He walked away and she hurried after him, holding out the magazine. He smacked it from her hands, then pushed her so she fell onto the dusty gravel. “And don’t you follow me, you little fink. I see you again, I’ll put your lights out.”

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

THE PORTER BROUGHT him the newspapers after they’d left Kansas City.

“Like you asked, Mr. Chaplin.” The porter opened the door to the private compartment and handed him the Chicago Tribune. “I know you wanted the New York papers, but we can’t get them out here.”

Chaplin tucked the newspaper under his arm and nodded, counted out enough coins to cover the cost, and dropped them into the man’s hand. The porter remained as he was, smiling. Of course, he was expecting a tip.

Instead Chaplin gifted him with a huge grin and a half bow, pretending to doff a hat. The porter laughed as Chaplin swiftly closed the door. The man would dine out on that for much longer than he would a dime.

The train had left Chicago late that morning, a good thing as otherwise he might have missed it. It always took him longer to pack his suitcase than he anticipated. His breakfast tray had been delivered as requested. A poached egg, toast and butter, bacon, half a grapefruit. He didn’t care for grapefruit but couldn’t forgo the novelty.

And orange juice! The bacon was crisp American bacon, not very nice. He peeled the bits of fat from it and left the rest. The coffee had cooled, but he didn’t mind that. Coffee was also a novelty.

He settled in his chair, picked up his coffee cup and a piece of cold toast, and scanned the headlines. For the last few weeks, the Eastland ship disaster had supplanted the European war in the papers. The vast tourist steamer had capsized at its dock on the Chicago River, killing eight hundred forty-four of its twenty-five hundred passengers. More than were lost on the Lusitania back in May, and more passengers than had died on the Titanic.

But now, that tragedy was no longer front-page stuff. Unlike the sinking of the Lusitania, it couldn’t be used as military propaganda. He read of several failed British military ventures in the Ottoman Empire and turned the page.

His gaze fell upon a photograph of a young man, his cheek pressed against that of a pretty little girl in a long-waisted dress patterned with embroidered daisies, a large bow atop her curls.

For Charlie Chaplin, Nothing Amiss with This Miss

The popular moving picture actor made a surprise appearance at Essanay Studios in Chicago, where he made a new friend. Pretty Miss Maria Walewski, twelve years old, is an aspiring thespian. “I hope Maria might work with me someday,” Chaplin said. She will make her first appearance in a new Sweedie comedy starring comic Wallace Beery.