Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1912 — The RING and the MAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The RING and the MAN

With some incidental EHUM/ON 1b IDE WOMAN Cymi3 Town sznd Brady /u.(/Sr#AT7GM3 fy JD£/WBOf9NMCLY/tl ■ "" ’ ■ ■ ■ - __.

SYNOPSIS. ▲ foollßh roun* tenderfoot become* CMdnated irttß the bold, artful wife of a drunken proepoctcr In a western mlnlnx town. They prepare to elope Id a bllndIn* bllctara out are confronted by the maudlin husband. Be la Shot by the Wtf*. buj the chivalrous boy pin* a note tc> {he body taking the crime non hlmsalf. In their flight to the railroad station the woman's horse rails exhausted, til* youth puts her on Ms own and follow* hanging to the stirrup strap. Seeing hs la an Impediment, the woman thrusts her escort Into a snow drift and rides on. Batf-frosen he stumbles Into the railroad station Just as tb* train hears the woman away. Tw**ty-*es rears later, this man. George Oormly, Is a multi-millionaire (n New Yeto. Hs meet* Eleanor Haldane, a beautiful and wealthy settlement worker, and 00-operate* with her in her work. Oormly becomes owner of a steamship Him and And* himself frustrated In pier and track extension plan* by grafting aldermen backed by the Gotham Traction ootnpany. An automobile accident brings the Haldanes to his country home. Gormly announces that he will be mayor of New York and redeem the city from corruption. The political declaration of the merchant prince produced a tremendous sensation. The whole machinery of the city's detective force la to be used to dig up something damaging to Gormly. The nreee heretofore unanimously favorable to the merchant candidate, under pressure, divide* and the oampalgn waxes Warm. A reeolutlonXla Introduced granting a gratuitous renewal of the traction franchise. Gormly offers ten million dollars for the franchise. Miss Haldane congratulates Oormly on what ahe terms a new Declaration of Independence, and he makes an unexpected declaration of love. He la shocked by the confirmation of his suspicions that her father is the head and backbone of the' notorious traction eoaspany which he la attempting to overthrow. Young Haldane discovers his father's connection with the Gotham Traction company, and la Incensed. In an Interview between Gormly end Haldane the latter practically offers his daughter's hand aa a bribe for Gormly to withdraw. Gormly refuse*. CHAPTER Xlll,—Continued. *1 love your daughter in ways that t doubt you are able to understand; but I would not take her on such conditions as those you mean me to Infer ; I would not degrade her by thinking of her on such terms, even If I lost her forever. I am unworthy of her now, God knows! bat I would be so far beneath her under such circumstances thnt 1 could not even look at her again. I don't understand how she could have been born of such a father." ~I will not be talked to In that manner by you, sir,” cried Haldane, who did not lack courage. “I here and now definitely decline your proposal for my daughter’s hand." "I will take that declination from kir. and from no one else!” said Gormly. “She will repeat it, I am sure, if she hears with what Insolence you have treated me.” £ "And I pray God for the sake of her lore toward you and her respect toward you that she may never hear one word of what you have said. I have had enough of this Interview, Mr. Haldane." He turned to the door. "Wait!” said Haldane. "To hear another Infamous proposition from you?” t "No, air. But I have something more to say. and it Is this: Tou are not io invulnerable yourself, sir, but that you might be glad for a little Judiclous silence.” “What do you mean?" “Never mind what I mean. You publish what you have there at your peril! 1 warn you that in two days thereafter, your name will ring as a scoundrel and a blackguard throughout the United States." -,“Havlng tried bribery and failed, you now resort to threats,” said Gormly. “But that, you are her father—” He clenched his fist, stood staring a minute, then shrugged his shoulders, shook his head and turned “You won’t be Warned, then?” said Haldane. .“Not by you." > "And you intend to publish my connection?” “Everywhere." “I shall tell Eleanor that you have done it.” “I shall tell her myself,” returned Gormly, tearing open the door. “Haldane," he called, aa he stepped into the hall. When the young man presented himself, he thus addressed him: “Your father and 1 have had a rather painful interview, into the details of which It is not necessary to enter. I have only to say, that the story I fold you goes to the newspapers tonight. And now,” he held out his hand, ‘‘goodby. T wish that we might have fought together until the “But we are going to fight together until the end,” cried the young man fiercely, "I love my father, and until now I have always respected him. , I have been content to follow his lead; but I can do'so no longer.” "You win both of you live to regret. . cried old Haldane after a bitter look at the pair. With his head high he mao-ehed oat through the door. “Do yoar worst!"he said ere he'closed it behind hiflt;: “You will see what will happen to you In a day or two!" ,*Wfcai does it mean r asked Miss • “It means,” said ~LtVtagstone, “that my father is tangled up with i gang «f scoundrels; that he is the brain backbone of the Gotham Freight Traction company that we are fight- - lag; and that he Is in dose alliance With the Sachem aociety. It means feat we—my family and I-*re dia tmmmd. It means that I no longer

have the right to ask y° u what I had intended to ask you when the campaign was over and we had wpn, to be my wife." " ’ ~T “Are you asking me now?’ cried Mias Stewart ecstatically. “1 would beTfJt was proper.” “It is proper," she said, blushing divinely. “You don’t mean—” “You goose!” raid the girl, “I don’t love your father or your family.” Here Gormly turned and west into tin drawing room again. When he carhe back, which he did not do until summoned by Miss Stewart herself, he confronted the blushing pair. “You could not have chosen a truer, better man than Mr. Haldane,” he said. “And as for you, Haldane, you are the luckiest man on earth.” He sighed with envy and regret as be spoke. “I want to do something for you now,” said young Haldane. “Well, there la one. thing you can do for me.” "What is that?” ‘1 want to see your Bister, and immediately.” “I will have her here In ten minutes,” answered the young man, tearing himself away from Miss Stewart without another word. I “““"V - ■Sy-Z* V CHAPTER XIV. Gormly Resists Hit Greatest TemptatlonT" Gormly had faced many difficult situations in his life. Even his succesß-

ful business career bad confronted him with crises of moment. But he had never contemplated anything which imposed so hard a task upon his judgment and his feelings as the approaching interview. What means young Haldane would take to induce his sister to come with him, how much of what had transpired he would tell her, Gormly had no means Of knowing of course; but he felt confident that by hook or crook the young woman would he produced, and that a few minutes would find him face to face with her. He did not in the least know how to begin or what to say, and the more be thought of it the more difficult became the situation. It was well that the time, for reflection was short. It la better for a man who has to do great things to do them before the mental and spiritual enemy has time to instil doubts Into the mind And it was with a feeling of relief In his growing apprehension and misery, therefore, that he heard the front door open. He heard voices that he knew in the hall, and in another moment the library door was opened and Miss Haldane entered the room alone. He bad risen on her approach and stood confronting her. ' She was evidently greatly surprised. • . ‘1 did not know yon were here," she began. “Livingstone did not tell me. I did not expect—” “It was to see me, or rather that I

< I - might see you, that you were brought here, and 1 alone am responsible.” . “It is a most extraordinary proceeding,” said the nervously. . “I can’t Imagine why I was brought to you.” “It was neceasary> for me to see you,’’returned foe man. J “Then why didn’t you come to my/ house?” , v “I could not.” - i “Why not V . “There are reasons which will probably render me torever an unwelcome visitor to your house.” *T believe,” said the girl slowly, slowly, “that something very serious must have happened, or you would hot have had me brought here.” “I can scarcely bear to tell you." “You alarm me beypn4 measurel“ cried the girl, pressing her hands to her breast as if to still its wild throbbing. “You must not keep me in suspense any longer! What is it that you have to teli me? What is it that Is likely to come between us?” “This,” responded Gormly, handing her a few typewritten sheets of paper. “Am I to read this?” she asked, taking it from him and looking very straight at him. '_. ' ; He was very pale now and she was scarcely less white. “Walt!” said the man, as she lifted the paper and bent her head. “Perhaps It would be more merciful to tell you." - “Just as you think best. I am a strong woman. I can bear, anything. Is It about,” there was a long pause—“my father?" He nodded his head. “What has he doner “Miss Haldane,” he began, ”1 say to you quite simply that I would rather be dead than stand here as I do now with the burden of telling you that your father is the head and front, the backbone, the brains, the genius, the everything, of the Gotham Freight company and toe Sachem society.” “My God!” exclaimed Miss Haldane, the paper dropping from her fingers to the floor. She was paler than ever. She stared at him almost in dumb incomprehension. Her body swayed slightly. Gormly stepped closer to her, seized her gently, supported her to a chair by the library table. She put her face

iu her bands and rocked to and iro silently. “It can’t be true,” she said at last. "You are mistaken. Surely not my father In that sinkofcorruption and bribery and iniquity and shame! Say it isn't true!” “I wish to heaven I could say it; but—” The man shook his head. *1 told you that I would rather have been dead than have brought this upon yon." —— . “You are not to blame,” answered the woman, her sense of Justice uppermost “It is the fact itself that kills, if it be a fact There most be some mistake.” “I wish there was.'* “Are you sure absolutely?” ~~~ “Your father-Confessed It here in this room a half hour ago.” “Why do you tell me of It?” "Because” was the answer, “the whole world has to know it, and I preferred to tell you myself rather than let you get it from the newspapers.'” “You are going to publish it?”"Tomorrow, ..morning." c “But wb ? -usrhy?” She threwup Her arms In nervous appeal. “Think," said the man. “It is the one fact that makes my election certain.” “And does your ambition run to the wrecking of my father's good name in order that yon may be elected!" : "No. If yoa wffl think, yon will *- .... “*

"And This Is Why You Made Me That Offer of Marriage?"