The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-08-21

FRAUGHT NERVES AND RASH
ANGER CAUSE TRUDE TO LOSE
HER JOB AND MRS. MORGAN
JAMES TO LEARN THE WICKED
NESS OF WASTE.
RUDE GERTIER battered along
' the high narrow street at a sort
Of scurrying trot, in her imita-
ton leather shoes, her mackin-
tosh Of imitation rubber proofed
material drawn tightly round her, her
little once-smart hat of synthetic felt,
now faded and losing its shape, perched
on her yellow head at its original DASH
ing angle. Down the Hengstengasse, in
fore she came in sight Of the great
square, so closely filled with the dark
bulk Of the Frauen-K irche, a solemn
and musical outbreak of bells overhead
from n of the great twin towers of
~plum-colored brick filled the near
streets Of the city with the sound of
seven O'Clock.
Trude started at the first notes, and
battered faster, listening, as she hur-
white face involuntarily lifted to the
dark, drizzling sky, colored by the
lights below to a lowering glare. No,
after the third chime came a fourth
du mein Colt, it was already seven!
Then she must take the tram or she
would not be able to come on duty at
7:15. She could not run from here to
the Bismarckhof in 10 minutes! And
that would be 20 pfennigs gone. In
IL at the stopping place, she might
even now be late-and with the thought
she fairly ran, round the west end of
the great church, where the parked
cars, shiny with rain, glimmered faint
ly below the dull glow from the high
west windows. A confused sound of
chanting reached her distracted ears
come here to hear the Litany, instead
of going right along the Sendlinger-
Strasse to the Asam-Kapelle, she
wouldn't leave Lilli alone for so long
In the evenings. But Multi was stub
born-she had made her first COM
munion in the Asam-Kapelle, and been
married there; she had gone there ever
since, and nothing would change her.
Painting, Trude emerged into the
main thoroughfare, and stood still I'M
der the yellow enamel notice which
proclaimed that Nos. 2 and IL of the
city trans stopped there. She glanced
anxiously along the brightly lit street
yes, Colt sci Dank, far off she could
see the blue light of a No. 2 coming.
She had been late two or three times
lately, when Lilli had had a bad fit of
coughing just as she was about to go,
and Multi was not yet back from
church-and how, she asked of heaven
in her small, dark mind, crowded with
anxieties and worries as her small,
dark room at home wa crowded with
furniture, how could one then leave a
child alone, coughing her life out,
with no one to put a hand under her
little thin shoulders, TO wipe the sweat
from her forehead, so white and small
among the golden curls that then lay
dankly on 1t? But it was no good try
ing to explain things like that to Die
Ritter, who presided over the chamber
maids at the Observation-Disclosures one
had a heart of concrete! All she cared
about was that her team Of underlings
should come on and 60 off duty to
time, like machines, and that their
caps and aprons should be clean and
starched always.
Clanking and whining, the tram ap-
preached the little group of people
waiting under the enamel sign. Trude's
eyes, made sharp by anxiety, saw be-
fore it pulled up that it was fairly full.
And at that moment a knot of young
men with skis over their shoulders and
knapsacks on their backs dashed down
the side street from the square, pushed
their way forward to the edge of the
No one got off, and "Nur sieben!" the
conductor called tartly to the waiting
group, which with the young men COM
prised far more than seven people
there were at least a dozen.
A %despairing rage surged up in
Trude's heart-She would not be made
late, earning her daily bread, by these
idle young fools who had been taking
their pleasure in the sunny mountains!
little sharp elbows freely; the other
would-be passengers pushed in their
turn-battling like a tigress, she man
aged to force her way into the tram.
A child, obeying the usual notice which
eXhorts the youth Of Germany to make
way for cripples and those older than
themselves, rose and gave her a seat;
angry. and too frightened at the
thought of how nearly she had missed
the tram even to give a nod of thanks.
She began fumbling in her purse to
get out the 20 pfennigs for the fare;
and parting with money now wa to
her like shedding blood. Lilli had been
worse lately and had to have extra
medicine and extra milk. And O, the
terrible price of milk! Multi could not
h4ASW A4O" CAuoPC4 dOAAIS 1lS1 Vd4Co "C1S
Of the good old days before the war,
when milk, and good rich milk at that,
deep with cream, could be bought for
10 pfennigs a glass, even in the town.
What did it help to know that now,
when a glass of poor thin stuff cost 80
pfennigs? And Lilli needing 20 much
of it? It merely drove n mad.
When the tram drew up at the is
land in the square opposite the Bis
marckhof, Trude got out. To run
straight across to the hotel would only
have been a matter of seconds, but
that wa not allowed; the policeman
would have pulled her up and fined her
two marks on the spot. Everything in
Germany now must be done by rule,
she thought, her small face harsh with
bitterness and discomfort, as she crossed
to the further pavement, and hurried
round the ratings which bordered the
curb to the crossing place. She got over
this, but there was another street to
be negotiated before she could reach
the block in which the hotel stood,
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