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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 25, 1924)
“THE GOLDEN BED” ] By WALLACE IRWIN. Produced ae a Paramount Picture by CecUe B. DeMille Front a Screen Adaptation by Jeanle Macpherson. (Copyrlcht. 1)24) ' • 4- ____ {Continued from Teeterdnr.) Hi* soul saved, Jo went about hii business the same as ever. He wai never Intensely religious; he was nev er Intensely anything. He qulti failed to understand his youngei brother's experimental mania, hh passion for books of information, hi! • thirst for ''good grammar,’’ his curl oslty and his restlessness. Ad's 111 balanced romance with Mabel Stek never failed to be a Joke for Jo, Whi had a small, nagging sense of humor. Long after poor Mabel had vanished from Dutch Hill and Mr. Stek had lost his position as foreman of the Soap Works the elder Holtz boy would snicker reminiscently, recall ing the time when Ad had "gone sportin’ In High Sassiety." To Jo lit tle Ad was quaint, a victim of hla own Ideas. He lacked conservatism; lacked system. Jo had been for nearly a year em ployed In Pell’s Steam Candy Works. To learn the business "from the ground up,” as he put It, had been his own suggestion. Ma Holtz was more than ever proud of her Good Boy now that he was bringing home ten dollars a week and boasting of the Land of Sweets where chocolate ran in rivers and stick candy was piled up liked so much cord wood. Being marked for trouble, Admail's step Into maturity was not an easy one. At twenty he was not tall, but he had reached his full height—live feet eight. His fine shoulders and muscular torso belonged more prop erly to man of six feet; his legs were short. Like Ills father, the free-think er, he was built to work in stone. He grewr conscious of his age and his size, and his dally work of hawking peppermints about the street grew harder and harder to bear. An un fortunate affair at the racetrack final ly exploded the Inertia which had held his lazy bones so long. * He had found, he thought, a place where the price of peppermints could he doubled and no questions asked. Outside the main gate at Bcsdbpry Downs, where the spring races were held, hawkers assembled In the after noon and asked about what they liked for what they had to offer. It was pasy and natural to get a dime for the little bags that had formerly brought a nickel. Then It was that he w'ould comml. a lovely crime against family tradi tion. His very presence at Bradbury Downs was an offense; Ma had forbid him to sell his wares around race tracks or saloons of the places which she vaguely designated as “dance halls.” Yet there at the gate of the intoxicating. wonderful track he would stand, his pockets heavy with money that had come like magic. What more natural than to buy a ticket and go inside. . And a perverse spirit followed him about, mocking him with luck. A r----\ New York —Day by Day— -4-----* By O. O. M’INTYRE. New York, "Dec. 24.—A New York Investigator declares 80 per cent of the taxicab drivers In the city are crooks—gunmen, gambling house run ners and ex convicts. This may be a\ exaggeration hut there Is no deny ing that In almost every crime a taxi, driver lurks In the background. This Is quite a change from the days when horse-drawn cabs fUle-4 New York's streets. The kindly old cobbles looked out for their fares They dtd not drive them to the park to slug, rob and leave them uncon scious along the roadside. They were Intimates of the great and If a fare was listing from over indulgence they took him home and, if necessary, put him to bed. Today police admit It Is unsafe for unes corted women to drive In cruising tsxicabs after 10 o'clock at night, ^specially through parks. 1 New Yorkers defy the consequence* of roving taxis Just as they do Illicit hooch. There ere several companies who employ only drivers of unques tioned reliability. Their records are thoroughly gone Into before they are permitted to take the wheel. The others are men who drive their own taxis. They are the pi rates of the streets. It is said that it Is the ambition of every East Side gangster to own his own car. He sees In this a chanre to further his criminal proclivities under the guise of labor. / Such cabs are not bonded and If a fare la Injured he haa no recourse In law. The criminal drivers haunt tfie great railroad terminals. They fee) that here they may take advam tags of the stranger who knows noth ing of the city. There is an amazing hit of trans formation on Sixth avenue from Fif ty-third street to the park. The ele vated spur that ran along there has been removed and the street widened threo feet on each side. A dark brood ing street of catch penny shops Is to ale with Its neighbor Fifth on the esst. Thus glided, the name Is to be changed. Park Lane has been sug gested. One of those fellows who Is alwsys shooting hi* cuffs, adjusting ties and looking in the mirrors called on me the other dHy. He has a new trick. * He uses his shoulder to hold the tel ephone receiver to his ear. 0 He has also changed his line of "You said a mouthful” to "You drooled a bibful!" And, O, yes, his hat has a back Instead of front dip. Still this young man bristled with activity. At his sge laziness was Just as predominant with me as It Is today. In tho "Twenty-Three Years Ago Today” column In the Gallipoli* (O.) Journal I note the fol lowing: "Odd McIntyre did the local work on the Journal today." And the next Item quoted from that date reveals my zeal aii a reporter: "The Yotrog Ladles' guild met at the home of Miss Edna McMullen last night and elected officers, but who they are we were unaWe to find out.” As Miss McMullen’s father owned the pa per and Miss McMullen occupied * desk adjoining mine, it strikes me It might have occurred to me to ask her who were elected. And the Mush mounts when 1 think •f the day I asked I'eter Mi Mullen for a 50-cent raise In salary. Thai was the top rung In audacity. A" I re member, he compromised on 2cents which made $3.25 a week to say noth ing Of two passes to the Aerial opera houso when a troupe crime to town. (Cot>vrl*>". * very Important gentleman with a i gray derby to match his hair and a i purple scarf to match his cheeks stopped critically and looked over the rail at a long-necked sorrel. Inner Ray’s wild brown eyes and the old gentleman's tierce red ones seemed to meet with understanding. Admah Holtz, looking vacantly on, expert enced one of those psychic disturb ances which gamblers call a ’’hunch.'’ Himself a gambler by Instinct rather than by training, the hoy gave a dol lar to a bookmaker with a wager that Inner Ray would win his race, which was the Fifth. The thin sorrel horse did his best with Admah’s dollar; in fact he gained newspaper notoriety by coming In a length ahead with the odds six to one against him. Embar rassed by six more unaccountable dol lars Admah staggered put of the bet ting shed and caught the trolley home He had kept many secrets from his mother, but none so romantic, so guiltily romantic as this. His sporting life lasted just three days. On the second his Inner Ray lost Its effulgence and cost Admah all he had won plus his speculative profits on the ten-cent peppermints. On the third day he had just sold out and squeezed his way past the wicket toward the betting shed when somebody hooked a heavy forefinger Inside his collar. He turned to find a special policeman confronting him with an unfriendly grin. "Whuh's you’ license, sonny?” "I ain't got any license." This was bluntly true. For over ten years he had peddled candy under the nose of city authorities and never once had his right been questioned. A self-convicted lawbreaker, there was nothing for it but to go to the License Commissioner, under custody of a policeman. Finally Ma Holtz was sent for. She came In, thin as a straw, sallow and sickly under her queer little hat. The Commissioner, must have taken pity on her, for he decided to dismiss Admah with a reprimand: but before she took her son away the good man went Into th subject of licenses. Without a II cense it was unlawful to sell any thing on the streets. Hid Mrs. Holtz understand? She reckoned she did. but she looked entirely stunned as Admah followed her out of the big building and helped her aboard the street car. , "I’ve a good mind to baste ye, ’ she said to him that night, breaking a long silence. He was glad to hear her scolding again. It showed signs of returning spirit. Had the little skele ton of a woman chosen to take him over her knee and chastise him, nr cording to old usage, with a shoe, he would have surfendered without a struggle. But she stood hack and re garded him scornfully. "Ye're too big to lick.” she mused, and then more sharply, "What was ye doin' at the race track?’ "Sellin4,” admitted Admah and shuffled from foot to foot. “After I tole you time an' agin not to sell at them places?” “We could sell a wagon load there any time we wanted to,” he said, re viving their old argument. "Yes. Ther's plenty o’ ways to git monev from the Devil. Mabel Btek done that, an’ see what happened. "Ma,” broke in Admah a little su. lenly "I'm gettin’ too old to peddle rnndv 111 a basket. The niggers can do that, but I'm too old.” Ml- had expected another outbreak, but instead she sat down, folding her gnarled hands In her meager lap. "What d'ye want to do, Admah. she asked wearily. "Eddie .Stek’s got a job with the T & I’ ” he explained. "In a year more he’ll he a regular machinist, mukln' his four dollars a day. I can make a dollar seventy five ll-’ht rum Outside the main gate at Bradbury "What doin’?" "Shovelln’ coke.” "So ye'd rather shovel dirty coke than sell yer Ma's nice clean pep mints?” she asked, plainly hurt. "If I could sell 'em wholesale, 01 In a store, we'd get rich, lie told her, coming hack to the argument that Ma Holtz would never allow to be settled. That was just a part of Ma. to be accepted. She was afraid ci storekeeping. It offered unknown dangers, and she was already an old woman. She knew her quaint candy business, and had saved a few hun dred dollars which she guarded with a miser's timid care. “I reckon I fan peddle down to the car barns myself." she decided. "Shucks!” said Admah. "With me and do brlngln’ in twenty dollars a "I ain’t too good to sell pepmlnts. she snapped. Indeed, peppermint had entered her blood. Without her trade she would have perished. So Ma Holtz. Ignoring the rommls sloner's warning, went with pie and doughnuts to the car barn. Nor did she stop there. In the afternoon she took the trolley downtown ns far m the Manual Training School where she sold out her stock of candy and was home In time to get supper for her two shiftless sons. Although Admah Holtz's boyhood had not been an easy one, he never t*t with hard labor until the morn ing when he bent over a broad-nosed shovel in the cupola of the Tool and Plow Works. The workmen called It The Cupolo and revered it for the iron eating Moloch that it was. From the ground lloog. through the roof of a—glattt brick building towered the Cupolo, a vast cylinder, impervious to hellflre. At the top its great square mouth was forever yawning for its balanced ration of coke and scrap plglron. Far below, at its lower end. The t’upolo spurted-a jet of mol ten metal. At Intervals a workman would stop the stream with a wad of pipe clay on a long Iron liar. Then again, at tho proper instant, the fas cinating white-hot stream would spurt out to till another bull-ladle which a man would hurry on Its two wheels toward row on row of pie shaped molds along the conrrete floor. His Job at the T. & I*, lasted only two and a half days; at the end of that time he wAs discharged for In efficiency. A hard-eyed, leathery old foremagi caught him dreaming late on the morning shift. Admah's team mates had already plunged their shov el* Into Ihe coke, responsive to Moloch'* need, but the young man stood fascinated by the scene of in dustry In the vast room below. Men with barrows wore bringing in more molds, laying them out like a row of giant cheeses. What was the mind behind all this heavy yet cunning toll? Some little old fellow- with s"H (ties and a weak stomach who sat all ■ m 1 . tlav In a glass offl»*e, punching** but tons. . . . f*fx>ok( yuh. young fella!” Sharp claws had seized him by the arm, jerking him roughly around. Me locked lnt<* haul eyes. (To Re Coal in lied Tomorrow?) Bee Want Ads produce results. ^ <-SN (n ^ t r-,‘ A * ^r<-a-v^ ^1x3) rS\ *?A* ^ ■' --U> 12-^_ /E*MA. G 'VtME THE / GU.7ARD - WE HAVE ( COMPANV “TOpAV AMO OAD WONT MAVCE \A FOSS VF HE DON'T /-THIS IS UTTLE QUDTlf) /fvrst Christmas. »ts S TOO SAD HE'S "TOO I noung “to appreciate; Vale the presents/ v-vV\E GOT_/- - fil s ~4= I Gotta Scheme ~~ * , To GET OUT OF 'DEBT. ANO ’F for instance-— i loss -You I OWE THE MiLKMAKI I Pa^ MIM •#14 53 > tm gonna | double RACE SPARKV AGAINST His Morse . ifi \ WIN TME (JILL'S N^CAN CELLEO^^ 1 '£jP, iPthe iceaani 71. V x owe mim [ ^1822 nes A ' SPORT —. ILL LET SPARK-/ RACE HlS NAG ANO SivJE RiM A COUPLE OP Blocks handicap. 22 is v THI'b l*b ‘bTATlOH THAT’S THE L o-n-r -H-we HUmoty-oumpty OCA^tI «OT THE eAHQUET AOTO JOST , TONIGHT AT \ the HOTE l. V-T'^51*,c*AH: , 1 PLANTER;- 0'*) ' V/ELU <jY Ain’t It a Grand and Gloriou* Feeling By Briggs j Hello - i 3 This [5ANTA ? WELL This is tommy's Papa - l vJUST wanted To ex plain ABOUT His Y UJQftTS - /VeS - I KMOuU HE'3 SEEnA / rather POOR But he's \ Beem TftVtm<j Voo k»ocno AMD HE ’3 BEEM an pretty/ (jqoD boy Too j VVJHAT?? Yes. I KNOW HE Sassed his mother. But he SAID he UJAS SORRY {)H NOUU LISTEN SA^ta foR'SEt That- Dou t ^ HOLD THAT AGAINST Hl*V/ 1—.- — WHAT'S That ; our ? CHIMNev IS Too .SNVALL't You’re craiy - - auj come J 1orj - DON’T BE A CRAB- J £)0 VoO Think That’S J FAIR? f He HUNG C/P ONJ ME - \ \ IommV HE Seenis To BE ] \ Sops about Some.Thing - / va/elu uue'lu hoPie. ^Th= best AwD TH6N CHRiSrMAi I MORMIM6 - OH H -H ' fcJOY. /SINT rr A GR R RftND .'/ AmD GLOR R RIOUS Fwe:Li h* ? - _ —___ 1&T\ '( MERfeV \ ^\CMRl5.TMASj A jK! ^/SeS ' 4#? ' HTf" ,' THE NEBBS MERRY CHRISTMAS. Directed for The Omaha Bee by Sol He.* ^ _ _ __ //''RuOnT - THKT'S /A TERRtauC N\C*N*N\C FOR THE CmuO - CM.L V W\v\ BV VMS GWCKJ XW*ME "C*ESfcR'l SR (fin /HEWAS IN VIM OFRCC '-X that (f mesteqday lit up like *thc \ .O UP 1 AURORA BOREALIS - BROUGHT) has U E\jERY600Y A PRESENT - > 3 ON Jy ^pvllEO HIMSELF SAMTV CLAUS JR. ! MARKET/ i oowt KNOW how mCH OOU6H ^ HEHIAOE 60T HE ACTS LIKE WE HAO IT ALL - WE MAKES EYERV/ l NICKEL HOLLER LlKC IT WAS^T Barney Google and Spark Plug A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. Drawn for The Omaha Bee bjr Billy DeBeck ~ s,-/ )Ts \ ( Vou ne omA*™*!™**) \ barncv J Neyr . / , y y ^ATuRDAV ' 1 RPIlVniMn I TP PATHFP Re«u«.r«i see jiggs and MAGGIE in full Drawn for The Omaha Bee by McM nus Dl\ll\UllsVj VJr r r\ 1 nClI\ u. S. P«t«ot Offie. PACE OF COLORS IN THE SUNDAY BEE (Copyripht 1924) WHERE '-s I TO CbANQUET* ( ARE TOO c»T THERe ODiHij I | WHILE 1 THltHK; OE IT OTHER W\*>E 1 r-UCHV EARL\’ FORQtT JERRY ON THE JOB ’TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE DEC. 25. Drawn for TheOmaha Bee by Hoban ABIE THE AGENT Drawn for The Omaha Bee by Hershfield Santa Will Bn IMaytsI This ^ar. rtOHAT'S A FlMlE LETTER UOCRO START I M<* UJ1TH :r AMO EMDlMQ wm»Y "•;' amo a mime letter UUORJ) STARTS M M; uHtH^ , It i V' siStitlto*.. IUiO. L‘w>k-i< K >1 F:*u. I DA* ^ «a vV»“*S -