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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1924)
I, THE KING f By WAY LAND WELLS WILLIAMS. (Coeyrttht, JM4.) V (Continued from Troterdej.) With a loud whoof a car pulled ur at the door, and Kit recognized n haughty limousine and a haughty chauffeur he had seen at the station Uncle Jeff came downstairs, Klise re turned from her Junior Endeavor meeting, and a perfect fusillade of recrimination and explanation ensued. Mary leaned against the hat rack and laughed. "Aunt Ella, dear!” she cried at last, taking the good lady by the arm f*Let’» forget It! We're here, and tellve! Accidents will happen. Now la that a tea table I sea In there? I'm so hungry!” In their bedroom, an hour later. Kit complimented her on her conduct and apologized for dragging her Into this hole. "I don't know why you call It a hole.” said Mary. "They're dear good people, and that four-poster is ■worth at least five hundred dollars It Isn't a bit later than 1750. II gops down in the middle, and we shall Rink Into a sweaty little mess In It. Won't It be fun?" Nothing had been said about din ner, so Kit merely changed his collar and told Mary to put on an afternoon dress, in accordance with Ills recol lection of local ways. They went town to find Uncle Jeff In tails and . (rie two women in low neck; their dis l racted inquiries elicited the informa lion that there were to be twelve at dinner and a Christmas Eve party afterwards. "It only needed that!” gasped Kit. "They’ve disgraced themselves hy not meeting us, and we lose their respect forever by not appearing properly dressed for their party. Oh, I think families are splendid! Thank Heav en, this Is all I’ve got!" Promptly at eight the evening party p began. People arrived, some In Fords, some In limousines, some on foot; they dumped their "things” in the hall, greeted the hosts and guests of honor and walked about the rooms beaming Indomitably-. Things fairly went black before Kit's eyes. Was It possible that in the present year of grace people could make a Party- hy standing on their hind legs and work ing their jaws? With nothing to look forward to but vanilla ioe cream and possibly elderberry wine? Presently there was a hushed gath ering In one of the front rooms; the lights were put out, a curtain was thrown back to reveal an electrically lighted tree on the front piazza; at the same time the First ^hurch choir, invisible in the out-yr darkness hurst Into the strains of "Hark, the Herald Angels,” Sopranos held the air with a steadiness born of many a Friday night rehearsal; basses rumbled; ten ors soared; altos diddled on one note In the middle; all was festive, but exact. At the end of tho hymn the windows were thrown open and the choir trooped In, shivering and laugh ing, amid loud applause and congratu lations. _ r New York ••Day by Day— By O. o. M’INTYRK New York. Dec. 2.—New York 1* filled with lonely old men. Nowhere Is age so pathetic. In the public pa.-ks in the summer you see them ■<* sitting for countless hours as motion less as statues. Along the streets they mumble to themselves—pining for the sound of a voice. They shuffle along streets seem ingly staring at nothing. In my block lives a neat withered old man. lie has, l imagine, a small Income. There are days when he never leaves the rooming house where he lives but sits at the window and slowly rocks and clasps and unclasps his hands. In the city of 6,000,000 he hasn't a neighbor and perhaps very few friends. Youth In New York is frivolous toward Its elders. They call * them "old parties"—and go on their merry way—leaving them to solitude. In a boarding house where I once lived on West Fifty-seventh street there were a number of old men— Installment house collectors, night lunch cashiers and bookeepers. They had passed the peaks of their lives and seemed merely to be drifting, heaven knows where. Passing along the halls you could eee them through the open doors night after night—sitting alone and looking blankly Into space. Other hoarders had company but no one ever came to see them. How they stood for this endless tedium Is a mystery. This Isolation Is not confined en tirely to the aged failure. It is the same amoung the elderly in the hig clubs. From the street you can sec rows of them In club windows oddly detached from the roar and confu sion about them. * They have money for creature comforts but they cannot buy the one big thing missing In their lives —companionship. Hilda Gray's theater Is almost com pleted In Park avenue. It is to be called "Gllda's Little Theater" and Is a monument to the shimmy. It will open with a group of little theater plays and at midnight there will be a Hilda Gray revue—with Gilda her self doing her stuff. Hn Forty-fourth street west of Broadway an Indian restaurant call ed "The Rajah" has been opened It wafts the atmosphere of Bombay. It offers curries of all sorts, chut neys, green ginger and spicy salads. A hrighf. bit from a current mu sical comedy. A comedian calls for a committee to come upon the stage. Before he haa said two words of his appeal two "plants" are there. "Boys you are a little early," says the com edian. And this Is the reason for the "nut comedians." Being a congenital low brow I looked forward to many happy nights. One of the delicious hits Is a trapeze act. It has a beau tiful liackground of white plush cur tain. Tho snow white trapeze Is low ered in the flood of a dazzling spot. Tho trapecist come out in gorgeous white spangled tights. There is the muted strains of the orchestra and much preliminary stuff, ile finally * leaps for ths trapeze snd skins the eat snd then rushes to the foot light* for applause. That is ail. The other fellow's Job generally Seonis easier than our own. The prrel. dent of a lilg New York bank con k fosses he has always wanted to he s W cirrus clown. And one of the great •st portrait painters declare* |t hs> been his Ufa's ambition to he th* captain of a hig ocean liner. (Copyright. 1924.1 • • —-—, , II «< Then eame another throw-back champagne, oceans of it. Uncle Jell stood at the dining-room table open Ing bottle after bottle with loud pops scattering foam over screaming la dies; lohster salad appeared, million! of cakes, ice cream In molds, chicken patties, professional and perfect rater ing. When enough had been eaten and drunk rugs were thrown back and the Vlctrola given a December dance record to chew; vice president grasped deacon's wife, contralto paired with cashier, and Dimchurch danced with the abandon of Alexan dria. After a while the word got round that Mary "played;" she was dragged to the piano amid protestations: peo ple clapped and draped themselves over the furniture and floor. Seeing they were somehow in earnest, she let loose; she gave them Chopin first, then Bethoven and Brahms and Schumann, and Dlmchurch fairly ate it up. It seldom heard anything like it. but It knew. It applauded wildly and called for more and more. But just at the right moment. Just one instant before people began to get tired, she stopped; her eyes glowing, she thumped out a earol, "The Firs! Noel," the choir joined in, others followed: the house rocked. "Well,” said Kit, as they lay in the dark in the early four-poster, "it was a good party. It went. But it was you that made it go. Don't tell me! Lord, how you did hit those people right! You were marvelous, simply marvelous.” •‘It’s not so hard,” said Mary sleep ily, “to he marvelous on the income of two million. “But”—she stirred, and her voice dropped very low—"I knew it was in me. I knew, I knew it was. . . II. Mary left the day after Christmas, hut Kit stayed on as he had planned. He sat facing Uncle Jeff over his sub stantial oak office desk—there was no mahogany In the Works—and heard all about it. It w-as the reverse side of the painful decrease In Industrial dividends which Kit had noticed dur ing the last year, and it was the old story of over-expansion, high wages and high prices followed sharply by a falling market, under-production, unemployment and a growing feeling of panic. Uncle Jeff, as he told the tale, Inst all his holiday gayety and looked more than his age, which was seventy. "It isn’t the bad times that I mind so much,” he said, "Bad times come, and they go. They follow every war. They're nowhere near as bad now as they were after the civil war. But I'm getting toward the end of my time, and I don’t see how I can see the thing through to the good days. The directors feel, though they don t say it, that we need a younger man at the head. I shall tell them gt the next meeting that as soon as the> can pick their man I shall step aside The only thing Is, where shall we find the man? I've sounded one out or two of the Board, and they haven t a notion. Thera aren’t any rising young fellows in the W orks, that s the trouble. I’ve made’it a one-man show; I’ve known how to run It. and gone ahead, and been fool enough not to get hold of a bunch of youngsters and educate them for the Job. It's my fault. I might have known. But I’ve always—" "You’ve always thought T d come in at last," said Kit. "Poor Uncle Jeff. Ilut I’ve never given you any encour ageineni. "No, Kit, I don't blame you a par tide. Hut—1 just couldn't get over the notion. It doesn't—It doesn't ap peal to you any more now?" Kit shook his head. "No," he sad bitterly, "nothing appeals to me these days. This never did, tout other things did once. 1 was a kid when you last saw me. full of life and interest. IAfe was a choice of pleasant possibilities then. Now it's like a choice of tin necessary evils " ... Uncle Jeff nodded. Idts of men are at a loose end now. So are a lot of businesses. 1 admit I had some hope we could join up our two frayed ends. You're so young—you'd have a few vears of hard times, but youth doesn't mind that, when it's got its back up. and then there d be long years of steady prosperity. 1 be stock's fallen ten points in the last three months. It's worth seventy now. That’s not so had, but we ve cot to Skip this quarter* dividend, and It'll go down further. You A want to buy my Interest, most likely, if you came in, and I d to 8f. out to you at seventy when it 11 prob ably be down to fifty in six months. It’a better for you to wait, really. "I couldn't consider that," «aid Kit. "tVhat's keeping me back is this com founded lassitude. That, and ttye fact that I could never be any use to your business, without years and years of training.'' "But, man." said Uncle Jeff with spirit, "that's Just where you re wrong! It's the presidency 1 m offer ing vou. Any man with plain horse •erise and a general knowledge of business can n*» ax tno ~ , think I could hold down the Job ct tnv own sale* manager, or my snip ping manager, or any of the big pro duction positions? Not for a dn>. Those are the expert Jobs those are the ones that take years of training. They get as high salaries ns I take myself, and I'd willingly pay moro If It was necessary. 1 tell you, with ■I year or two of working in the varh mi-j departments and studying figures and getting to know the business, two years at most, you eould do all that I’m doing and do It belter than I. Don't tell mr-you couldn't have done v, hat you did on that island and not he a hie to run a two foraeent hard ware shop as well as the best "Thank you," said Kit. "Rut If grod business men are as common as sll that you ought to have no trouble In finding one." "Yes. but how many do you thin* T’d take up—adopt? It's Pr»ctlca,lv that. Kang It, Kit. do you think this thing Is Just a machine 1o me. IWv father and I together have worked in this Job for seventy years ana you can't do that without coming to feel a little sentiment for It. I he president of this concern means some thing, not only to It hut to the whole town. It's not every whipper-snapper, smart young business man I d con sent to set up In my place. No, you can't laugh It off. To go down to Iho grave without leaving any one I can trust to carry on after me it s hard, that's what It Is. . . Rut 1 m not blaming you. mV l>°y. 1 ve no right to unload my troubles on you. So forty years of work to this IIP tl„ hole had not shorn Uncle Jdf of what might he, called Ideals. It or rurred to Kit that the old man had hern to Tllmehureh for a lifetime very much what he. Kit. had been to Nalr avH for six months. . . • Well, why not he It t” Dlmehurch tor the rest of his days? Things were so cxtroardlnnvllv In vnhed fll ven his undergraduate slate of mind, and also his Nslrsva experience he would probably have taken up the offer. Rut Nsirava waa lux,-pa rn Pie from the month* of futll Ity and bitterness that followed It snd non pervaded It ae well as everything else. Once he had said he did not feel responsible for the manners ami morals of the people of IMmchurch Ha had felt responsible for the man ners and morals of Nairavn. and the vanity of the sensation hart becoti c horribly apparent. The sardine opt sode returned to hi* mind with blast ing insistence. Put him in Dint church, in the position marie for him by Uncle .left, anil #what had he to look forward to but a whole lifetime of sardine episodes, translated Into New England Industrial terms? Responsibility was an Impossible, futile thing, a ,-nare for conscientious minds. What was life but a sucres slon of days, ciu-ii to lie survived expediently and separately? Ha tigh ter* of Time, the hypocrite days— Ktnerson. Nonsense. They pretend ed to offer you stars, but If you chose these they turned to pebbles. Nalr ava, that had seemed a star, was now’ a pebble. He was not fool enough to think that Dfenchurch was any better. The thing that had chiefly repelled him from Dlmchurch In the old dava was now the strongest, argument for It; the chance of making money lie had ceased to think of himself as rich since his marriage. The In uifne tax ate tip an enormous an nttal sum. and prices had doubled and trebled since before the war. The doing over of the house had cost a lot Marv had to dress and ent rtaln and have n car and chauffeur; the prohibition price of liquor was some thing appalling. They were living up to thrt hilt of their inoome already. Ulmohurrh wotiltl reduce their living expenses and presently Increase their Income. Hut give Up New' York? Not much. What was the use of money. If you had to spend It In a C*onnectl* cut mill town? {To Be Continued Tnmnrrcw.l THE NEBBS . all in a' day. Dlrec,ed forTbf,°T*1;*,?"bySolHe“ S Ww£N l USED TO COMC TO WORvf ON ( streetcars i always hroTimctoRE^O \ mm PARER £>ot mm chauffeur Q>R\nGS me L DOvusj 50 QO\Cv< AKiO \ /EEP LOO/wG OUT , \ IN HOPES I'LL MEET SQME&OOM THAT DOESWT ) \ /NOW 1 GOT A CAR that L OOnT SEE MV / V PAPER AT ALL v--' Ti /how WACKESEI *. WJWATiS *TH\S ? A PvCTUQE Of\ OBlC - •• OBEO\AM &UOER-THE NAPOUEOU OT l sprcuLA-nOfj i& atPoRTLO^o wame ma&e SSaw a QoARTtP or A p'wuuom OouuaRS >nj ) - GPfliM AWO a2o GOa“ OuIt BETOtltN §?^iSL?li5o UA&cSSStO UP A roPTOtJE. MP SUOtR ) ELCC^AO'AJ pr rioro PROM *1UL PiP^ Or NlLBB / OUST RtCENJTW 'SrL'JVt>u\S BPA\KJ RkiO vnGEmU'TV \ AKIO SL\OEP • _ q.. ,/-y qj- *r^\g PtQM ANO f^ADC / fo&W&lSiTSw” / SOMEBOOV Said THAT \T A DOG S\T A N\AW VT \ / WOULDN'T e>C NEvajS.SUT W A t^ANl S^T A l DOG THAT WJOULD SC news- moo DON'T \ aspect anvtwiuc; TRON} a ottle QUNTUKE > uiM ftKlD WWEK1 WE DOES DO SOMETHING \ rvERVDoDV TwinWS vt6 wONDEPEUL . HCWA& n. THE fc«A\NJS or NESS Q SLVDEP EH ? VajELUT^ >| 1 1?onnTnG~Al0nG VAJ'TMOUt SQA(N& NOW toxtoGMij ' I THE ONLX THING l WSS ASOOT V4^HJ *$> UETING / \ w»n\ oct,^w\s Cha\Q to get the J -telephone soo* ^-y ^ .~~ , - , . , , , _ 1 ^Copyright 1924 by The Bell Syndicate. ?nc ) ^ \ Barney Google and Spark Plug Drawn for The 0,T'„ol’a„Bf,'By Billy DeB*ek ) f The txiKe i9 very ill. wav* RK6UM4TiSM 80T 141 SURE RE'LL see You — COME OP. Sir T\ ^ BRINGING UP FATHER * «rS- Dr,wn for ^SSfrSrby McM““ TOO HEARD ME -t ^>AlO YOORE TZ MOT COiMC. OUT WOO VTAW R\CHT ' HEI^E. A^3 I EXPECT THE HAIR ORE'btrER AMO I WANT TOO tO ^jEE HOW YOU Lll<e M"Y HAIR fiteo odj^ow ^simce ive rrr HUfiRN *.ND PUT IT OP ' I W/M^T TO LET r-\T HO'bfb^O TiEE HOW i M --J E.Olf'iQ TO 1 3V IT -' —\ j Rola n rtfh't cri»rv./ JERRY ON THE JOB the postponed search. Drawn for Th' ;0T*h.*., by Hoba" When a Feller Needs a Friend. By Briggs Be sure he eats no candy. Ice cream or pastries \ of any sort—only carrots, beets and spinach for a steady diet: and ma1(e him eat it—lots of it. ur —..— ABIE THE AGENT Prawn for The Omaha Bee by Hershfield Dorn llis Share, Only. '/ vrur qoY To RUSH AU'Av\ Mow, ABE MY Frieu^> ! SIT HERE WITH You • V Till Vcu PiuiSH'. so x l-OM^ t BoYS/ ar\r~-z^~— AFTOVoU LEVT^\ /YHAY MAKES \T HE fciRl^T SAY OfOE 1 SORE » tuoRR to me - as j\ VLL call Thai | v\p’l \>\&tfT EY.«r:* /V SHRtMP Rl^HT 1^- _ _ y V UPK! r JfV’ A FINE WAV Vou TREATED MV FRIEND M0 ' BUT 1 \ AFTER t LEFT * HE \ SAID NOU DIDN'T TC ANSWER. ) SAV ONE WORD I \v^To^ HIM". 9'JE'S'r,c*X/