Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 167: what you’re looking at

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

a UY Y; #* é ay £ ’ « 7 W/W By WALTER CLARE MARTIN THER people’s shortcomings had () troubled Jason Makeover for a good many years. What troubled him most was the way they accepted their vices as matters of course; with no appar- ent effort towards wrenching free, no strug- gle for improvement. At first his amazement was wide-eyed and open-mouthed; as, for example when he tasked his brother-in-law, a plumber: “Don’t you know it’s that rotten pipe you smoke that makes you so nervous and keeps your stomach upset?” And _ the brother-in-law had replied leisurely: “Yep, the doc tells me that has sumpin to do with it.” “Then why in the name of sense don’t you quit? Don’t you want to have good health?” 317 ‘Yep, good health’s a mighty fine thing to have. Nothin’ better I reckon. Still, it wouldn’t seem quite natural without the old cob.” Jason Makeover can still feel his own flash of amazement as his relative, a middle aged man, well-to-do and at least semi-in- telligent, admitted himself a hopeless case. Jason was sixteen then; he is thirty-six now. The interposing years have dulled the shock appreciably; but his wonderment is no less great. He cannot understand why human beings with even the semblance of a spinal ridge will go on year after year ruining their bodies, impairing their intellect, hastening their days. But he has ceased trying to save a lost world. Decency, like charity, Jason decided, should begin at home, in his native city, at S CORNICLOO© (E@