Show I I Human Interest Sidelights i i I l I By Louise Holt Hall I I I HE was a pretty gazelle eyed I S SHE little creature scarcely creature more than a child although s she ho gave I her age as 17 On a a. bench just outside of ot the juvenile court she sat with face burled buried in her folded arms w while file her sobs reverberated through the corridor The They told me Id I'd be happy If I was good she sobbed and its it's a lie I Iwas Iwas Iwas was never so 50 miserable in my life In answer to a a. question she looked up suspiciously suspicious resentful at first then added I want ant to get married and the judge wont won't let It me They said America was free and it isn't I 1 wish I v was as back in Armenia You probably dont don't know what has happened in Armenia since you were there was volunteered What if I had been massacred It ItI I wouldn't have been as bad as this I She is a ward of the juvenile court and has been for tor several months I want a home I have never had hada a real one she sho confessed At the home the home operated in connection with the juvenile court you are told when to wash your face when to eat when to sleep wear and when to wear wear It I hate i it it They The are good to you arent aren't they i was as asked Oh yes es but I want to live I want to cook for somebody I want a room to tidy There is no fun in tidying a room that belongs to an institution When asked if she was quite sure she loved the man she wished to marry and could be happy with him even though he was more than twenty years her senior she declared age got to do with it it He earns 7 a day and is awa away all day and comes home at night tired and hungry and he needs someone to cook and I 1 need some cooking to do Hes getting off work at noon to marry me and when he finds the judge hasn't given his consent and a I half halt days day's wages is lost hell he'll be furious and wont won't marry me I wish I was 1 dead The girls girl's mother who had sat I stolidly without moving an eyelash during the wh whole le scene seemed suddenly suddenly sud sud- denly denh to come to life Of course a aman aman aman man wont won't marry you when you put him to such troubles was vas her encouraging encouraging en en- remark Tell me his name and his place of ot business and I shall shail telephone and tell I him you have been detained and he will have to walt wait until Monday I of offered ot- ot Mame what Name what does that matter I Ican call can him Norris because I like that name I dont don't know any other Anyway Anyway Any Any- way what's in a name name she de demanded de- de I left lert th the tha question for wiser heads to answer I a aHE HE was a L war mother and had hadnot hadnot I S' S SHE not heard from her son for forman L man many many weeks When she I got the last word he was participating participating par par- in the great drive in par par-I the Argonne forest 11 He TIE had hd to told her of I the terrible slaughter of his comrades I I A letter sent the da day after the armistice armi- armi I I stice slice TV was as signed was was returned by the war department with the curt information information mation matlon Sick written In blue pencil I on the envelope The day following a telegram came I There was no need to look at It Its It's I message was obvious All day she gave up to her sorrow I In a frenz frenzy of grief she crumpled the paper in her hand For months she sheI had been resigned to whatever fate I I should befall her boy Yet it seemed cruel that it should happen just as hostilities were about to cease I I Toward evening she realized that this m wouldn't do She must let his friends know perhaps know perhaps the newspapers I In that case she must force herself to read the message It would probably probably probably ably give the date of ot his death With an effort she tore it open open unfolded the sheet Wishing you a happy birthday and many happy returns she r read ad She hadn't hadn t even thought of her birthday |