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Men's, Women's, Children's Shoes Nobby 'The Shoe Man" Stylish NEW AND SNAPPY STYLES Picking a Present ^ Platt By Douglas Malloch IIEN Harry Piatt and that Klrl friend of the CirooiiB (I forgot hor uanio) were married. It wua ouo of those my j?oodno?H - gracious JuHt-thlnkof-thut af fair*. with no one in ;r. tho nocret excopt tho auburban minister who tlod iho knot, tl?o cul> thr.a v.'ho drive them out thcro and tho ?;irl from tho minirtor's kitchen, who ??va.i n wltneas, and loft a thumb-print >f greaao on tho certificate (Bho waR fr/'ji,": doughnuta 4it tho time) and tho ?nliiister'B wife ( n t l-'-iat tho naxno wan !. ! rame>. i.ct'w 5-<? w?. where was 1? Oh, yes, \vh<Mi in.* i'latta were mar i iv v! , It being that kind of a wedding. Hhv- whh t*?? -Co ut?m! ~4Wm tt w^ddlr.g jrlft as I would have llkod to In or to have doi;o, (whichever la proper, or gram ma ileal, though I'm sure I can never tell which). I3ul Mr I'h-tt is oni. of tho nicest men In the oflleo, that la, he was before this happened. Ro I felt we ought to do something for him, Just to show orr good will ? uml. anyhow, we'vo dig down for others we thought much less of, so why ohouldnt we for him? lint th?< wedding wan over, without in vitations, or even a reception, and they were housekeeping before wc know it So what could wo do? Won, Just then Christmas came ilnng not Just thon bi:t two montha after tlio wedding. They were mar ried October 2'J, so It wasn't qulto two .months, but t h it's c 1 o h o enough. W hen Christmas came along,# that Is, just before It camo along, I sug gested that w? make up a purso and glvo them a sort of delayed wedding present, just to dhow our good will. Every body thought it was a splendid iaoa, tnat is, or course, ?xcopt Mr. j Piatt, whom, of course, I didn't con* ? cult So I got up ? subsorlptton paper ! and went to everybody In the office j (exoQpt Mr. Piatt, course). I tot 186.60, including .tea cents from the1 Janitor, wno wasn't expected to give anything but wanted to give some tiling, which shows ]u?t how popular Mr. Piatt wag with everyone In the building, when a Janitor even would chip in. Christmas shopping la hard enough, g'oodnosu knows, when you do It for yourself; but when you do It for a stock company capitalized at $26.60, with 28 stockholders, with 28 dlfforent kinds of ido.ua and tastes, then Chrlat maB shopping rlse3 above a mere an noyance to tho dlgtijty of a real trou ble. And that's what I was up against. I thought It would be nice to get an expression of opinion. 8o I went around one morning and asked for ideas, liut I couldn't get a word. No body could think of anything. I couldn't myself. At noon I went out and lookod. I walked milee. I priced, thou I went back to the o/llco. You should have eoen my desk. Honest, you would have thought i-oir.o oiio had turned in. a gen era! alarm. They couldn't wait for me to cot back. Thero they were ? 28 oi them, (that la, 27. or 28 with mo). Thoy all had suggestions, and thoy \voi\> all different. The head book keeper thought an arm chair would bo nice. (He stands up all day). The collec tor thought a rain coat would be beat, while, Miss Jones suggested a drees pattern They all said, ol course, that they left it entirely tc me; and then each went away sadly, as much as to say that he hoped 1 wouldn't bo sc foolish as to buy any of those other things that the ? others had pro jjoaed. The next day I looked again. "But either n thing: was too expensive or 1 would have money loft. It is remark able how few things thero ?re In the world yon can buy for $26.60, nc more, no leas. And then I saw it. It was in a de partment store, and marked down from $f?0 to $26.60! There It was, tc a cent! A great, big. glittering, mag nlflcent Punch Howl! Nobody had thought of that! Rut. to make sure, I sent the saleo ticket with it and tolii the Platts they could exchange the punch bqwl, il they wished, for something they liked better. And what do you suppose thos? Platts did? In January they traded in that mag nificent punch bowl for three tons o1 coal! ? (Oopyrlfhv latl) Night Ltf? of Btrtln, Berlin. t ha city which never tlMpi, hag long since outdistanced all Its Kuropean rivals aa a city of eight life. In addition to Its all-night oafea, day break restaurant*, and theaters which only open their doors at midnight, Berlin has now a magnificent bathing establishment which la open every hour in the 2V The newly-built "Ad mirals-Bad" In the SYiedrichstraaae, which has recently been opened, la one of the finest bathing establish monts In all Germany. Ita swimming baths, both women's and men's, are resplendent In the finest majolica marble and bevellod gloss, while the Roman and Turkish baths are more than Oriental in their luxury. A small army of masseurs and attend ants Is rouKtantly on duty, and the great rfoors of the establishment ur? never closed. Attached to the baths Is a !r,rgo and up-to-date restaurant, where Berlin night revellers, after i enjoying n swim at three o'clock In the morning, may bo seen oatlng an early breakfast In their bathing dress. PPOSITE each other In the cony morning room eat a young wojnan and a girl of twolvo. j "Now, Cousin Hilda," said the latter, as she smoothed down her dress and settled herself In her chair, "I'm polng to begin at tho beginning and and tell you all about It, and then we are to go out and buy a Santa Claus present for him." "Yes, Polly,** answered the young woman. . _ "You had gone to Europe. You had hist packed up and skated as it the j police were after you. Mother said she didn't believe you wanted to go ? the least little bit. but that jour moth. I er made you." "Don't talk nonsense^ Pollys "filiated Isn't slang. It means that you just gilded off like a streak of Lightning. You had skated, and I was lonesome, and I was out walking with poor Flora, when a boy came along with a big dog. He was tough. Be was his dog. He shouted at mM " Tako caro of your dog!' ?"Why?-* I answered. "."Cause my dog will ohew him upl' "I was Just going to tell him that If his dog did there would be trouble In the camp, when It sprang upon poor Flora and ended her Hfe. I oant describe my feelings as I saw her breathing her last." "Well, --don't try to ? not tf there's , any slang in It." "Why, Hilda. I bavon't said a slang word. You know how very, very par ticular mother is with me. No, I can't describo my feelings, but I remember that I went for that boy, tooth and toe-nail. I hit and scratched and kicked and bit, and I was doing him up whon? " "Polly Be welll" oxckiimod Miss Hilda In horror. "Now what's happened?" Polly asked. "I told tt to papa Just this way, and 1k> patted mo on the shoul der and called me good girl. As I was saying, I was putting In my beet licks whon along catno a taxi with a fat woman in it. Maybe she was eloping, and maybe she only wanted to get homo to lunch. Maybe the chauffeur yelled *H1!' at me, and maybe he Just wanted to kill another girl. However it was, he ran me down. Yos, oousln, I was knocked out." "You mean you lost consciousness T" "Gracious, but how Ignorant you are for a rflrl of twenty 1 Nobody oan be knocked out without ldsing their consciousness. That's the whole Idea of It. Yes, I wns knocked . out and counted out, and when I came to I was in the hospital with three broken rlbfl. That fat woman must have weighed a ton. It was hours and hours before I camo to, and then ? oh, then ? r ' "Then wtmtr "Then thoro was the lovolleet angel standing beside my cot In the hos pital you ever bbw, Nobody kneW who I was, and they had rung for the ambulanco and taken mo to tho hoB pltal. And, oh, that angel, oousln ? that angel!" I "You moan a nurse, of course." I "I don't. I mean a man ? a doctor. He had hold of my hand. He was looking down on me with his sad, sad eyes. ! saw at onoe that be had some great sorrow on his mind. Yea, he had the finest eyes ? and curly hair, aad a handsome bOm, and whet he spoke to me there was pathos In his voice. And the fan of the whole thing was that I knew him at onoe, while he didn't know me from ? side o t sole-leather. Oh. 70a are inftsseeted. are yonf . - "Polly, X was Joot thinking how Wahtened roo mtui have hesa ta Oft* yourself in aHoelptal/* eald the blush tag Hilda. "Oh, I seel Well, a arm your sym pathy. A hospital with an aogol dootor to fix up your broken ribs Isn't & half bad plaee. In fact, I liked It so wall that J lied to stay there." "Polly BevrellJ" "I sure did. They had gone through my outfit without finding my addreea and had concluded I was a stranger In tho town. When I opened my eyes and sort o' winked at the angel ? r "Polly, that'B surely slang!" "No It lent. I told papa about It, and he said things had oome to a pretty pass If a girl with three broken rfbs oouldnt wink at the angel-doe tor who has sot them. When I had opened my eyes and winked the doc tor said: ** little girl, what Is your name?* " *Itfs Hanah Jones.' " 'And Whero do wou live?* "'At far-off Blackberry Corners.' "Polly, you ought lo have boon sent to jnll!" wan the. emphatic comment. "V n T hn<! !::y,ttttlo eclioruo'to work, Uuatod for five day? before he found me. and then It was ten more before the angel would let him take mo home. Oousln Hilda, a girl who Is the real thing can aocom pllsh a heap in fifteen days, even If Bhe has broken ribs. I wanted to havo a chat with that angel on outside mat ters, and I had throe or four of them. You ought to havo seen.hiB faoe whon 1 told him whore I had seen him be fore and asked if ho didn't remember me." "But ? but I don't ? don't ? " pro tested Hilda In a puzzled way. "But you will In Just a minute. 1 told him I had seen him in this very house! Now, then!" "Polly, it wasn't ? ?" "Oh, It wasn't oh? Want tp bet a $20 hat it wasnt? Of course it was. and I was bo mad at you that It set my broken ribs back all of three days. Dr. Charles Mortimer, and because he Isn't rich your mother is down on him and she skated you off to Europe. Oh, l got on to the racket right away." 'Tolly Bewell, you aro a wicked girl! You use slang, and you lib to the doctor, and you meddlo with other people's affairs, and ? and ? " "And such dark eyes ? and (such a deep, pathetic vo!6o! And we had several confidential chats together ? very "confidential. We didn't even let a trained nurse oome within ten feet of us. Hildc, you don't know how confidential a girl becomes when three of her ribs are broken and she la afraid to draw long breaths 1" "And ? and you talked about? met" "We . did. 1 told him Just what I thought of your mother, and I told him I was going to havs a plain talk with you* and I told him ? " "Polly Sewell* 111 never speak to you again!" declared Miss Hilda aa ?he roae and tried to look very angry. "You'll hare to, aa we are going down town right away to buy ChrtsV S5 J* a.d*_|ohool Klfce. 1 wi> s^you lo help me pick out something for our augel-doctor.**' "Tou ? you oan do that by Tour Mil." _ "Dut you oan tell me whether the' diamonds are all O. K. or not. No rhlnestones for the angel with the deep, dark eyes. Dear me, while I cant help bWt grieve about, poor Flore'e death. I almost wlah I oould "You Moan o Nurse, of Course." I have three rlbe broken on tho other side!" It was three days before Christmas, and the streets were crowded and the stores packed like a ward caucus. It was crowd and Jam and push. The cousins had to link hands to prevent separation. They had visited two or three Btores and were still In the Jam when Polly suddenly disengaged her hand and whispered: "Watch my hike!" K And ten seoonds later she was lost In the crowd* and the angel-doctoi and Miss Hilda Fitch stood face to face: They were penned In. They had to lean against a show-case and. hold their own. They had to talk and say things, and by and by the angel-doctor had to help select the presents for the Sunday school ohl!v dren and tb help Miss Hilda through t the Jam to a taxi, and ? and ? "Say, now,** observed the twelve year-old Polly when she made a oall three daye later on her cousin* "I float claim to know everything, but ] do know when to ? to hike!" And. she wasst ewe* aatoed what W meant!