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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (June 27, 1924)
JO ELLEN By ALEXANDER BLACK. Cnpyrleht. lt!4. V—.. -___ v (< onttntletl from tnlfrdiy.) Wnit blunders h« would make, damn him! . . . Throughout all the grop ing* of his rudimentary analysis. Bo gert'i affection retained a fanatical sensibility. She irritated and charmed him. He wanted her left alone, and he wanted to intrude. Once there had been a violent scene. . . . He waa al ways sorry about that. He had been foolish, but the head of the house had some rights. That she should blaze up and push him. ... It was ghastly. He might have clouted her one What then? He had felt smashed. He had wanted to go and sit beside her bed until she fell asleep. . . . V. Before Jo Kllen fell asleep that night, something out of the dark re minded her with a fresh sharpness that Uncle Bens Illness should he taken as a warning. It was true that if Uncle Ben had died, everything would have been changed—extraordi narily changed. Death was tremen dously real. Nothing much else seemed to be at all like it. People were always getting excited, yet noth ing very exciting ever seemed to happen; nothing real. Getting to work would be real, in a way; realer than school. School was mostly talk. When Marty Simms, before his family moved away, used to mention a book he had been reading, she used to say she was tired of reading. She wondered why she was tired: whether it was because the hooks didn't seem real enough. Yet some books had been thr'Ulngly real. She went about thinking of them for days. Marty's way of mentioning a story never made her feel the real side of it. She felt, that he became emotional about the wrong things He was. she supposed, w hat you w-ould call romantic, and this seemed to result in his wishing her to be ro mantic, and about the same things I It was possible to see that he was often much hurt by her failure to see a wonder as he saw It. It was true that to be with him was sametimes exciting.But a lot of it. itatlon , v.rs mixed up with her feeling. She crept out of bed and dropped on her knees with her face close to the window screen, There was nothing to look at. . . .Trees in black mass Nothing else but the smoky gray of the closed-up house the Simms family used to live in. now vaguely revealed by aome distant electric light. I a "•.t-faced house with a frightfully vacant expression. There were broken windows. For some reason no one had lived there since the Simmses went away. Neglect began to give it an accused look ... A shadow flick ered across the ground level of the visible corner . . . like a dark ghost. Sl.j tvas sure she saw a figure. It litas at. night, that she was most likely to reel shut in. This was why she so often wanted to go somewhere at night. Her mother called this gad l ding. At the moment she would have liked to be at a real dance. Not down at the Dvckman Street Academy. Not , with a three piece family jazz band such as the Tice's had asked her to New York •-Day by Day By 0. 0. M’INTYRE. New York, June 27. — Thought* while strolling around New York: Jefferson Market Court. Fat bailiffs. Assistant coroners. Patrol wagon.*. Weeping women and white-faced men. The rattle of cell locks. And the cacophonous whoop of drunks. Pool halls and near-beer saloons With their flashily dressed and clap perclawing patrons A freak show —strong women and skeleton men And a barker with a rattlesnake belt. Cigar stores where old men sit and watch the world go by. About the only section of town where derbies are not on trombones. Tough and barnacled sailors off fish ing smacks. Hunting for some thrill they will never find. Plump butchers shaved appropriately to a sirloin red Spindly-legged children who play in gutters. Ukuleles now selling for BO cents. And all Hawaiians have gone hark to Waikiki. Bootleggers bragging about just returning from Bimini. But making their bogus stuff in bath tubs. Little grocery stores that still sell long strips of licorice. A clot at the curb. A suicide. Ugh! Back again to Broadway. And the unceasing glittpr. Paul White man is getting stouter. And that tiny mustache must be sapping his strength. Fannie Hurst. And her slickly coiffed hair. Flo Ziegfeid has abandoned the lavender eollar for the russet brown. A tiny magic shop run by a man with gleaming eye and brilliant beard Eddie Bunn, George Cohan's Min Friday. Celebrated for loud ■vests. A scissors grinder who sings a* he works. Tanned and handsome polo players Roadsters hitting It off for the beaches. Everybody In holiday garb for the week end. O, for a chaparral on the mountain side. And perhaps a Jug of something or other. Dime nov. els are coming back. Does it mean a movie wane? They caught Jungle Joe the other day. Ha was a foil for pickpockets and haa been working at hla trade, for year*. Jungle Joe waa an inno cent appearing Italian 1A0 carried a string of blown up brightly colored balloons. He was to b* found about railroad terminals. He ran with a pack. If was hi* Job in crowd* to release balloons and as the crowds looked Up the "dips'’ would lift the wallets end watches from Innocent ra/.ers. His best spot was in Grand t erttral. When th* crowds in the big, golden Ijlue-cetlinged station were the. thickest Jo* would release H- bal loons and give a cry of d' \<t they floated upward, the plt-l ts reaped their harvest. One of the cleverest of station d* teetives, by the way, is a hunchback, who goes about with a bootblack box. He is able to mingle in almost any crowd without being noticed. He give* the Impression he does not tin derslantl English. Bisecting th# seethe of late after noon crowds one Is able to see ail the latest facial colorings. They appear to run the chromatic scale. There are faces tinted red, yellow, down white, jiale green, a light hrown, anti even a purple. But the beat touch of the season is a gill who gives a gilt tout it to the lobe of her ears. Yet these girls who try to brighten their fares so gnylv give themselves away with their eye*. Life seems ■ dtalned out of their look*. Somehow jot] get the idea that they are just trying to get sway from something or ‘ other and don't know how. (Copyright. 182*.> * ., hear the following night. Somewhere quite different . . . huge and glit tering, with a sweep of shining floor and a great orrhestra that could gather you up like a passionate wind. There would he magleal lights, con stellations of them, gorgeous clothes . . . and some man who w ould un derstand everything. . , . Every thing. The black lacing of the trees hung like a curtain that would not lift Locusts droned in a mesmeric rhythm. The deep sound from the floor belowr, sa. deep as to be felt rather than heard, was Uncle Ben snoring. VI The morning was humldly Heavy, and seemed to carry over in a star ing wav the things .lo Ellen had been thinking darkly the night before. Mrs. Rewer's morning ritual had a lively movement. She said she liked to get things done and out of the way. When things were done and out of the way, she was not superior to any form of amusement. Just now her brother disturbed the ritual and must continue to do so until he was ready to go back to business. Bogert commented freely on all domestic functions. That anything should he done very early that might be done as well a. little later, struck him as illogical, as femininely illogical. "What I think, Jo,” he would say. 'is that this isn't energy. It s only nervousness.’’ ' I'm not at all anxious about what you think, Ben," Mrs. Rewer would answer cheerfully. "Move your big body out there on the porch until I get this place straightened up. "A female Simon Legree," growled Bogert. Billy, age 12. was a slow hoy who gave the impression of desiring to be obedient. But he had deep absorptions, sometimes in a magazine, sometimes in devices involving tools, often In hurried preparations to go out. When his mother issued a request, he said. ‘ In a minute," or "Right away, Ma." The repetition of the request was like ly to be sharper, and Billy would emerge with signs of knowing only from the tone that the request had been made before. Very often he would disappear without remember ing his "in a minute" bargain. He was clever in explaining the omis sions. “You’re the greatest explainer that ever happened at 12." said his mother. , Billy's notion of Jo Ellen was that she wouldn't stick at anything If hl« sister couldn't do a thing quickly she wouldn’t do it at all. "It's got to be bing!" he said, "or you won't bother." The bing of the early morning's housework rather suited Jo Ellen. She was full of intentions, as her mother well knew, and the after hreakfast hustle favored any subsequent per sonal plans. Getting things done and out of the way was particiarly conge nial when she felt restless. She could turn restlessly to the dress she was making. She alw ays liked dress when she was making It. When she was through with it she was not so sure. Of course, it had to h* cheap. What ?n enormously delightful matter it would be to find yourself earning enough money to have all sorts of things you wanted—to do all sorts of things you wanted to do’ Enough money. All the trouble came back to that. Enough money was supposed to spoil some people. Jo Ellen knew in detail all the ways tn which it would not spoil her. Nothing was plainer than that she would he immensely improved. It would he noticeable from the very beginning. If she had enough money by nightfall she would he Improved before sh» could get to bed Naturally this would mean that her mother would have enough money, too. Well," said h»r mother presently, noticing a lor.* nati'» In the figure at the shaded end of the porch, "what are you wishing now?” Jo Ellen was not startled by the accuracy of this surmise. She knew her mother s theory that one child was always explaining and the other alw-ays wishing. "I was wishing,” said Jo Ellen, "that I had a joh." "I see/' said her mother. "I thought mavhe you might have a new wish. " The sarcasm was to he expected. There was always a flare when this subject came up. Jo Ellen had learn ed that she was ungrateful. Huge sacrifices were made to give her an education. I'ncle Ben, swinging his arms, had even talked about college. It was being ungrateful tn ignore all these efforts for her good. "I'm not ungrateful. It doesn't mean wdiat you say it means." There was no end to the argument. Nevertheless, Mrs. Rewer had been shaken in her certainties, by the ty phoid. She had been reminded polgn antly, as h»r daughter had been re minded, that everything hinged upon the welfare of the burly man who had gone so close to the brink. Ben had theories he never could hark up. He vv as a big talker. College, for instance. That was just funny. Yet he was returning to business, and there was no reason why .to Ellen shouldn't finish high school. Another winter would do it. She was nearly 17. This There’s at Least One in Every Convention J3V Briggs ' MR CHAlRMAlU'^RlSf TofTt-ts , <?UU'^TI0*J o*rfc^ Pen ioiJ’^u^VRi vice Ge^i ,THffT<3ReAT MOMt(VjT e a jv/at.t i t vj>e» a si d' LIVCRV^OF^ v I '* AMD FORTH FRhok* MY FRicmDS ere. ) (sh^FS^MJARk'Ik'G' SFlUfie-ft h. r mr /VRE • KjE AS A GRCAT ' hJA T(o*J{ To TOL CRATF \Tne Blood guCM/MtS, f Mo Ten of <$f?c:c?d MfJ 'fbLITlCS -.ARC IVf "OH MY DEAR let c/5 mot Be False lo thc idcals of our FoeeFATHeYSS^CAZ e humbly okj You " STARRY 8/wajer CTC..CTC. (Voice morcah) - CuT)iTrGHOf}'r.l M/C GoT+OTHCr*. BW/WC34 ' i RPTURM5 To OB Ll vtoto.-; ABIE THE AGENT Drawn for The Omaha Bee by Hershfield Snrh I« IJf* In * Bit City. • -V ” - 9VC" 1 " ' ». . i —T-Y-'-r, |; -AK'fe FOR V -/■ i WAS MElflK}* A TAXI A j! 10HAV f FEU.CT. DOT—YOU SER KreASO^ V r EMPTY TAXIS AlKi'T L T~ ' AUOUED TO EKiYVR. AAlc The Plsy stOiCK iHAT HOOK'.: I was her last summer of being a girl If a girl could only know. . . . "I can't stop wishing, "said Jo Kllen coldly. "And spoiling your last good sum mer." There was the drag of everything that had been said over and over again. J.ater in the morning Myrtle Fleck was on the porch, and Mrs. Rewet heard a lot of laughing and whls nrring gossip Mr*. Hewer regarded Myrtle as particularly silly—as boy crazy and snaky in her way*, full of furtive tricks. Not to he trusted. Her giggle had something sensual in it. * When Jo Ellen disappeared in the oftrrnoon Mrs. Rewer wondered whether Myrtle, , , , Rut .To Ellen war quite alone offer Hilly had persuaded her to behold something in the rave at the head of the hollow The cave was ofter a meet ing place for the Clove Club, and was consecrated to piratical secrets. Jo Kllen wandered down into the hollow where, in summer, you seemed to touch the bottom of nothing. A wild erness. Trees, hushes, bits of wild color, tangled places, spots of sunlit green. On the west the sheer rocks upon which, above the spring, the Indians had scratched the Spouting Devil. Over all. silence. The loneliest acres in New York. Yes. a great pla«-e in which to be miserable, if you wanted that. And not a bad plate for thinking without in terruptlon. Hut Jo KUen found that she didn’t vs ant to think there. The silence was like something pressing down on your head. Once she could he there, without resentment, for an hour, mooning around or simply do ing nothing. Kvidentlv this meant that she was older. Also it must mean that she was through The withered trunks, the ghost of vines that hsd heen. the broken bits of saping. and the matted leaves of another day all seemed to be whispering, "dead!" and this whs quite horrible .r . enough to make you scream. She swung about ond began run nlng . through the bushes and across a slope that reached avvayj from the paths, which involved faulting over a prostrate ties and crawling over a brlary arch. Be yond wae the grass-grown foupda tlon of a house that had burned and a clearing that on- e had been a gar dcn. Still higher was a dismantled ■hack and the scattered atones of an old wall. These obstacle* were a real adventure when you took them at high speed. The end of the spun’ came before the summer kit-lien -' the empty Simms house. (To It** Continued Tomorrow.! THE NEBBS LINGER AWHILE. Directed for The Omaha Bee by Sol Hess /''N'OUR MOINOR , I 6UALt'"\ ( UAVE TO ASK TOR AN AD»iOURN-\ MENT OT TMtSCASE UNT\L J i NEXT MONOAV - I UAv/E A ) \ WITNESS TROM OOT Or TOWN/ V WHO CAN'T BE UERE UMtlL / \-^HAT QATE ^___/ YOUR HOnjOR, I'M A auSY MAKJ AMD HAYC A GREAT MANY \ important MATTERS awa\tjn& ! ME AT HOME AkjQ ASK. YOUR UOMOQ TO ALLOW THIS CASE To PROCEED ASTUC ATTORNEY TOR TuE 'DEFENSE assureousat the \ THAT he WAS all REAOY^ jsl I'fy 7 YOUR HONOR . TmTs\ /i AM GRANTING AOELAV DELAY IS NECESSARY EVEN BECAUSE IT 'S YOUR RlG^TBU.AW TmOOGH it v<EEPSlnituin _nOT BECAUSE Of YOUR ORAtoO.CAL OuR MIDST Tms HOMAN £M2CASM . ■ GUT BE HEREWITH i dynamo - WHY DOES YOUR WITNESS MONDAY AnO / ( THIS SELFISH man DENY remEMBEO THIS IS A COURT Or uSTHE Pleasure OF his justice - NOT THE Side-Show/ AUGUST PRESENCE FOR Qr a TEN CENT ORCuS *. v' A FEw DAYS MORE NOW - - That HEHASSPREAOThE SUNSHINE OF WISDOM ? Y vajHEN HE LEAVES horthville WELL AGAIN BECOME BENIGHTED ANO THE RAW OF UNHAPPINESS AnD discontent WILL COtfE Dovry \--—---" I C*J fV Sc-Nl . (C1^54 by Tb* B»’l Svrdta'e MO Barney Google and Spark Plug BARN-EY “BANKS” ON SUNSHINE. ' Drawn for The Omaha Bee by Billy DeBeck * ° t Copyright 1924) / C'ghtyt'sev/em douars *sgi,;r:!|| / AMO Eighty cemts uje ve Got /"lip I / (M TUE GAMK » WE RE OETTimG •/ I Tueoe. SumSU/'we. = Just 4> i$ Oo ' I More ano we u' have «,ioq®-° J 12.Qg I ' 7w?N WtTU amcTuEA flETv /am Got Wr \ sparks iwiil be au ser.fbR. *r mucw. boss - V Tl4E T- BOW£ stake * BEEM “- --- "iAMIW MAM 000€H Eo A UJAIHM 6AT "" «k __ <'opyr»fVf I*>24 fey Kmf *W4x-a*# |*t. E BRINGING UP FATHER Rafiatered U. S. Patent Office SEE JIGG5 AND MAGGIE IN FULL PAGE OF COLORS IN THE SUNDAY BEE Drawn for The Omaha Bee by McManus (Copyright 182 4) DIDN'T \ tell TOO tO 6ET OREbtED A*b V/E ARE OOIMG TO HAVE A LADT DEL. EC ATE f 00 ^ 1 ^ S \ % nli_ juvr cive mh-d jiocs mv 0*50 TELL her i AM THE. OE.LEC*Te PROM MIEj^jOORI 'bHE EUPECTb ©'9244* Ur i. Ffiru»t Sr» '~f Ikc C'fH Bf**t " ni^H rr*tf r<i I HELLO • 1X1*3 OlNTy - MOORE ° WELL. HE. WILL <»>E UN^LE TO 5EEL YOO iTOHliiHT-^iB » JERRY ON THE JOB THE ANSWER IS EASY Drawn for The Omaha Bee by Hobar (Ceryr ght ! 924) /Ml ' y/A*A