Evening star., 1928-12-16

A IL the way up, Avery Madden
~ had had hard, grim fight.
II Right out of high school, she'd
4 a shouldered far more trouble
end responsibility than usually
fails upon 17-year-older. That was
when her father, Lundy Madden,
gsnsal waster, came home one night
Complaining that he did not feel we'll
1t 10 o'clock he was in spasms of
pam. At ii he was in the hospital,
ana the surgeons were busy. At IL
re was dead of peritonitis. His EN-
nloyer paid for his funeral and gave
the widow and her daughter months
salary, $500. 1t was lucky that the
man was so generous, for Lundy Mad
den had no life insurance, and his as
sets amounted to $3.50 in cash, the
furniture in the apartment, and a
pair of diamond cuff links that had
belonged to his great-grandfather.
Mrs. Madden was frail little blue
eyed woman, who had lived only to
spoil her roistering, good-looking huS-
band. After his death she could do
nothing but lie in bed and cry. So it
was TO Avery that the problem OF her
own life and her mothers was pre-
sented for Solution-to Avery, with all
her youth, her inexperience. her igno-
rance, her grief and bewilderment.
Avery took hold bravely-but the
next seven years of the Maddens were
spent in constant shadow. Avery left
high school and the weekly art class
that was her greatest joy, moved her
self and her mother to two cheap
rooms in what Mrs. Madden rightly
called a Slum, and went to work in
factory, for that was all she could
find to do.
Yet the factory held a bright gleam
for Avery-Edna Galley, a welfare
worker, a college-trained young woman:
Imagine with what joy Avery welcomed
this new friend. who told her that
there was a way out from her drudgery.
Classes! All that Avery asked OF her
changed world was that she might go
on studying art. She didn't mind WORK,
she didn't mind her mothers perpetual
moan, she didn't mind the hole they
lived in, she didn't mind ANYTHING, If
she need not face a future that held
no paints and crayons.
Edna Galley saw. to begin with. that
Avery must have lighter work in better
surroundings. So she went out and got
her an easier job. The hours were
shorter than in the factory and Avery
had energy enough left after work to
get dinner when she got home and then
to dash madly out to the thing she
loved, her art class.
Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.
twenty-one, twenty-five, twentythree,
twenty-four Seven years of the hard
est kind of hard work Only once had
she interrupted her art study, just long
enough to learn shorthand and typing.
since she could earn more money as a
secretary. Then back to pencil and
brush. AS soon as she could, she began
to use what she had learned. Lamb
shades decorative boxes, hats, Scarfs,
Christmas and birthday and place cards,
frames. travS-she did them all with
fantastic charm and a technique that
struck just the right mean between
SEash and niggle. She sold some OF
Mese things to the girls at the Office
and they begged for more and brought
her orders. Then she took sample
tray and some shades to decorator.
More orders Avery was % when she
saw that she could actually support
herself and her mother by her
painting. Her faith in herself was re-
warded by commissions for two screens
and an overmantel in the first month
of what her mother called tearfully her
obstinate idlenesS."
OTHER commissions followed. She
~ found she could drop the little
things, boxes and the cards and the
shades, and she did so. Then came the
order for her first room. That cra3y-
rich Mrs DoerrS saw yellow lacquer
screen that Avery had sold through a
decorator and she tracked the artist
down.
II want a room for bridge III my
Florida house." she ordered Apple
green, with pagodas and storks and
junks and foo-dogs and peonies and
bamboos in gold and black and scarlet.
Hurry it up; it must be Gone in two
or I won't pay forIit. II it is
done in two months. and like it, you
can name the price"
It was done in two days less than two
months, and Mrs. Doerrs' check was
generous four figures. II love it." she
declared. I'm mad about it. I'll show
1t to everybody, and everybody will
want one, but you must never do an
other like it."
"Ill do what I please" answered
Avery. "but hope I've got ideas enough
that I'll never have to use the same one
twice"
Mrs Doerrs looked at Avery, who was
skinny and pale from overwork. red
haired and spunky by nature. and had
on the Shabbiest serge dress and the
dirtieSt old cotton smock. Mrs. DoerrS
laughed You'd be rather good-look-