one
who can't afford to laugh Right, /
says, and now. dear. how about our
mental daily dozen which we resolved
the first of last mo. TO do2 Shall l
drag out the intellectualtonic and get
busy?
And Geo. give a groan and says all
right, shoot. and | says no. not shoot
l am not conner be that merciful.
This is a case of reading a serious
book. you know In this course OF
self-education which we agreed To take
up. we have now come, dear. to the
great Russian noVelists. and I am
about to descend on you with Vol.
of Count Ten, better known as Rum
pleupski. Perhaps / had better com.
mence at the beginning, and read you
the short life of him in the front OF
the book?
Why, all right. says Geo. putting
comic and other Valentines right out
of his head and hand, but I thought
you said this Teller had a long life?
He did, for a Russian, / come back
at him, but there is a short life of
him here, just the same. All right
says Geo, go ahead let's have the
long and short of it, SO he settled
down for good nap and | commenced
10 read aloud: