SPRING AND MACDOUGAL STREETS, NEW YORK CITY 6, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, W. C., England cants. Foreign postage, $1.00 additional. No extra postage for Canada. Copyright, 1922, by The Ridgway Company, in the United States and Great Britain. The Complete Novel for February The Swan and the Mule By. Della MacLeod Louisiana in the old days when young lovers sometimes encountered that SOME FEBRUARY SHORT STORIES Once Chance Nodded A business story in which truth and fiction are successfully blended By Garet Garrett By Beth B. Gilchrist By John Russell By Walter De Leon Whose "Where the Pavement Ends" won international fame Only the High Spots The pathos of ambition unsupported by success-winning qualities And there will be others in February EVERYBODY'S-out January 15th For further announcements, see page 149 and "The Chimney Corner," page 173 $ Everybody's 28 NUMBER ONE JANUARY, 1923 VOLUME XLVIII MA Miss Commonplace ANY folk go far afield, seeking the woman whom we have named Romance. I know her well, too; also her sister, Miss Commonplace. Unlike the woman named Romance, Miss Commonplace walks with her eyes downcast, wondering, and calling to none to follow her quiet feet, though, I think, hoping that some may follow her. I know a man who for twelve years served as a soldier. He has often been inspected, in all the gaudiness of soldiers' appareling, by presidents and princes. He speaks resignedly of war and places far away from his small shanty. Sometimes, stopping in his labors, he looks up, looking straight ahead, as though he watched an enemy's approach. Yesterday, when I met him out in the sun, shoveling cement, he said, "Little Dicky ain't gettin' no better." Little Dicky is fourteen, but smaller than most healthy boys of eight. He is a shadowy child, with lost eyes and a queer smile, as though he saw something far beyond his childhood. His father works all day in the sun, turning concrete. When I came away from seeing little Dicky, I met him just outside the yard gate. "I ain't worryin'" he said; " 'tain't no use." And added, "I was 'opin' to 'ave paid for sister's funeral first." Little Dicky's sister is gone whither little Dicky soon must follow. I have a great respect for Miss Commonplace, whose eyes are downcast in pity and whose feet follow not any blaring bugle. I think she hears the words of little Dicky's father, seeing, too, the sorrow in his painful face. It's a queer jig, this life of ours. One little narrow street, when you come to know each life upon it, with each heartache and hope, and pride and vanity, holds all of mortal life there is for any one to search into. BILL ADAMS. COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY THE RIDGWAY COMPANY Everybody's Magazine. January, 1923 3 |