Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-11

impression, would friend Katherine
pick out the ones she liked best?
| The genially handsome woman re-
sponded with a chuckle:
Don't ask me. I'm off neckties
for life"
YOU oughtn't to be Neckties
make such acceptable gifts, don't you
think so? And you have such beau
tiful taste"
THE opinion is not unanimous
and into the cheerful voice came a
tartness accented by furrow between
her humorous eyes: "Neckties cost me
one of my best admirers"
This sounded dramatic. and as the
woman not worth looking at hunts
stories as a cat hunts mouse, she
inquired for details and got them:
"Once l had a young man so very
far gone on me that l had to work
harder every night to keep him from
proposing. / knew it was coming, of
course but someway, 1 wasn't anxious
for a climax. Still, any young man
is a nice young man, when girl
is in her teens, and naturally, !
! wanted to keep him hanging on
Zone evening he asked me to select
a half dozen neckties for him. AS !
| had never been addicted to selecting
myself by owning 1 mad had no ex-
| perience, which seemed all the more
| desirable to him. SO after a bit,
agreed and he gave me the money
| for six.
II took lot Of time and trouble
over those ties, but at last l made
a selection that suited my idea of
what a nice young man should wear,
and when he came that night
proudly passed them over. He looked
at the outlay with an expression that
| seemed dazed and almost critical
Pretty soon he said goodnight and
never called again."
The confession ended with a hearty
little chuckle-still
1t must have been a tragedy, for
she is single-yet!
Pretty soon afterward they had
reached a florists window that fea
lures jungle of greenery and pond
And, again, the genially handsome
woman reached back to a memory
shelf and resurrected another tragedy
in which numberless deaths took
place, obviously to her amusement
and without any furrow lines in
sight:
Il passed by here one Sunday after
noon-I think it was this store, be
| cause the fountain was just like this
and as quite a group of men and
women were standing before the win
| dow, I naturally wedged in. The
| store was closed, of course. but cat
| had been left inside, and was sitting
| on the fountain rim. The water was
| filled with tiny goldfish, and the cat
would thrust in a paw, eat the fish
| and then reach out for another
| When it had gone on for so long tina
! the cat was getting potty and the fish
thinning out. somebody started of
| with the yirtuous intention of phonins
| the owner of the store-and probably
did-and I had always thought tina
cats were shy OF water"
When the two parted, the plair
| woman cut down a side street to ge
to her office, to make up for tive
hours of spree. At one corner she
came to a youngish woman and a CIR
in her first teens. The woman KEEP
! one hand on a mail box as if she
! feared she would fall if she let go
The girls arm was filled with bundles
And she was talking in a voice thai
was frankly selfish:
| well, for goodness sake, Ma,
| thought you surely must have a token
for yourself. so it's your own fault
No use in my walking home with yor
| WitH L We SOL 10 sing at Lne cluD
besides dressing-and I've only got
my own fare. You can take youl
| time, but I'm in a hurry"-and the
| girl sprinted off towards the avenue
The mother had not put in a word
so far as the plain woman could hear
| but her face was white and her small
body looked as if it wanted to crumple
in a heap-and stay there. And as
old maids are forever poking noses
| into the affairs of others, the plair
woman started an acquaintanceshir
which ended in a walk together to the
car track, where the plain one put the
feeble one aboard. And that was al
there was to it eXcept-that-
There is a difference between mock
| tragedy and the Real Thing.
X x X X
CHE was pink ana white and a trifle
~ coarse-like a pork chop-Her
| fair, fat and fortiness was harnessed
| into whatever cOntraption it is that
women use to compress their too, too
| solid forms into a state Of mind they
| call svelt. And she was dressed in
| a sport flannel s<irt-pink and white