Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-07-17

I'd die for you, my lady Lou"
a >OU hear all the old songs over the radio
these days They were playing this
" one the other night, and it started
me thinking about girl I used to
know whose name was Louise Blais-
dell, and her brother Johnny, and her
cousin, Kenneth Marsh.
Louise was Is years old then, and Ken was
10. and Johnny and 1 were about IL. We
didn't have much use for girls at that time, but
all of us, even Johnny thought Louise was
pretty swell.
She was the best looking girl you ever saw,
big and yellow haired and blue-eyed and a
good sport. I saw Lillian Russell, right up
close, good many times when 1 kid and
always thought Lou looked a good deal like
her.
had four different fights with Johnny Blais-
dell, Louise's brother. remember one night
we'd been playing some game or other in the
Blaisdelrs yard and Johnny and I got sore at
each other and the first thing you know we
We're battling
It a hot night in July August. I
always lose my head the first few minutes in
fight, and by the time get hold of myself lots
Of times I'll have a cut or black eye. This
Johnny Baisdell wouldn't give you much time
to get set either; he always came rushing in
and he'd only back up enough to start in again.
in the dry grass, when all Of sudden
Louise walked in between us, and she pushed
me away from her brother, and asked me if
wasn't ashamed of myself. She was wearing
white dress with a blue sash, and she had
white flower in her hair. and the shove she gave
me nearly knocked me down.
don't think she was really so angry, because
Ken told Johnny and me the next day that she'd
stood there behind the honeysuckle bushes
watching us for a minute before she came in
and interfered.
Johnny and shook hands the next morning.
as we always did. I was very fond Of Johnny
Blaisdell, and I am yet. though I haven't seen
him for a good many years. He sullen,
hot-tempered fellow. hard to get along WITH
quick to to imagine a slight a sur
himself or any of his friends I guess maybe
Louise was that way, too
You see, Mrs. Blaisden was divorced. d.
vorced women weren't usual in our town. There
always lot of talk about them, lot of
speculation.
I don't think that widows divorces had
such easy time in those days. The solid men
in the town wouldn't pay much attention to
them; it would be fast young boys or confirmed
bachelors who'd travel around with them. Lots
of the you'd Mrs. Blaisdells porch
driving with her would be pretty hard
looking citizens.
YOU know well do that the people
in small town won't give a blond
break. They suspect everything about her.
beginning with the color of her hair They
keep watching her and gosSping about her.
Don't ever think it just the old ladies,
or the good respectable people Of the town
who were discussing Mrs. Blaisdell The pimply
Lotharios, the barber shop rakes, the gay or
rusty blades of nice little suburb leered
and lied about her, too.
And there was Louise who at Is looked to
be 10, as big blond girls apt to do. I'm
telling you if you were man. when Louise snse
the Blaisdell girl; her mothers that grass
widow" "Oh, yeah?" you say.
And then, apparently, you'd think that all
that was necessary would be to wink at her.
whistle after her, and that's where you'd
make your mistake.
She very young. you see, and she'd
found out that she had to act old and settled.
No doubt she overdid it. Shed walk down
the street. and not fast, either, and she wouldn't
say hello even to the boys in her own class
in school.
THE girls of her own age didn't help her much.
Maybe their mothers weren't too anxious
for them to be intimate with her Then, also,
alongside of Lou most of them looked either
washeo-out or sallow- Young women aren't
particularly kind to each other. I'm not saying
that Lou went out Of her way to be nice to
them. either
She didn't have any sweethearts, no, not q
single one; the town could talk about her, and
it did, but nobody could say that she was
fast. fiirtatious, the least bit like her
mother.
She wasn't very much in school, but she did
plenty of studying Ken would say to Johnny
where's Lou?" "Oh. studying" "Uh-huh"
Ken would say something offhand about Louise
every now and then Ken was only a year and
fourth months older than we were, but he was
An l.. I,.,cIr <D-n
though he was sort of slim.
That Fall Louise got job; in fact. she got
several jobs, one after the other. We'd see her
once in while, and say Hello" Then, the fol-