Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 1919)
THE GAZETTE-TIMES, HErrXER.OUE., THURSDAY, DEC. IS, 1919 PAGE THir.TI I X r,. FOUGHT THE fLOWlM BOWL I.ONCJ about two thou 8aud years ago a Little Child ram Into this world through a stable. Probably stables weren't very clean and sweet two thousand years ago not nearly as nice as they are today. But the things that Little Child brought to the world were so dear and beau tiful and good that most of us have come Into the way of thinking that his memory and ever-living presence and Influence are exclusively the property and the privileges of the righteous, of those who abide In ways and places which are clean. But It Is nevertheless true that the soft tug of the Little Child's baby hands is felt today by folks who are not very nice and who live in places far more deplorable than ever was that Naiarene stable. Wherefore: Cowles and Roberts watched the waiter set down the glasses and turn away. Then they laughed, each at the other, but without gladness. "Bobs." said Cowles, "yon don't seem to yearn for your medicine." "No, Charley," sneered Roberts, "and I don't observe an absorbent haste on your part What do you suppose la the matter with us?" "We're frald, Bobs," said Cowles. That's what'a the matter with us. We're 'frald. 'Frald of starting In. You've seen the kids on that slide thing down at Luna park. They hunch themselves along toward the tart and then hang there until some body from behind pushes them off. That's the way I feel. I'm waiting for somebody to come along from be hind and give me a start. 'Cause I know, just as those kids know, that I am going to get bumped, and scraped, maybe, good and plenty be fore I reach bottom." "Right!" said Roberta. "That's Just the way I fuel, too." He looked around the room critically. "And as yet no body seems at all Inclined to start us along on the descent What's the matter with the old place, Charley? Here it is half put nine o'clock, Christmas eve, and there are less than twenty people here and all of them cross. What are you looking tr "There's a bronie-halred, brazen faced little person sitting right back of you, Bobs don't turn; she's look ing right at you. I've seen her be fore. I ought to know who she is. But 1 can't remember for the life 'of me." "One of those 'Wherehave-I-seen-that fare-before' situations T Roberts cautiously looked obliquely Into the mirror and studied the woman's face. "I'll bet you know her, too," retort ed Cowlea. "She Is probably the lady cashier who used to smile across her desk at us langulshlngly when she gave us our change for our beef and beans before you got plutocratic and - married and shook all your friends. By the way, how Is the family? This is a lovely joint for a sIx-montbB' bridegroom to be In on Christmas ve. But I've been so long watching you orfng men, 'reformed by mar riage' beg your pardon, old man!" he cried, ss he looked away from the hauntlngly reminiscent face of the woman opposite and caught the hurt look of his friend. "What's the mat ter? You're not having any trouble at home, are you? You haven't been scrapping with Rose?" "Why do you think I'd ask you to meet me at a joint like this, tonight of all nights, if there wasn't trouble wltb Rose?" growled Roberts. "I'm IMf3 "We're 'Frald Bobs." not fit to be married to a girl like Rose, or any girl, anyway, Charley, and I" his voice broke a little; he caught himself and went on. "Let's drop It, Charley!" They both stared at the table, for a moment. "Bobs," said Cowles, after awhile, speaking slowly and low, "you can kick me for being fresh, If you Ilk. I know It's none of my business Hut I like you too much not to tell you that I hate to see you starting out on a tear because you've got a grouch on your wife Now, I'm hopeless and my grouch Isn't with anybody I care a hoot about, anyway. but you Bobs" "Drop It, Charley! Drop It!" Rob erts Inuirhcd bitterly. "Let us pro ceed with that stirring melodrama which I suppose you would can ine Christmas Eve.' " He glanced again at the girl whose face he eou d see In the mirror, ' i snow mhn h 1s Charlev." he said. "The girl opposite you, I mean. Do you remember Sadie Carglll? me gin who sang 'Corallne' and 'If You Wouldn't Then 1 Would:' at the nuinn about five year ago? Don't you remember that everybody was rajy about her?" Cowles looked np cautiously. "Sure!" he said. "That's who she Is. But what in the world Is she in this plaaa for? Sadie Carglll in Big Jimmy's! Wbew, what a come-down!" "I seem to remember somebody was saying the other day that she had gone pretty well to pieces," said Rob erts. "Didn't take care of herself. Whoever It was said he had seen her In the chorus of a fly-by-nlgbt musical Studied th Woman's Face. comedy out Kansas City way and that she seemed to have hit bottom." 'Yes," said Cowles, Btudylng the girl's face, "It Is Sadie, all right She seems to have kept all her good looks, too, except that her face has hardened terribly. Don't you remem ber what a soft-cheeked, innocent, merry little thing she always was?" Roberts nodded and looked again Into the mirror. He shook his head at what he saw. "Yes," he murmured, she was. And now, before you rec ognised her, you called her 'bronze balred and braien-faced.' and she Is." "I hope," spoke up the young wom an, with atartllngly distinct voice and with unlimited acidity of intonation, that the next time you two see me, you'll remember me! Take a good look." Both men sprang to their feet snatching off their hats. 'I beg your pardon," said Roberta, earnestly, "but really I didn't realize that you could see from the mirror how I was staring at you. I'm awful ly sorry and very much aBhamed. Really I am we both are." X Miss Carglll looked him over with approval and was obviously mollified. Oh. that's all right," she said, with a tired smile. "I'm sorry I barked at you that way. A woman is a good deal of a fool to make a kick when a man looks at her in Big Jimmy's. But I'm sore on the world tonight and kind of cranky. Come on over here, both of you. Perhaps you can talk me out of It." Cowles and Roberts looked at each other and laughed. And because Sadie, despite the hardening, was un deniably charming with the old gra- cioueness of the Casino days, they carried their glasses to her table. Cowles smiled as they set them down, still full, beside hers. "We were afraid, too," he explained. "You In trouble, loo?" She sighed. "Well, I'm used to It. Better tell your old auntie your poor little sorrows. Maybe I really can do you some good." She turned to Roberts. "First off, what's biting you?" Cowles Interrupted precipitately. "Let me tell mine." he urged "I'm the worst case. I've Just lost my Job. I'm a newspaper man and I've never been noted for my saving disposition." Miss Carglll nodded with a smile which seemed reminiscent Almost Involuntarily Bhe hitched her chair over a little closer to Cowlea The Instinct of the stage laiiv to cuddle up to the youth who may rome time "get her name In the papers" Is as Imperishable as the instinct of self preservation "Well," continued Cowles, "my rent conies due In a week. Also all the bills Also It Is the Merry Yule Tide when the young blood gets square with all the nice girls who have been especially nice to him. And I've been canned! Fired! Lost my Job! And by the latest count I have on my per son lust thirteen dollars and forty cents good and lawful coin of the United States and nothing more com ing to me That's all." RobertB took up the story. "No, It Isn't all, Miss Carglll I beg your pardon," he cried as be saw her wince. "It's all right," she said wearily. "Don't bother. It's all right. I haven't used that name for some time and I kind of hoped nobody would remem ber It Fact, I'd rather like you boys to call me that tonight Christmas eve's kind of different. Go on." "Charley didn't tell you how be lost his place. He lost It because he took the blame for a bad break made by another man the other man had a flock of kids, and Charley wouldn't sea their Christmas spoiled that's why!" "Nice boy," Bbe said softly. "Nice boy!" And then, after a moment "And, anyway, this is the first Job you ever lost, isn't it? Thought so. It's nothing when you get used to it I know." Her voice was even; but her foot was tapping the floor under the table. "It's when you get used to It, and think you can always got an other and one day And that nobody will believe you when you say that you're going to steady down and be good that's what hurts. This time next year you'll be laughing at your self for feeling down." "No, I won't!" growled Cowles. "I've done my best for three good years and I've been decent when I didn't have to be decent and I've been straight .with myself and the ' , will If M, ill ((Hi i game. It don't pay Tm going to cut loose now and take things as they come." Miss Carglll studied the ugly blaze In bis eye Intently and shook her head. The hard lines in her face be came more rigid. Cowles reached for bis glass. She stopped him. "No," she said, "let's all start even. I want to know your friend's trou bles." "Never mind about mine," said Roberts, looking away from them both. He was almost, but not quite. surly. Cowles shook his head at her surreptitiously. "Don't be afratd," she murmured. I won't make any breaks. And be needs belp more than you do." She turned to Roberts again. "Married? she asked him. "How. did you know that?" he asked, bis face still turned away. "Oh. I knew," she said. "Well?" he said. "You've been having trouble at home?" Roberts nodded. "Tell me! What about?" She leaned across the table toward him, speaking very softly with misty eyes. Roberts did not raise his head. "Christmas presents," he said. She drew back her head and laughed, just three or four pearly notes and tben became grave again sincerely grave. 'Now, see here," Roberts blurted out, looking straight into the woman's pitying eyes. "I am going to tell you about It I know it Isn't decent But I haven't told anybody and I know I'm right anyway, more right than she is! and you've been up against things a lot and I want to tell you about it" 'That's right," she whispered as gently as though she had been petting i curly bead at ber knee. "Well," he recited In a monotone, 'she asked me to meet her at Tiff- "It Is Sadie, All Right" any's today and I did. And she picked out a ring and I told her 1 couldn't come within five hundred dollars of paying for It unless unless I broke my promise to Increase my brother's college allowance. And Bhe was hurt and tben she was angry and Bhe said things. You don't know but there was a man a rich man an old man over in Brooklyn and when she first met me she had almost made up her mind to marry blm. Anyway she said things and I said things and both of us were nasty and bit ter. This was all going uptown in a cab And when we got to the door she said she wasn't going to get out that Bhe was going back to ber own people In Brooklyn and I said 1 didn't care And 1 don t! His voice broke. even on the defiant note. "But It hurts . . . and don't you think I was right?" Cowles waB staring at htm sonie wnere between amazement and amuse ment "And Is that all?" be began, "that "Stop!" Miss Carglll Bald to him sternly. "It's enough! Let me tell you two something. Now this isn't to print" She looked at Cowles. He nodded, that simple nod of the genu ine American reporter which is worth all the gold bonds of Wall street "It never got out why I left the Casino. But it was because I was married on the quiet." She looked up and saw the waiter standing near. She plucked a pencil from Cowles's waistcoat tore the margin from a newspaper sticking out of his pocket and wrote a name on It. "Married to him," she said, showing the slip to Roberts and Cowles In turn. Cowles vMstled In astonish- "Charley Didn't Tell You tost His Place." ment Roberts Btared at the paper with dimmed eyes; they cleared and he looked up quickly. "It didn't get it 'fmUL How He infeiau pm$tm I i out he explained, "because 1 reauy pared. I didn't want any press agent foolUbness about him. Besides, I waa going to quit the business, anyway. I did, all right, all right!" She laughed sourly and went on. "He was Just out of college, and I was a lot younger than I am now and different I was sort of different from anybody around the Casino, I guess." Her voice caught but she tossed her head and continued: "And that made him like me. And I liked blm and we were married and went away. But as soon as he came to know me better he found (what I'd known all along) I wasn't up to his family standard. He knew he would have to tell them about our being married, and that when the time came and they looked me over I wouldn't exactly stack up wltb his people manners, you know, and when to do things and how to do them and the sort of people I liked. And he tried to telj me. And I got mad and we came back on different boats. And If I'd told him how much I wanted to learn to be the way he wanted me If he'd told me that he wanted me to try why then why then It would have been just one of those funny little married tiffs. But I was mad. I said I didn't care. Not even when they came and took my baby. I didn't care. Ive never careo. "Well, that was Just a starter. And after the very first, I didn't care any more. Something broke and all the care dropped away from me. You've got your troubles of where to eat and sleep and drink," she said to Cowles. "And you've got a heart that's pretty near to break ing and maybe will," she said to Roberts. "But as for me, I've had all those troubles for years and I haven't cared. Because I haven't any heart" Her eyes began to Bhlne and her eyelashes became wet suddenly. "At leaet I thought I didn't, until today. "I live about twenty blocks uptown. You know what these New York flats are. And In the flat under me there's some respectable married people, with a baby. A tittle girl about five. And she's been sick. And I guess the father hasn't had a Job in a long time. Anyway, the other day I saw him taking a china clock under his coat It looked like a wedding present and I guess people don't hock their wedding presents until pretty near the last And the floors are bo thin you can bear everything that goes on down there. And the baby anyway, the little girl began asking two weeks ago about a Christmas tree. And yes terday' they told ber that Santa Claus was getting snobbish nowadays and wasn't Interested in poor people or poor people's little girls not even when they were sick. And she cried all day She was crying when I came out last night She was still crying when I got borne this morning. She's cried all day today. And I'm broke. I've only got ten dollars between me and the river. And my rent's two weeks overdue and I've got to pay that be fore I quit because the landlord's been dead white to me. And I've never cared before for four years, but I care now I care I can't help it 1 do. I do." She dropped her hands to the table and ber head on them. She sobbed: they were long, dry, heartbreaking sobs. "Don't cry. Miss Carglll," urged Cowles, patting ber shoulder clumsily. "Don't cry Sadie!" She Jerked away from under hiB hand and cried on. "Miss Carglll," said Roberts, lean ing over toward her and speaking very softly, "you have been very kind to both of us. Will you let us be kind to you. Please stop crying. Pleasel And then try to tell me Just how much money you need." She lifted her head and glared at him. "What good will money do that poor baby when she wakes up tomorrow morning and finds" She gritted ber teeth and reached for her worn and rusty gloves and then for the long un touched glass. "Wait!" cried Cowles in a tone that made them all start His voice fairly rang. "Walt, wait wait!" he repeat ed, pulling out his watch and looking at It They were both staring at him curiously. "It's Christmas Eve," he said. "The stores are open until midnight! It's only a little after ten o'clock. Come on for a cab and Eighth avenue! Here's where we knock the eye out of one set of troubles!" The fat little proprietor of the Eighth Avenue Five and Ten Cent Emporium was galvanized from weary somnambulance Into new life when two young men and a very fluffy (eves though a bit shabby) young woman leaped out of a cab to bis counters. He bounced around and scolded his clerks Into a state of thorough Irri tation. But their work-sick wrath gave way to curiosity and then hilar lly as the three customers went laugh ing, quarreling and consulting, up and down the disheveled counters. The fat proprietor went down into the cel lar and came up with an armful of pasteboard packing cases in which two clerks especially detailed laid away each toy as it was singled out. There were dolls' and tin railroad trains and whirligig things and rattles and stuffed rabbits and woolly dogs that squeaked, and more dolls and building blocks and flying machines and Noah's arks and little stoves and doll's furniture and more dolls to say nothing of candelholders and sil vered angels and shiny balls. "Time! Call the game a minute!" cried CowleB. "Let's count up. How much have we bought?" The fat proprietor, exuding greasy appreciation, made figures on a pad. "Fifteen dollars and thirty-six cents." and with a burst of generosity, added: "I'll throw off the six cents." Roberts laughed, but Cowlea was serious. I I I N T t' 1 til, . u "Bobs," he said, gone far enough. "I'm afraid we've Half of fifteen Is about as far as I really ought to go." "But where," Insisted Miss Carglll, gently shouldering between them, "do I come In?" She thrust a five-dollar bill into Rob erts' hand. "No," said both of them In a breath. She flushed, and In the next breath they both cried: "Why, yes, of course." "Thank you," she said quietly. In a hansom laden with bundles and a Christmas tree cut away from the sidewalk decorations of the Em porium, Miss Carglll and Cowles de parted northward. Robert couldn't go because there wasn't room after the Christmas tree had been put in. "I'll meet you," he called to them, "at Big Jim no, not there. At tho little drug store on the corner above. Merry Christmas to the kid." It was nearly twelve when Cowlea alighted at the drug store and met the "She Picked Out a Ring." eager Roberts In the middle of the sidewalk. "Tell me about It" demanded Rob erts. "How was It?" Cowles' eyes were brimming. "We bad to wake the family up In the flat below," he said. "At first they ! were sleepy and kind of mad. Thought we were patronizing them. But Sadie was so everlastingly tactful and sweet . . . . pretty soon they ' began to cry, and I thought we'd never get the darned old tree up, tor the moth er's hugging her. Say, It waa the grandest looking tree since the Gar den of Eden. Honest! . . . And when it was all fixed, the folks want ed to go In and wake up the baby and bring It out and light up, and let Sadie see the fun . . . Sadi wouldn't hava It She laughed a little . . . said she didn't believe 1 Christmas Eve trees, morning was the time to hav 'em. I didn't laugh. Couldn't ... I saw her face and It 'most brok my heart . . . Then they asked her to come down In the morning; she said she couldn't Said she was going away on a long Journey before morning oh, no, Bobs, it's all right; she may have meant to kill herself I think she did but she won't now; it's all right Wait till I tell you. And we walked up to her flat . . . Oh, I forgot to say, that on the way uptown she got to crying like a little girl because she didn't have any dolly of her own, and I bought her one; horrible thing; paint ed china face and most as big as she was ... we walked up to her flat; she has the doll in ber arms with her head down on It I lighted the gas. She walked Into her bedroom . . -laid the doll under the cover Vlth Its head on the pillow and threw herself down beside It "I started to Bay something and Bhe lifted her head and told me to get out and the quicker the better . . . then she fell down beside the doll again and began to cry. I never heard "We Had to Waks th Family." anybody cry like that I went out to the door and r-ttled the handle . . sneaked back to her door again, be cause 1 didn't dare leave her you know after the way she had been feeling and talking. She had cried her self to sleep with her arm out across that doll. ... So 1 turned the lights out and came away." "What are we going to do now?" said Roberts after a while. "I tell you what we're going to do," said Cowles. "You and I are going down to the Metropole and get hold of Ted Tonwlll and make him give Sadie Carglll a chance a good chance in his new show. He'll do It if we ask him, both of us together. And she will keep steady and make good. And we'll send her a telopr,am about it so she will get It first thing in the morning, before she gets to thinking any more about 'long Journeys.' " "Good! Of course that' what well do." cried Roberts. "Only let s hurry. Because I am going over to Brooklyn to get Rose and tell her what a cad I know I am. And" (not without the hurry of embarrassment), "I don't want to wake her father up any later than is necessary." Cowles reached out and took his hand and gripped it, aaylng not a word. They turned toward the Met ropole. In twenty steps Roberts topped short and pulled Cowle un der a street lamp. "But look here, Charley," he said, "what are you going to do? We'v fixed Miss Carglll up all right And, bless ber, she has fixed me up. But I don't see that either of us has done anything for you." "You have done Just this, said Charley, a little unsteadily. "Instead of taking to the rosy and thorny path of graft I'm going over to the eta tion to get the on o'clock train for Statonville where I've got an aunt who has been begging me to come up over Christmas. And when I've got a little rested and my nerves steadied down, I'm going to take a night desk on the Planet that's been offered me, only I was soured on the game But Bobs" Through a break in the roar of the city's night came the far-off tinkle of chimes ringing in the Christmas morn. Cowles looked up at the sky. So did Roberts. The sky was dark, all but for a single star twinkling through the fly ing clouds, over the dome of the Grand Central station. They looked at each other and then, because they both saw thlngB in their faces that wouldn't quite bear looking at turned their eyes away and walked on. "But Bobs," continued Cowles soft ly after a while, "this has alway been a day for beginning things over again, rather. . . . And it wasn't I who helped or you or even Sadie Carglll. It was a Little Child." 800 ACRES "Well improved, good house, fine water Bystem. 500 acres in cultivation This is an A-No. 1 Farm. In the heart of the Sight 'Mile farming district. One mile from school $20.00 Per Acre on Easy Terms SEE ME TODAY ROY V. WHITEIS Real Estate and Insurance G.-T. WANT ADS ARE SURE THE FLAVOR LASTS SO DOES THE PRICE! fjjjjjp Eastern Monarch and rHIig'eus Ltsd r Long Ago Lifted Their Voice Against Drunkenneu. Temperance movements nd prohibi tion cnnades date back it let SUV years. It was Chin thst flrt tried to be bone-dry. Early reform along temperance lines re ttrlbuted to th priests of India and Persia. But th Chinese claim thst In the eleventh cen tury before Christ their emperor, so disgusted over the prevalence of drunk rones, ordered all the grapevine In the kingdom uprooted. A hundred year before this bone dry effort. In the twelfth century be fore Christ, King Wen tried partial re form In China. Wen. founder of th Cbou dynsry, promulgated an "An nouncement Against Drunkenness," ac cording to ancient Chinese documents handed down by Confucius. Ring Wen declared "drinking ha long been a national vice." He or dered that wine be used only In con nection with sacrifices and even then drunkenness was not to be tolerated. The temperance reform also ex isted In Egypt centuries before Christ. Here's what a teacher said to youth who had been looking upon the flowing bowl too freely : "Drink not beer to excess. The words that come out of thy mouth thou canst not recall. Thou dont fall and break thy limbs and no one reaches out a hand to thee. Thy comrades go on drinking; they stand up and say: 'Away with this fellow who I drunk.' If anyone should then seek tbee to ask counsel of thee, thou wouldst be found lying In the dust like a little child." Petroleum In Mexican Lake. For hundreds of years Mexican In dians had a horror of what they called the pest spot of Lake Chapala. near the shore at Tlzapan. They would not bathe In It or sail around it declaring that the water waa oily. Then, after a time, they cautiously began to paint wooden boats with this oil, which .proved so effective In keeping out the water that It became the general cus tom to use It They did not know that this was petroleum gushing op through the water a magnificent flow, about two miles out in the lake, which to this day gushes apparently without varying. When the water Is low petroleum floats in solid masses, each Urge globule weighing about 25 pounds. RESULT GETTERS. Use thei" package before the war package during the war package NOW