Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-18

for genius products. Johnny go
a check for $50. From that min
ute on, he was a writer.
But he didn't sell any more
stories and the musical jobs go
scarcer and scarcer. The room
rent had TO be met every week
and Hilda suggested that she &c
out and get a job as a waitress
or al homework. But Johnny
wouldn't listen 10 such a thing.
"You married me-" he told her
holly. ITS my job to support
YOU. I'm doing It,"
SO he stopped being a musician
and became a waiter. He worked
in the cheaper hash joints until
he got a working knowledge OF
the trade and then he joined the
union. Soon after that, he got
walters job in a hotel.
WONDERFUL NEWS
That was the night Hilda tolc
him she was going TO have a baby
Johnny stared at her, open
mouthed.
~ baby" he said, "Us?
Jeeps! l guess I'll have to write
book. Yeh. I'll write n book
about a plano player that works
in these iuke joints, a guy like
me. I'll show how he does his
stuff. I'll have him meet beau
tiful girl. Like l met you, Hilda.
Then. he'll get good. See?
Maybe the girls old man will
have plenty of mula and maybe
he'll be big time band leader
or something. Maybe he'll be
off the guy at first, just like
your old man IL oft me. But one
day, he hears him play and gives
him a chance. And Bang. See?
II think II will he good
book" Hilda told him gravely.
lit almost has to be, Johnny.
We haven't any money for when
my baby comes. I'll have to go
to hospital. 1t will cost"
"Yeh," Johnny said and
started TO write his book.
AS Johnny tells it now, the baby
had a couple of months head start
on the book and Johnny had tc
catch up. So he laid out a plan
II called for writing a thousand
words a day. the work to be sand
WICKED in somewhere on his daily
Job. On his job, he worked two
shifts. from 9 in the morning til
2 in the afternoon and from 5 tc
10 at night.
Johnny soon found out that 6
thousand words a day is a rea
chore. 1t was too big for him. sc
he compromised. He did as much
as he could, but he did something
every day.
The book grew slowly but stead
lily. Some days, he thought i
would run to 100000 words. Other
days, he thought 100000 would be
enough. Some days. he wished he
never had started it.
BEST FOR HILDA
The months went by. john!
made about SIS a month, but al
of that was taken up in living
Hilda had TO have the best Of foot
and she had constant medica
supervision. Johnny was taking M
chances. But all that cost money.
The day he came within sigh
of the end of his book, Hilda tolo
him il was time for her to go tC
the hospital. He hired a taXicat
and rode with her there. They
put her to bed. Johnny asked il
II would be all right to wait in the
hall. When he got that permission
he sat down and started to write
the concluding chapter of his book
He wrote as fast as his pencil
could travel. He finished 1t at
O'Clock in the morning. AT
O'Clock a nurse woke him up by
shaking his shoulder.
Congratulations" she smiled.
"You're the father OF an eight
pound girl"
They had just enough money Il
bail Hilda out of the hospital wher
Hilda was able 10 leave. They wen
home and Johnny cooked a steal
bought with his last dime. The,
ate il while the baby slept in
clothes basket. They went 10 be-
that night and Johnny was sur
he had lost his fight. He had sen
his story away two weeks ago bu
now, looking back az II, he knew
liz was lousy. The next day, john
found a check for $500 advanc
royalty in the mail with motto
that his book had been accepte
and would be published in tn
Fall II was. Beat Me, Mamma.