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*71 nvrnm# -i:;S* £#**•* . ., ± (>< : „v ' - J>, _v t ,/ ?v V, . IciMT mi nt •aicnnr»rn r i^Ain juciAUAn, htx, *. . Jr^ *1. - M MAKING FAIR BARGAIN She Expected Hubby to Have AIl Po e Virtues, But Forgot;;'!!! Take 8tock of Her Own. bJ ' Ft" . § • 4*,UJ+ ?:\ •, v .^Sstkiijn By HENRY KFTCHELL WEBSTER *l;V> ;j Copyright 191& BcM»Mer(ffl Co. ROSE GETS A JOB AS CHORUS GIRL IN A MUSICAL SHOW BUT THE TEST.SHE HAS TO UNDERGO IS SOMEWHAT EMBARRASSING WM Synopsis.--Rose Stanton, a young woman living in modest circum­ stances, marries wealthy Rodney Aldrich and for more than a year lives in luxury and laziness. This life disgusts her. She hopes that when her baby comes, the Job of being a mother will keep her happy and busy. But she has twins and their care is put into* the hands of a trained nurse. Intense dissatisfaction with the useless life of luxury returns to Rose. She determined to go out and earn her living, to make good on her own hook. She and Rodney have some bitter scenes wrangling over this so-called whim. Rose leaves home, however, moves into a cheap rooming house district and gets a job in a theater. put tflfceir heads together over, and moire of less learned. What had become of this dope the girl didn't know. She was a pale-haired girl, whom Rose thought she had heard addressed as Larson. Rose made a surprising discovery when, with a friendly pat on the sofa beside her, for an invitation to sit down, the girl began answering her question. She was a real beauty. Only y<Ju had to look twice at her to per­ ceive that this was so; and what she lacked was Just the unanalyzable qual­ ity that makes one look twice. "I don't know whut you should wor­ ry about any of that stuff for," she said. "How you sing or what you sing don't make much, difference." Rose admitted that It didn't seem to. "But1 you see," she §ald (she hadn't had a human .soul, to talk to for more than a week, and she had to make a friend of somebody), "you see I've just got to keep this job. And if every little helps, as they say. per­ haps that would." The girl looked at her oddly, almost suspiciously, as if for a moment she doubted whether Rose had spoken in good faith. "You've got as good a chance of losing your Job," she said, "as Galbraith has of losing his. Dave tells me Galbraith's going to put you with us in the sextette." Dave was the thick pianist, whom Rose had found in the highest degree obnoxious. His announcement was en­ titled to consideration, even though it couldn't be banked upon. There were three mediums and three big girls in the sextette (Edna Larson was one of the mediums, and so needn't fear re­ placement by Rose, who was a big girl). Besides appearing in two num­ bers as a background to one of the principals, they had one all to them­ selves, a fact which constituted them a sort of super-chorus. But the intimation that Rose was to be promoted to this select inner cir­ cle, didn't, as it first came to her, give her any pleasure. Somehow, 'as Larson told her about it, she could fairly see the knowing, greasy grin that would have, been Dave's comment on this prophecy. And, in the same flash, she interpreted the Larson girl's look, half incredulous, half satirical. "I haven't heard anything about be­ ing put in the sextette," she said quick­ ly, "and I don't believe I will be." Well, I don't know why not." There was a new warmth in the medium's voice. Rose had won a victory here, and she knew it. "You've got the looks and the shape; you can dance better than any of the big girls, or us mediums, either. And if he doesn't put that big Benedict lemon into the back line where she belongs, and give you her place in the sextette, it will be because he's afraid of her drag." Rose forebore to inquire into the nature of the Benedict girl's drag. Whatever It may have been, John Galbraith was evidently not afraid of it because as he dismissed that very rehearsal, calling the rest of the chorus for twelve the following morn­ ing, and the sextette for eleven, he told Rose to report at the earlier hour. The chorus was probably unanimous, In its view of this promotion. When Grant camfe back and ate her humble pie in vain, and later, when Benedict was relegated to a place in the back line, \the natural explanation was that Galbraith was crazy about the new girl. The only way she had of refut­ ing the assumption would be by mak­ ing good so intensely that they'd be compelled to see that her promo­ tion had been Inevitable. It was in this spirit, with blazing cheeks and eyes, that she attacked the next morning's rehearsal. At its end Galbraith said to her: "You're do­ ing very well Indeed, Dane. If I could have caught you ten years ago I could have made a dancer of you." It was a very real, unqualified com­ pliment, and as such Rose understood it. Because, by a dancer, he meant something very different from a pranc­ ing chorus girl. The others giggled and exchanged glances with Dave at the piano. They didn't understand. To them, the compliment seemed to have been delivered with the left hand. And somehow, an amused rec­ ognition of the fact that they didn't understand, as well as of the fact that she did, flashed across from John Galbraith's eyes to hers. * * * • • . . . • • The Impetus and direction of Rose's career derived from two incidents which might just as well not have happened--two of the fluklest of small chances. The first of these chances concerned Itself with Edna Larson and her bad voice. It was .a bad voice only when she talked. When she sang it had a J gorgeous, thrilling ring, and volume enough for four. Besides, she had an infallible ear and sang squarely In tune. But when she spoke It sounded like someone who didn't know how, trying to play the slide trombone. She was simply deaf, It seemed, to the subtleties of Inflection. Daily, she reduced Galbraith to help­ less wrath. Evidently he didn't mean to be a brute about it. He begun ev ery one of his' tussles to improve her reading of a line with a gentleness 'lluxt would have done credit to a kin dergartener. But after three attempts each more ominously gentle th>§i the last, his temper would suddenly fly all to pieces. The girl, queerly, didn't seem to rare. But in the dressing room one night, after one of these rehearsals Rose got a different view. As she snt down on a bench to unlace, her shoes she looked straight into Edna Lar­ son's face--a fuce sunken with despair that turned Rose cold. The r * CHAPTER XVI--Continued. -••••••• -11- : . - "What professional experience have " you had?" he asked. "I haven't had any.** f ij He almost smiled when she stopped , there. "Any amateur experience?" he ^ Inquired. "Quite a lot," said Rose; "pageants and things, and two or three little plays." "Can you dance?** "Yes," said Rose. He said he supposed ballroom danc- mg was what she meant, whereupon «he told him she was a pretty good tKillroom dancer, but that it was gytn- tiustie dancing she had in mind. "All right," he said. "See If you tcan do this. Watch me, and then Imitate me exactly." In the intensity of her absorption la his questions and her own aniwers to them, she had never given a thought > m» the bystanders. But now as they toll back to give him room, she swept . » glance across their faces. They all •wore smiles of sorts. There was some- ^4 " {thing amusing about this--something out of the regular routine. A li'tle laiot of chorus girls halted in the act f|h • p. ... of going out the wide doors, and stood '7 '* matching. Was it just a hoax? The •*' < Suppressed, unnatural silence sounded jfelike It But at what John Galbraith EjaJv »--Klftl, one of Ike bystanders guffawed K ' outright : . ft wasn't r*rtty, the dance step he executed--a »srl of stiff-legged skip >. ' jhcoompnnied hf a vulgar hip wriggle *r; • <finij conciuufcK with a straight-out ^ Irtdewise fcictt. A sick dlsgubt clutched fet Rose as stle watched--an utter re- (vulsion from the whole loathly busi- tiess. "Well** brisked, turning to her *s Sm finished. He wasn't smiling at all. "I'm aot dressed to do that" she ttald. "I know you're not** he Admitted itoolly; "bat it can be done. Pick up ! m»ur skirts and do It as you are--if jyou really want a job." There was Just a faint edge of con- Jtempt in that last phrase and, merd- ' fully, it routed her anger. A blaze kindled in hei .blue eyes, and two spots pf vivid eolcr defined themselves in ber cheeks. . She caught up her skirts as he had told her to do, executed without com­ promise the stiff-legged' skip and the Wriggle, and finished with a horizon- sidewijw kick that matched his mc r- iAnd Finished With a Horizontal, Side- wis* Kick. point of view, unnecessarily cruel. The girl he had taken her for jvoulct on be­ ing ordered to repeat the grotesque bit of vulgarity of his, have drawn her dignity about her like a cloak and gone back in a chastened spirit to the world where she belonged. A gorgeous apparition came sweep­ ing by them just now, on a line from the dressing room to the door--a fig­ ure that, with regal deliberation, was closing a blue broadcloth coat, trimmed with sable, over an authentic Callot frock. The georgette hat on top of it was one that Rose had last seen In a Michigan avenue shop. It had found its proper bujjer--fulfilled its destiny. "Oh, Grant !" said John Galbraith. The queenly creature stopped short and Rose recognized her with a jump as the sulky chorus glrL Galbraith walked over * to her. "I sha'n't need you any more. Grant" He spoke in a quiet, Impersonal sort of way, but his voice had, as always, a good deal of carrying power. "It's hardly worth your while trying to work, I suppose, when you're as pros­ perous as this. And it isn't worth my while to have you soldiering. You needn't report again." He nodded, not unamlably, and turned away. She glared after him and called out in a hoarse, throaty voice, "Thank my.stars I don't have to work for you." He'd come back to Rose again by this time, and she saw him smile. "When you do it" he said over his shoulder, "thank them for me too." Then to Rose: "She's a valuable girl; I'm giving you her place because she won't get down to business. I'd rather have a green recruit who will. The uext rehearsal is at jx quarter to eight tonight. Give your name and address to Mr. Quan before you go. By the way, what is your name?" "Rose Stanton." she said. "But . . She had to follow him a step or two because he had already turned away. "But may I give some other name than that to Mr. Quan?" He frowned a little dubiously and asked her how old she was. And even when she told him twenty-two, he didn't look altogether reassured. . "That's the truth, is It? I mean, there's nobody who. pqn come down here about three days before we open and call me a kidnaper, and lead you away by the ear?" "No," said Rose gravely, "there's no one who'll do that." "Very well," he saicL 'Tell Quan any name you like." The name she did tell him was Doris Dane. At the appointed^time for rehearsal she was on hand. She was one of the first of the chorus to reach/the hail, and she had nearly finished putting on her working clothes before the rest of them caiue pelting in. But she didn't get out quickly enough to miss the sen­ sation that was exciting them all--the news that Grant had been dropped. A few were indignant; the rest merely curious. Before she had been working fifteen minutes, she had forgotten all about Grant She'd even forgotten her reso­ lution not to let John Galbraith re­ member she was a recruit. She didn't know she was tired, pant­ ing, wet all over with sweat. She hadn't done anything so physically ex­ acting as this for over a year. But she had the illusion that she wasn't doing anything now; that she was Just a passive, plastic thing tossed, flung, swirled about by the driving power of the director's will. She realized, when the rehearsal was over, that It had gone well and that it couldn't have gone so if her own part had been done badly. But she didn't understand the look which he sent after her as she walked off--she didn't know that It was the highest enco­ mium he was capable of. 'own. Then, panting, trembling a llt- i (tie, she stood looking straight into' :hls face. Galbraith was staring at her with a llook which expressed, at first, clear astonishment, but gradually coniplicat- jed Itself with other emotions--con- fusion, a glint of whimsical amuse­ ment That gleam, a perfectly honest, kindly one, decided Rose to take him on trust He wasn't a brute, how­ ever it might suit bis purpose to act like one. "We've been rehearsing this piece ItTjro weeks." he said presently, looking •away from her when he began to talk, "and I couldn't take anyone into the chorus now whom I'd have to teach :the rudiments of dancing to,. That's why a test was necessary. Also, It : couldn't take anybody who had come dowa here--for a lark." With that. Rose understood the whole thing. John Galbraith had clas­ sified her, or thought be had, as a well-bred young girl who, in a moment CHAPTER XVII. Rose Keeps the Path. Rose rehearsed twice a day for a solid week without forming the faint­ est conception of who "the girl" was or why she was "the girl up-stairs. During the entire period she never saw a bar of music except what stood on the piano rack, nor a written word of the lyrics she was supposed to sing. Rose couldn't sing very much. She had rather a timorous, 'throaty little contralto that contrasted oddly with the fine, free thrill of her speaking voice. But nobody had asked her whether she could sing at all. She picked up the tune quickly enough by ear, but the words she was always a little uncertain abojit. She finally questioned one ot her colleagues in the chorus about this haphaziardness, and was told that back at the beginning of things, they hud had their voices tried by the musical director. They had never had any of pique r»r mischief, had decided it music to sing from; there had been wctild be fun to go on the stage. The half a dozen mimeograph copies of teat he baj fipj>li*H' wasn't, fr«*u thai the to the souga, which the; tragic eyes were stj^tijaf. without recognition, straight iuto Rose's own. •, • ( Rose delayed her dressing till th^ other girls were gone, then sat down beside Edna. f "You're All right," she said, feeling very inadequate. "I'm going to helft you.'* ] "It's always like this," the girl saldi "It's no use. He'll put me back In th^ chorus again." j "Not If I can help it," Rose saldi "But the first thing to do is to comU along and get something to eat" During the next hour Rose learned, for the first time, what the weight of an immense melancholy Inertia can be. The girl was like one paralyzed- paralyzed by repeated failures and disasters, of which she told Rose freely. When Galbraith had put her into the sextette, a hope, just about dead, had been reawakened. She'd learned to dance well enough to es­ cape censure, and she'd seen for her-1 ,smmM thim: was radically out of the etiquette of the occasion--he reached out and shook hands with her. "I'm very much obliged to you," he said. • • • • • • • The second of two incidents destined to have a powerful influence at this tln»e in Rose's life concerned Itself with a certain afternoon frock in a Michigan avenue shop. The owners of "The Girl Up-Stalrs" were staggered by the figure that Gal­ braith indicated as the probable cost of having a first-class brigand In New York design the costumes, and a firm of pirates in the same neighborhood execute them. It was simply insane. Many, of the costumes could be bought, ready made, on State street or Michi­ gan avenue. Some of the fancy things could be executed by a competent wardrobe mistress, If someone would give her the ideas. And ideas---one could pick them up anywhere. Mrs. Goldsmith, now--she was the wife of the senior of the two owners--had splendid taste and would be glad to put It at their service. There was no reason why she should not at once take the sextette down-town and fit them out with their dresses. Galbraith shrugged his shouldeis, but made no further complaint It was, he admitted, as they had repeat­ edly pointed out, their own money. So a rendezvous was made between Mrs. Goldsmith and the settette for a store on Michigan avenue at three o'clock on an afternoon ,when Gal­ braith was to be busy with the prin­ cipals. He might manage to drop in before they left to cast hla igre over the selection. It was with some rather uncom­ fortable misgivings that Ros« fet out to revisit a part of town sk> tlosely associated with the first year *>f her married life. The particular shdt> was luckily, one that she hadn't patrCWzed in that former Incarnation; but It was in the same block with half a toe^n that she had. "I'm .Going to Help You." self how Indispensable her singing voice was to the sextette. And then it had appeared she'd have to talk I And her talking wasn't right Look here!" said Rose, when the story was told. (This was across the table in a dingy little lunch room.) You're going to say your lines before tomorrow's rehearsal so that Galbraith won't stop you once. We're going to my room now, and I'm going to teach you. Come along." In a sort of daze, the girl went. Rose put her Into a chair, sat down opposite her, took the first phrase of her first speech, and said it very slow­ ly, very quietly, half a dozen times. That was at half-past eleven o'clock at night. By midnight, Edna could say those first three words to Rose's sat­ isfaction. They worked like that straight through the night, except that two or three times the girl broke down; said it was hopeless. She got up once and said that she was going home, whereupon Rose locked the door and put the key in her stocking. At seven o'clock in the morning they went back to the lunch room and ate an enormous breakfast; then Rose walked Edna out to the park and back, and at eight they were up in her room again. They raided the delica­ tessen at eleven, and made a slender meal. And at twelve, husky of voice, but indomitable of mind--Edna at last, as well as Rose--they confronted Gal­ braith. When the test scene came, Rose Tebuld hardly manage her own first line, and drew a sharp look of Inquiry from Galbraith. But on Edna's first cue, her line was spoken with no hesitation at all, and in tone, pitch, and inflection it was almost a phono­ graphic copy of the voice that had served it for a model. There was a solid two seconds of silence. When the rehearsal was over Gal­ braith called Edna out to him and al­ lowed himself a long, incredulous stare at her. "Will you tell me, Lar­ son," he asked, "why in the name of heaven, if you could do that, you didn't do It yesterday?" I couldn't do it yesterday," she said. "Dane taught me." Taught you!" he echoed. "Dane!" he called to Rose, who had been watching a little anxiously. "Larson tells me you taught her. How did you do it?" Why, I Just--taught her," said Rose. "I showed her how I said each line, and I kept on showing her until she cojuld do it" t How long did it take you--all night?" All the time there, was since last rehearsal," said Rose, "except for three meala." Ye gods!" said Galbraith. "Well, live and learn. Look here! Will you teach the others--the other four In the sextette? I'll see you're paid for It." "Why, yes--of course," said Rose, hesitating a little. "Oh. I don't mean overnight," he said, "but mornings--between rehears­ als--whenever you can." "I wasn't thinking of that," said Rose. "I was just wondering if they'd want to be taught--I mean, by an­ other chorus girl, you know." "They'll want to be taught if they want to keep their Jobs." said Gal­ braith. And then, to her astonishment , also perhaps to his, for the . . . Rose Aldrich's education and good breeding and her eager­ ness to make good soon put her at the head of the list of chorus women. How new opportunity comes to her is told tn the next installment (TO BE CONTINUED.) SUPERSTITION OF GEN. GRANT Union Commander Believed It Bad Luck to Turn and Retrace His Steps. The country folk In the vicinity of Grant's boyhood home were as super­ stitious as was the generrl run of rural people in that day. One thing grew out of these notions ".hat fixed itself permanently in the mtad of the youthful Grant that had, t>o doubt marked effect on his later 111^ He says that he came firmiV to be­ lieve that It meant bad luck fo? one to turn round and retrace his steins when on a journey. One might, $dth impu­ nity return home without reaching his intended destination, but he must do It by another road--not the same one he traveled in going. ' ' ' ' This feeling may have had some­ thing to do with his entrance at West Point. It is commonly known that his appointment was not of his choosing, but that of his father. Grant himself hung back and had to be pressed to go to the academy. Even after he was well on his way--at Philadelphia and New York--he sincerely hoped that some accident might happen that would make his return imperative. But he would not turn round and retrace his steps. The feeling seems to feave grown gradually Into set rule with him thai after having set out to go anywhere or to do anything, he must go to th# end of the thing, and there must h! no such thing as turning back. Tha* was characteristic of his course In the Civil war when he rose to positions In which he had supreme decisions to make. The only time in his life when he seemed near to breaking In on this rule was when, after the Mexican war, he decided to resign from the artriy and change the whole course of his life up to that tlnje. But for the Civil war that called him back, It is likely that he would hardly have been heard from again. Worked Both Ways. -"Madam," said the conductor during an Infantile paralysis epidemic, "you cannot travel on this train unless you have a health certificate for your child." "The law does not require a child of sixteen to have a certificate," said the mother as she tossed her head and entered the car. When the conductor again confront­ ed the haughty mother he returned to her a half-fare ticket which she had just tendered for the child, making this* observation : "But the law does require that chil­ dren over twelve years of age pay full fare." 1 The woman's eyes flashed fire, her bosom registered her emotion, her hauds clinched and her feet tapped-- but she paid.--The Christian Herald. His Choice. "Isn't it rather dangerous to go to Europe at this time?" "Oh. I don't know," said the con­ firmed globe trotter. "I understand that the professional gamblers who used to Infest steamships have disap­ peared, tiecause of the war. I'd rittlieg fuce a submarine Uuw a card' *h»sp' "What kind of a man are you going to marry?" asked earnest," dark-haired Margaret Ellis. Her friend Vivian raised her golden head. "I want the man I marry to be entertaining, to be high fn his profes­ sion, to have money, or the hope of getting it--the kind of man that every­ one is anxious to know. That kind could make me happy. Just any man wouldn't do. I couldn't marry Jnst any man." Gandmother Ellis looked up from her crochet. A quizzical look crept Into her gray eyes as they rested on Vivian's attractive face,. Then she folded her capable hands in her lap and said: "Can you cook, Vivian?" "Why, yes, a little. I can make mayonnaise, cake and--and fudge," she answered, looking puzzled over the seeming irrelevancy of the ques­ tion. : "Can you sew?" * ^ ' > "No; but I can embroider." "I see. Of course you can keep house?" "No, Mrs. Ellis, I cannot; The maid does that at our house." "I see, I seej" mused grandmother. She gazed out of the window for a minute, and when she looked back her eyes were very kind. "Yes, my dear, you expect to marry someone who has used his time well in making a successful man of him­ self. He must be so well trained that he win make no mistakes that might cause you discomfort or unhapplness. He must stand the strain of the long days, and the responsibility not only of his work but of his own family-- and then be entertaining. "I wonder often whether women realize just what that means. You, on the contrary, 'know nothing of your business of being a wife. You enter on the biggest job in life without training. You will learn in time, per­ haps, but at the expense of his com­ fort and your own. The petted doll way of homemaking is marked with tears and regret. Do you think it is quite fair to ask so much and give so little?" As Grandmother Ellis talked a flush had risen to Vivian's face, but plenty of sense lay behind her beauty. She drew a long breath, "Thank you, Mrs. Ellis," she said, sincerely. "I have never thought the thing out before. You have given me something that I shall profit by."-- Youth's Companion. Treasures From Europe. Some of the salvaged treasures of battle-torn Europe are commencing to find their way in^o the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and some priceless importations have been unveiled that would have been -inac­ cessible two years ago. The new ac­ quisitions consist of a group of two complete windows and four circular medallions, all from designs of one artist, made at one period, for one abbey church, and that abbey situated only 20 miles from what is today the battle line between France and her enemies, within sound of the cannon of St. Mihlel and Verdun. The win­ dows are typical and excellent exam­ ples of the art of glass-making as practiced in France during the early and best phase of the Northern renais­ sance. The first home of these win­ dows was the Abbey of Flavigny, near Nancy, Toul and Lunevllle. Of the two complete windows one Illustrates the Deluge, the other Moses and the Law. The other two windows show Moses presenting the tablets of the Law to the Hebrews. Acres of Coal Afloat. Only In the United States can such a sight be seen as six acres of coal floating down a river as a single unit. This is the area of coal boats the stern-wheel steamer Sprague Is capa­ ble of handling as a single tow. Four across-stream rows of 12 boats each make up the principal part, according to the^Popular Science Monthly. Back of the fourth row, however, eight boats find places together with two barges. Hence there are 56 boats and two barges in the big fleet. The Sprague has her nose shoved in at the center of the fifth row. The 59 vessels are lashed, securely together by llrips which run from boat to boat. Although the Sprague can push the fleet ahead, her chief duty is to hold back the load. This great amount of coal is handled by a relatively small total of horse­ power because the current of the on- flowing river supiplles a large part of the requisite energy. 8pinaeh Qood Garden Crop. There is, perhaps, no other garden crop which gives as much satisfaction as spinach. Ordinarily it occupies the land during the autumn and winter and does not interfere, therefore, with the production of summer vegetables. Three or four ounces of seed planted In the autumn after the summer crop hna been harvested will produce an abundance of greens for the average family during the late autumn and early spring. In gathering spinach the entire plant Is removed instead of merely cutting off the leaves. By se­ lecting the. larger plants first, the smaller or later ones are given room to develop. This method does away with the necessity of thinning. Nothing New Under Sun. The strings of blue beads that the modern girl dons to ward off Bronchitis are merely new versions of the strings •of blue beads worn in Egypt 1600 years before Christ to keep diseases of the chest at bay, says a writer In the Phil­ adelphia North American. The tiny sealed .bottle of mercury which she carried to ward off rheumatics had its prototype in bottles of a strange elixir used in India 30 centuries and more ago. „ Where He Beat "Dizzy." When Disraeli was prime minister of England a« good-looking young man applied to him for a government posi­ tion. "I know, sir," said the appli­ cant, wistfully, "how little I know?* "Dear me," said Disraeli, *!as much as that? I haven't got half that dlst »nce No Financial Depression, ar None Since the War Began. A we!!*ksOnu C0i 1 espOudfiut df an Important Western daily paper recent* ly made an extended visit to Western Canada, and in summing up the re*i suits, after going thoroughly into con* dltlons there, says there is no financial depression In Canada, nor has there been anything of the sort since the war began. Anyone who has watched the barometer of trade, and seen the bank clearings of the different cities grow and continue to grow will have arrived at the same conclusion. The trade statistics reveal a like situation. The progress that the farmers arfl> making Is highly satisfactory. As thi9 correspondent iays: "It is true therd have been adaptations to meet new conditions, and taxes have been re­ vised, and that a very large burden of added expense in many lines has been assumed, but it has all been done me* thodically, carefully and with full re­ gard. for the resources to be called on, "That this has been done fairly and wisely is proved by the present com­ fortable financial position. "With the exception of a restricted area in the east Canada is not an In* dustrial country. The greater portion of the Dominion must be classed as agricultural area, with only an infini­ tesimal part of it fully developed. "Lacking complete development, the agricultural portion of Canada has naturally placed its main dependence upon fewer resources than would be the case in the States. Even In peace times, business would be subject to more frequent and wider fluctuations, due to the narrower foundation upon which it rests. "Thus, Canada has been able to come up to the war with efficiency and sufficiency and to maintain and even advance its civilian activities. "Canada's first element of financial strength lay in its branch bank sys­ tem. This system has two great ad­ vantages: It makes the financial re­ sources of the Dominion fluid so that supplies of capital can run quickly from the high spots to the low spots; also, it places at the command of each Individual branch the combined re­ sources of the whole institution so that there is an efficient safeguard against severe strain at any one point. "Here in Winnipeg, the all-Canada banking houses maintain big, strong branches and, as elsewhere in the Dominion, these held to an attitude of saneness and solidity that prevented even the start of any financial dis­ turbance. That business generally is now com­ ing strong on an even keel is largely due to the absolute refusal of the banks, both branch and independent to exhibit the slightest signs of ex­ citement or apprehensiveness. "For all Canada the savings bank figures are astonishing. Beginning with 1913, they are, for the fiscal year end­ ing March 31: • 1913 $622,928,968 1914 663,650,230 1915 683,761,432 1916 738,169,212 1917 v......,-. 888,765,698 "These figures represent what Cana­ dians have put away after paying the Increased living cost, which is about the same as in the States, all increas­ es In taxes and Imports of all kinds made necessary by the war and gen­ erous subscriptions to war bond Is­ sues. "Prohibition has helped greatly in keeping the money supplies circulat­ ing in the normal, necessary channels. Tradesmen generally attribute a large part of the good financial condition to the fact that the booze bill has been eliminated. Canada takes law enforce­ ment with true British seriousness. "Financially, as in every other re­ spect, Canada has developed s"fflcien- cy. She has done it in spite o; initial conditions which would not lpok prom­ ising in the States and she has done It in a big, strong way. "One of the best things we did," said one of the leading Winnipeg bankers to me, "was to decide early In the game that we s|mply would not borrow trouble. "We started In ignorance of how the war would develop and without know­ ing exactly what our resources were, and had to find the way. "And yet Canadians are not overblir* dened with taxes nor are they com­ plaining of them. For the common people there has been but a slight tax increase, if any, in a direct way. In­ direct payments, of course, are made in the shape of higher prices for living commodities, but the price advance on such items is no heavier than In the States la the same period."--Advertise­ ment. • " * When the Statue Nodded. Before he attained to the front rank in his profession, Fred Kitchen, the fa­ mous comedian, used to tour Europe in an acrobatic turn with a partner named Royal. One week they were at the Eldo­ rado theater, Naples, and after the performance they went for a stroll along the famous embankment known as the Waterfront "Pretty soon," said Fred, In tell­ ing the story, "we reaqhed a statue, and lo! it nodded gravely toward us. " 'Did you see that statue nod?* paid my partner. " 'I certainly did,' said I. "'Well,' said he, 'I'm going back to the hotel and to bed before I get run in. It's that confounded Capri wine.' "So, ashamed of ourselves, back we went, and sneaked up to bed. "But at breakfast time next morn­ ing both of us seemed., to be amazing­ ly fresh considering our dissipation of the night before, and we could not un­ derstand why we had such good ap­ petites until the waiter said: " 'Did the gentlemen feel last nitfit's slight earthquake?'" Confident. "We need brains In this business, young man." "Your business shows It sir. That is why I am offering you my services."