Evening star., 1934-04-15
Another romance
Of the logging country
BY its favorite author

gan, in the middle of
waltz Its no place for
lady like you"
"Old stuff logger smiled
the dance hall lady. Say. that's
the line Adam handed Eve. I'm ~
going to take you outa all this says
Adam, with a large look around at II
the Garden of Eden It's a bum ~
Joint for you, baby, cracks Adam IN
'They's too many snakes And SO ~I
all the trouble started INK
"You never learned that at Sun W.
day school, ~
II learned it from life. You men MN
are all alike, you always have oeen HN
But I'm listening, logger-only III ~
not be saying what Eve said" ~
''You must mean it." Matt Hogan S
heaved a dismal sigh. For the
past seven nights. I've been asking
you in seven different ways, and
it's still rundown"
The dance hall lady only smiled
!: ! !" ! ]. !; !. !
her set smile They waltzed on (
wordlessly Matt Hogan wished he -
hadn't taken this week off for .,ytNSM
pleasure trip to Seattle. The week siSssssS7Ssss
was over, and he saw his home cove .aIHfE
in Ballow Bay a lonesome place
He must start back within three SA
hours catching the early morning
ebb tide for his heavy towing
launch Start alone A fools dream
was finished.
AS on the other nights Jessie Jones was
dancing with him only because he had
paid for the dance and she was working at
her job.
The brutal fact hurt. 1t seemed to grip and
tear something under Matt Hogan's left ribs.
Queer he mused mournfully, as the music OF
the waltz surged on from the orchestra. He'd
made dozen other trips off tidewater, on good
times bent, without being unduly bothered by
dance hall ladies, or by any other kind But
now, he didn't know why, this kid. this Jessie
Jones' bothered him intOleraby.
Dance hall ladies didn't hook up with tide
water loggers.
Lucky for Adam him and Eve were both
farmers" Matt Hogan unused on. IF Eve
had been a city dame. likely she'd have given
him the laugh. But Eve simple country
gal-say. are you going bugs and batty. Matt
Hogan!"
JESSIE JONES was also feeling letdown
- as she circled silently with Matt Hogan
toward the end of the waltz. Only vaguely
did she connect the weary blues she felt with
the approaching departure of Matt Hogan. Ex-
perience had built defense in Jessie against
the advances of taxi-dance customers. The
tidewater logger from Ballow Bay had failed
to crash it.
His attack had been too guileless and SIM
pie for that. Yet Jessie could not believe that
it was sincere, that his intentions were honest.
His line was so tiresomey threadbare.
For six months Jessie had heard on aver
age of dozen times night that the Red Bell
was no place for her, that it bum joint
for nice girl like herself, that she should have
nice home.
'Saps" was Jessie's usual mental response.
Or, suckers
Dancing in the Red Bell was hard work
Most of the Red Bells ladies were strong girls.
They had to be strong The Bell was skid
road hail.
Jessie and Matt waltzed now amid a throng
- of bronzed and brawny men-loggers from the
Olympic Peninsula, halibut fishermen frem
Alaska, silver-lead miners from the Occur
d'Alenes, wheat-ranch hands from the Palouse,
Puget Sound tugboat swabs They were heavy
and stiff in store clothes of blue serge, rakish
and colorful in mackinaw coats. They danced
with lusty eXuberance.
Rough going hard work for the Red Bells
girls Jessie Jones a small, slim person,
and six months in the skidroad hall had told on
her. Especially in these last seven nights had
she felt wornout and sick for home.
pUT she could never go home. At home, In
- the big, bad town on Lake Michigans
80 shore, Lola Santel wanted by the cops.
And Lola Santel was Jessie Jones.
The cops-the cops-a hot hammerbeat in
her head, keeping time with the dance music
at the fag end of every hard night.
Then, too tired to sleep. Nightmares of
blue coats and brass buttons No good to
tell herself she had it coming, for falling for a
slick crooks line.
Only. she wasn't falling for any mans line
again. Men-crooks and saps and suckers
were all alike. From Adam on.
But she'd got sort of used to this Matt
Hogan in the last seven nights, and at times she
sort of liked him. These were the times when