Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

402 Hard luck he didn’t have the chance t’ give her fhe once over. He c’d have seen at a glance she ain’t no second-handed goods. Guess he’ll turn up before twelve and I'll ~ fix a date for t’-morrow night. I'll bet a dollar that blue-eyed fluff ‘Il be ready t’ lick my shoes by time evening comes.” | Callous, unsavory; but why mislead by tricking up the sordid in fancy costume? The mina. of Arties are not given to any- thing but fermentation of malignant, death- on-decency desires. Where there was rea- son for Julie’s submission to the pull of risqué adventure; there were no mitigating circumstances about Artie Falwell. He knew what he was doing. There is hope for the rascal who can grin occasionally with good humor. Artie never smiled un- less the pose of being an amiable fellow was likely to help along some ulterior mo- tive. He had no sense of humor and was nothing but a self-made sophist. Sophistication, which is only a conveni- ent term for world sharpness concerning the ever changing, ever ebbing and flowing mode in manners, fashions, and general pseudo smartness in one’s taste in slang, shoes, and morals, isa comparative qua!- ity. A laundry maid can, in her degree of social status, be as sophisticated as a shekel-gowned bud of high society. The main difference between the two girls being that the bud has a greater measure of self- protectiveness. Familiar with shows: _ doggy, horsey, operatic, and gastronomic, the latter can capably hold her own in fin- esse of savoir fatre and affairs intrigant. Her education, domestic or foreign, her masters of arts and crafts, her mistresses in less flamboyant accomplishments, her dressmakers, her friends and her servants, all conspir~ to teach her as little as possible unallied to the cultivation of a super-pal- zied and precocious ego. Her soul is regard- ed as a spiritual appendix, a nebulous germ to be extinguished by neglect and smoth- ered by glorification of the physical belle- form. | To a subdivided hairline, this expensive- ly cultivated bud knows the borderland twixt safe and risqué flirtation. She may have a merry bunch of chubby cupids painted on the ceiling of her boudoir; but ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. the poor little starveling that waits upon her when her fancy veers toward the choice of a suitable mate, has his quiver full of leaden-tipped darts. He draws his bow at -bank-rolls, armorial bearings, and such like trifles that have no standing in the court of love. When our bud is marriage bent, cupid is really very much de trop. She has no need of him, for before she makes her — debut she has gone through her finishing course and is not shyly peeping for ro- mance. She knows whom to know and whom to snub. She dresses well, eats ac- cording to her embonpoint, flirts with dis- creet intelligence and never makes a faux pes; and no creature comforts being de- nied, she never, never had any adven- ture. . Other girls, less financially comforted, are perhaps more charming in manner, cer- tainly more natural, and decidedly more in- clined to step out. The girl who has to face the world on her own merits, who has not been coddled into the belief that she is a creature with privileges. above’ her sis- ters, has a chance to develop and discover the deeper truths that come with decency, kindness and love. It is not the baby cra- died in the pearl encrusted crib and dan- dled on the knee of a paid foster mother who has the opportunity to achieve great- ness in manhood or womanhood. The pio- neers in arts, letters, business, politics, and discoveries of benefits to the human race, seldom came from the palaces and man-. sions of the panderers to society’s whirli- gig. Master Heirtomillion and Miss Gold- enbud have no incentive to find themselves . in work. With few exceptions they grow flaccid with fatty degeneracy of the cranial nerves, and play cup and ball with life. It is in the homes where dollars are earned and hard won, that we may look for the eminent men and women of to-morrow. In- herited wealth with all its attendant, effort- stifling luxuries 1s a premium on laziness, not to mention vicious selfishness. Julie Somers was reaching out, trying to break trail for herself; but because she lacked a true sense of values, she was goihg in the wrong direction. Sheshad been born to disadvantages. Her experience had been unselfintentionally, wrongly classified in her DOO! SS (CO / COMME