Kitchener some jam on a cracker; but he only looked at her as the
sphinx would have looked at a butterfly if there are butterflies in
the desert.
"Don't eat it if .you don't want to," said Dulcie. "And don't put
on so many airs and scold so with your eyes. I wonder if you'd be
so superior and snippy if you had to live on six doI!ars a week."
It was not a good sign for Dulcie to be rude to General Kitch
ener. And then she turned Benventuro Cellini face downward with
a severe gesture. But that was not inexcusable; for she had always
thought he was Henry VIII., and she did not approve of him.
At half past nine Dulcie took a last look at the pictures on the
dresser, turned out the light and skipped into bed. It is an awful
thing to go to bed without a good-night look at General Kitchener,
William Muldoon, the Duchess of Marlborough and Benventuro
Cellini.
This story really doesn't get anywhere at all. The rest of it
comes later sometime when Piggy asks,Dulcie again to dine with
him, and she is feeling lonelier than usual, and Genera1 Kitchener,
happens to be looking the other way ; and then
As I said before, I dreamed that I was standing near a crowd of
prosperous-looking angels, and a policeman took me by the wing and
asked if I belonged with them.
'Who are they?" I asked.
"Why," said he, "they are the men who hired working-girls, and
paid 'em five or six dollars a week to live on. Are you one of the
bunch?'
"Not on your immortality," said I. "I'm on1- the fellow that set
fire to an orphan asylum and murdered a blind man for his pennies."
CURT COMMENT ON TOPICS OF COMMON INTEREST
There is one thing, at least, about the proposed city charter, much more rapidly if they confined their efforts to teaching some em
that will commend itself to the voters of the city. So far as we ployers a few things, instead of trying to make objects of semi-char-have
been able to secure information concerning the charter from ity out of the working girls,
the rather vague and indefinite newspaper reports thereof, this is '
about the only feature worthy of commendation. It relates to the The Fairbury Journal man says the fellows in town who are
provision against allowing partisan designation of the candidates. In so insistent that the farmers drag the roads after every rain, are the
other words, the candidates must run on their merits instead of their fellows who neglect to clean the snow off their walks after a snow
political affiliations. But even this wise provision will not make storm. Wise head on the shoulders of the Fairbury Journal man.
full amends for the many bad features of the charter. The main- :
tenance of a bunglesome council of fourteen members, a mayor Much has been said concerning the discoverv that the First
charged with the appointment of all subordinate city officials here Methodist church of Omaha the big church of that city went a
are two features of the proposed charter, either one of which is suf- whole year without a mid-week prayer meeting. The new pastor
ficient for its damnation. announces that they will be resumed at once. We have our doubts
about the religious zeal that must be renewed every Wednesday or
The simplest way to provide for charter making is to enact a Thursday night. And if the new pastor of the First Methodist
law allowing every city to make its own charter, subject only to church of Omaha, Rev. F. L. Lynch, makes as good a record in that
constitutional limitations. Then let the charters be framed and capacity as did Rev. Frank Loveland, whom he succeeded, he has
submitted to a vote of the people. The people are entitled to no bet- his work cut out for him. The minister of today who spends any
ter government than they deserve and they ought to have what they considerable portion of his time ringing front door bells and making
want. The charter that fits Omaha would not fit Lincoln, and "pastoral calls," is not getting very far with the business of the
vice versa. What would fit Lincoln would be unsuited to Beatrice church. And the church that is not conducted on business lines
or Kearney. - Let the people of Lincoln have what they want not these days is not performing any real service for the Master,
force them to take something framed up for them by a lot of wise - -
gentlemen who indulge in fantastic dreams. William Howard Sheeks died at Kirksville, Mo., a few days ago.
aged 89 and after a married life of seventy years lacking a few days.
Lincoln people want a commission form" of government or no He attributed his long and happy married life to the fact that he and
change at all. By "commission form of government" is meant the his wife had never exchanged a cross word. "And I do not remember
kind of government that Des Moines, Colorado Springs, Cedar Rapids that I ever told a lie in my whole life," said Mr. Sheeks. Age, how
and other live cities have. This means a commission of five, with a ever, is given to illusions, and it should be remembered that when
commissioner presiding over a separate division of the city's gov- -Mr. Sheeks gave utterance to the above he was almost ninety years
eminent and absolutely responsible to the people for the conduct of old.
his department. This is what Lincoln people want, and it is what :
they will have. The proposed charter will have the quietus put to it There is just one solution of the problem of congested centers of
just as soon as it gets to the people if, indeed, it ever runs the population easier access to the land. And a system of taxation that
gauntlet of the legislature. makes it more profitable to hold land for speculative purposes than
to put it to use, merely puts a premium on congestion in the cities.
We have located the champion "village cut-up." His name is The remedy is to make it more profitable to use land than to-hold
Raymond Champaigne, and his home is in Billerica Center, a small it for speculation. Of course people who are holding land for specu
town in Massachusetts, Raymond is his last name suggestive of lative purposes, and those who have so little brains that they can
anything? killed a skunk and blythesomely and gleefully threw only parrot what the speculators say, will decry this solution as be
the carcass into a room wherein foregathered the smart set of Bil- ing "anarchistic," or "socialistic." And the average man doesn't
lerica Center intent upon feats terpsichorean. Raymond had to pay know the difference between socialism and anarchy.
$20 for his fun, but a lot of Billerica Center belles and knights had
to bury their clothes in the ground to remove a perfume that was The thirty firemen killed in the Chicago stockyards fire were
far from resembling attar of roses. victims to corporate greed and corporate disregard of law and of
human life. The fire was in the beef house cold storage house
Good people we came near to saying Godly people who are of the Morris Co. When the firemen entered they found the five
always trying out some new experiment in the way of "working girls' high pressure water mains of the plant shut off to save fuel. A
hotels," or clubs, or whatever you may call them, the purpose being building adequately constructed ought to stand a "50 per cent fire"
to provide the aforesaid girls with cheap but adequate board and before collapsing. The building inspector of Chicago reported as
lodgings, are cordially invited to read "The Unfinished Story," writ' long ago as 1904 that the Morris beef house would stand only a "10
ten by O. Henry and printed in McClure's Magazine several years per cent fire." No attention was paid to the report. To save a few
ago. The story appears in this week's issue of The Wageworker, paltry dollars the Morris Co. is guilty of the death of thirty firemen,
with proper credit to McClure's. Therein may be found a hint which
the would-be philanthropists could, if they would, use with great The government pays the railroads rent for the mail cars, the
profit. Perhaps the philanthropists would reach the desired end rent varying according to the length of the car, but always equal
ener fixed his wonderful eyes on her out of his gilt photograph frame
on the dresser.
Dulcie turned like an automatic doll to the landlady.
Tell him I can't go," she said, dully." "Tell him I'm sick, or
something. Tell him I'm not going out."
After the door was closed and locked, Dulcie fell upon her bed,
crushing her black tip, and cried for ten minutes. General Kitchener
was her on!y friend. He was Dulcie's ideal of a gallant knight. He
looked as if he might have a secret sorrow, and his wonderful mus
tache was a dream, and she was a little afraid of that stern yet tender
look in his eyes. She used to have little fancies that he would call
at the house sometime, and ask for her, with his sword clanking
against his high boots. Once, when a boy was rattling a piece of
chain against a lamp-post, she had opened the window and looked
out. But there was no use. She knew that Genera1 Kitchener was
away over in Japan, leading his army against the savage Turks ; and
he would never step out of his frame for her. Yet one look from him
had vanquished Piggy that night. Yes, for that night.
When her cry was over, Dulcie got up and took off her best dress
and put on her old blue kimono. She sang two verses of "Sammy."
Then she became intensely interested in a little red speck on the side
of her nose. And after that was attended to, she drew up a chair to
the rickety table and told her fortune with an old deck of cards.
"The horrid, impudent thing!" she said atoud. "And I never
gave him a word or a look to make him think it !"
At nine o'clock Dulcie took a tin box of crackers and a pot of
raspberry jam out of her trunk and had a feast. She offered General
