A MODERN FAIRY TALE

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 151, 23 December 1921, Page 11

A MODERN FAIRY TALE

THE CRYSTAL SLIPPER UP-TO-DATE Ella Cinder, because of the lack of men during the war, became a street cleaner. Her wages were only 50 dollars a week and all this was needed to keep her two very ugly sisters in silk stockings and movie tickets. She willingly gave up all her money to them because, with men so scarce, they could hardly hope tto capture any without a special drive.' So the poor girl spent her evenings at home, with no amusements except old motion picture magazines collected during the day. On Saturday evening, after her sisters had gone to the Socialists Ball in honour of the President of the' Irish Republic, a knock sounded on her door. It was her fairy godmother, the Reverend J. SmytheBrowne, on his nightly slumming tour. She poured out her soul; he drank it in greedily. It was good material for next Sunday's philippic. Tho Reverend J. Smythe-Browne saw at once that she was Starving for Beauty. "I will bring you an evening gown an' ev'rything," he said. "And you shall go to the ball!" In half an hour he returned with a complete outfit and a black-and-whito taxicab. "One word of warning," ho said as he turned to go. "You must leave the ball promptly at midnight. The clothes those days are so shoddy and the dances so contortious that I fear your beautiful garments will nc>t last more than a few hours." She promised to obey him and ho departed. At the ball she was a succes fou. The President of the Irish Republic danced with her twice and sat out three dances reading extracts of Sinn Fein propaganda to her. The two sisters, who dia not recognise her in her finery, had to content 'themselves with some of the lesser officials of the Irish Republic, and some stray minor poets who were seeking inspiration from a punchless bowl of punch. At tha first stroke of midnight Ella fled precipitately^ leaving behind only a print of her right thumb on a paper napkin. She flew home at full speed.' The President of the Irish Republic did everything in his power to find her, taking thumb prints of many thousands of young ladies, including her ugly sisters. The police are now trying to locate tho driver of the mysterious taxi and arrests are expected almost any month. But their search will be in vaid, for Ella, at last conscious of her real beauty, has fled to Los Angeles, where sho is now a vamp with a motion picture firm. ... Meanwhile, the Reverend J. SmytheBrowne is having a hard time trying to explain to his wife certain mysterious bills for ladies' garments.—By W. Werner in Life. ' :