Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 295, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1913 — Page 2

JOHN PAWN PROMININ! CITIZEN

by EMERSON HOUGH

AUTHOR/'THEMISSISSIPPr BUBBLE: 51-10 OR FIGHT.

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SYNOPSIS. John Rawn Is born In Texas. Early In life he shows signs of masterfulness ano Inordinate selfishness. He marries L a , UI ‘ a Johnson. He is,- a clerk in a St. Louis railway office When his daughter Grace Is born. Years later he hears Grace s lover, a young engineer named Charles Halsey, speak of a scheme to utilize the lost current of electricity. He appropriates the Idea as his own and Induces Halsey to perfect an experimental machine. He forms a company. With himself as president. at a salary of SIOO,OOO a year, ana Halsev as superintendent of the works, at a salary of $5,000. Rawn takes charge of the office <n Chicago. Virginia Delaware is assigned as his stenographer: She assists in picking the furniture and decoration for the princely mansion Rawn has vrected. Mrs. Rawn feels out of place in the new surroundings. Halsev goes to New York with Rawn and Miss Delaware to explain delays in perfecting the new motor to the impatient directors. He gets a message that a deformed daughter has been born to his wife, Grace Rawn. Rawn bargains with' Miss Delaware to •wear his jewelry and appear in public with him, as a means to help him tn a business way. Rawn Is fortunate in market speculations, piles up wealth and attains prominence. He frets because his wife does not rise with him In a social way. He gives her a million dollars to leave him. He asks his daughter. Mrs. Halsey, to take charge of his household. Grace moves to Graystone hall, and Halsey continues to live alone In the cottage near the works. Halsey’s machine proves a success, but he keeps the fact a secret. CHAPTER Xl.—Continued. Continually in our American aristocracy—and in that, par consequence, of Europe—we find ladles whose fathers were laborers, shop-keepers, soap-makers, butchers, this or that, anything you like. So only they had ' money, they did as well as any to wear European coronets, to assist at royal coronations. And, having proved their powers in swift forgetfulness, they offer as good proof as any, of the scientific fact that gentleness of heart and soul and conduct are not things transmissible even ,to the third and fourth generation,' either in America or Europe. Your real aristocrat perhaps after all, is made, not born. As to Virginia Delaware, daughter of the baker, John Dahlen, in St. Louis, she started out in life with the deliberate Intent of being a lady, knowing very well that this is America, where all things come to<her or her who does not wait. In some way! as has been said, she had achieved graduation at a famous school w’here the art of being a lady is dispensed. She had. indeed, even now and then seen a lady in real life; not to mention many supposed ladies in theatrical life, playing the part as to them seemed „fit, and far better than any lady could. The soul finds its outward expression in the body. The ambition shapes the soul. It was wholly logical and natural that, having her particular ambition —that of many girls— Virginia Delaware should grow up tall, dignified, beautiful, composed, selfrestraining, kindly, gracious; these being qualities which in her training •were accepted as properly pertaining and belonging to all aristocrats. We have already seen that, put to the test, in the midst of our best aristocrats — those who frequent the most highly gilded and glazed hotels in New York —she was accepted unhesitatingly as of the charmed circle, even by the bead waiters. Had you yourself seen ber upon the Chicago streets, passing to her daily occupation, you also in ;all likelihood would have commented iipon her as a rich young woman, and one of birth, breeding and beauty. We have spoken somewhat regarding the futility of mottoes and maxims in the case of an ambitious man. As much might be said regarding their lack of applicability to the needs of an ambitious woman. Virginia Delaware would have made her own maxims, had she needed any; and had she been obliged to choose a coat of arms, she surely would have selected the Chris tian motto of “Onward and Upward." The best aid in any ambition lies in the intensity of thit ambition. We all are what we really desire to be, each can have what he really covets, if he will pay the price for it. In her gentleness with her associates, in her dignity and composure with her employ er, in her conduct upon the street and In the crowded car, in all situations and conditions arising in her own life. v irglnia Delaware diligently played the part of lady as best she comprehended that; because she had the Intense ambition to be a lady. She continually was in training. Moreover, rhe had that self-restraint which has I-ven owned by every woman who ever i cached any high place in history. She J ept herself In hand, and she herself not cheap. Likewise, after the Tashten of all successful politicians, •he cast aside acquaintances who might be pleasant but who probably would be of little use, and pinned her faith to those who promised to be of future value. Such a woman as that can not be stopped—unless she shall, unfortunately, fall in love. • If there was calumny, Virginia Dare heeded it not. She accosted all graciously and with dignity, as a lady should. And all this time her great personal beauty Increased to such a point as to drive most of her fair associates about the headquarters' offices to the verge of rage. To be beautiful •nd aristocratic both assuredly is to tnrtte hatred! it is almost as bad as tj »e rich Miss, Delaware i Bowed

hatred to run its course Unnoted. She needed no maxims over her desk, required no ancestral coat of arms. She was an arisfocrat. and meant to be accepted as such. In all likelihood—though simple folk may not read a woman’s* mind—she saw further into thei future than did John Rawn himself.

There remained, then, as against the ambition of Virginia Delaware, the one pitfall of love, and even this she easily avoided. Beautiful as she unquestionably was. admired as she certainly was, if there had been fire in this girl’s heart for any man, she kept it either extinguished or well banked for a later time. She had gently declined the heart and hand of every male clerk in the office. She had chosen her own ways, and was not to be diverted. Cool, ambitious, perfectly in hand, she went her way, and bided her time.

Cool, ambitious, perfectly in hand. John Rawn also went his way in life. Two more ambitious souls than these, or two more alike, you scarcely could have found in all the descendants of the two bucaneer-monarchs we have named.

And Rawn continually found something responsive in the soul of this young woman, something that never found its way into speech on either side. She was the type of devotion and of efficiency. Gently, without any ostentation, she took upon herself a’ vast burden of detail; and she added thereto an unobtrusive personal service upon which Rawn unconsciously came more and more to depend. Did he lack any little accustomed implement or appliance, she found it for him forthwith. Did he forget a name, a date, a filing record, it was she who supplied it out of a memory Infallible as a fine machine. From this, it was but an easy step to the point where the young woman’s unobtrusive aid became useful even beyond • business hours. John Rawn had never studied to play any social role. Did he need counsel in any social situation, she, tactfully hesitatant and modest, al-

She Had Chosen Her Own Ways.

ways was ready to tell him what he should do, what others should do. Had he an appointment, it was she who reminded him of it, and it was she who had made it. Were there personal bills to pay, It was she who paid them. She presided over his personal bank account, and there was no hour when she could not have named the dollars and cents in his balance. Did he wish to avoid an unwelcome visitor, it was arranged for him delicately and without offense. Little by little, she had become indispensable, both in a business and a SQifial way—a fact which John Rawn did n’ot fully realize, but which she knew perfectly well. It had never been within her plan to be anything less than that. She knew, although he did not, that John Rawn also was indispensable to her.

Rawn came from no social station himself, and as we have seen, had grown up ignorant of conventional life, so that now he remained careless of routine now that this young woman should attend in all his visits to the East in business matters —where, in short,, he could not have got along without her. There was talk over this —unjust talk—and much amused comment on the fact that the two seemed so Inseparable. Rawn did not know or note it. They literally were running together hunting tn couple in the great chase of ambition. Few knew now what the salary of the president’s private secretary represented in round figures. Certainly she dressed as a lady. Certainly also she comported herself as one. It was. in the opinion of John Rawn. no one's business that he registered himself at the New Yprk hotels, and either did not register his companion at all, or else contented himself with the wholly I descriptive word. “Lady" opposite they number of the room whose bills he told the clerk to charge to 61k account Never wasjfewre the slightest ground for suspicion of actual impropriety between John Rawn and Miss Delaware bad taste there certainly was, for Rawn. without explanation or apology to any. alwa ate in company

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

of his assistant, was constantly seen with her on the streets, at the opera, the play. He showed, in short, that he found her society wholly agreeable upon every possible occasion, if this was in bad taste, if many or most, in the usual guess, put it at the point of Impropriety, John Rawn gave himself no concern. The Rawn aristocracy began in him. He founded it, was its Charlemagne, its William the Conqueror, as ruthless, as regardless of others, as selfish, as megalomaniac as the best of kings. Here, therefore, were two aristocrats! They ran well in couple It is not to be supposed that a girl so shrewd as Virginia Delaware could fail to realize the full import of all this. She let the slings and arrows fall upon the buckler of her perfect dignity and her perfect beauty, but she felt their impact. She was perfectly in hand, knew perfectly well her mind, knew perfectly well the price she must pay. She let matters take their course, knowing that they were advancing safely and surely in one direction, that which she desired. She was more skilled in human nature than her employer, saw deeper into a man’s heart than he had ever looked into a woman’s!

And then, at last, the life schedule of Virginia Delaware was verified. At last, the inevitable happened. On one of these many trips to New York, Miss Delaware had been alone in her apartments at the hotel for most of the afternoon. In the evening, before the dinner hour, she was summoned to meet Mr. Rawn in one of the hotel parlors. At once she noted his suppressed excitement He scarce could wait until they were alone, in a far corner of the room, before explaining to her the cause.

"1 don’t like to say this. Miss Delaware,” he began, “but I’_ye got to do it!”

“What do you mean, Mr. Rawn?" she replied in her usual low and clear tones.

“There’s been talk!” “Talk? About what?” “Us!" “About us? What can you mean, Mr. Rawn?” she asked. “The world is so confoundedly small, my dear girl, that it seems everything you do is known by everybody else. Of course, a man like myself is in the public eye;, but we’ve always minded our business, and it ought not to have been anybody else’s business beyond that.” “You disturb me, Mr. Rawn! What has happened?”

“ —But now, to-night, now—just a little while ago—l met this jpllow Ackerman—you know him —big man in the company—used to be general traffic manager down in St. Louis, on the old railroad where I began—well, he was drunk, and he talked.” “What could he say?” “He got me by the coat collar and proceeded to tell me how much —how much—well, to tell the truth, he connected your name and mine. If he wasn’t drunk—and a director —I’d go down there yet and smash his face for him! What business was it of his? Of course, men don’t mind such things so much. But when it comes to you—why, my ddar girl!” The truth has already been stated regarding John Rawn; that, batrachlan, half-dormant for almost half a century, and then putting into business what energy most men put into love and sex, he had passed a life of singular innocence, or ignorance, as to womankind. He had never countenanced much gossip about women, becaups he had little interest in the topic. The grande passion marks most of us for its own now and again, or 1? to be feared now and again; but the grande passion had passed by John Rawn. He was now approaching fifty years of age. Married he had been, and divorced; but he had not yet been in love.

He now spoke to his like, his mate in the hunt, of the opposite sex, a young woman who at thht very moment was as beautiful a creature as might have been found on all Manhattan, a woman known in all Man hattan now as the mysterious “Lady of the Lightnings,” the goddess of the stock certificates of one of the Inost mammoth American corporations, a creature over whom Manhattan’s most critical libertines were crazed —and helpless; moreover, a woman who, out of all those in the great caravanserai at that moment might as well as any have been chosen as the very type of gentle breeding and of gentle womanhood alike. But she had not, yet been in love.

“I don’t understand, Mr. Rawn.” repeated she slowly. “What possible ground could Mr. Ackerman have had?

SHOWING REAL BOY’S HEART

LetteVby No Means Brilliant Literary Composition, but the Sentiment Was There.

From a thlrteen-'year-old boy in a far-away ocean Island comes the following belated fetter to- a woman "pal" of hie: “I hope through the year that has began success will follow you in all your projects and if you have made any resolutions which you wish to carry out, you will be enabled tn so doing. “If the superstition comes true that what you are doing at New Year’s you will do all through the year, I certainly will lead a very quiet and temperate life; I was peacefully slumbering.

“I received your letter this morning, and am glad to hear that you en-

You surely don’t think he could have spoken to anyone else?”

“I wouldn’t put that past Ackerman when he’s drunk. If he’d talk to ma he would to others. And you know perfectly well that when talk beglnr about a woman, it never stops!" “No, that is the cruel part of it.” Her voice trembled just enough, her eyes became just sufficiently and discreetly moist; she choked a little, just sufficiently. >4 "It is cruel." she said, with a pathetic little sigh, "but the hand of every man seems to be against a woman. Did you ever stop to think, Mr. Rawn, how helpless, how hopeless, we really are. we women?”

He flung himself closer upon the couch beside her, his face troubled, as she went on with her gentle protest “All my life I’ve done right as nearly as I knew, Mr. Rawn. Perhaps I was wrong in coming to trust so much to you—to depend on you so much. It all seemed so natural, that I’ve just let matters go on, almost without any thought. I’ve only been auxiqus to do my work—that was all. But this cruel talk about us—well —it can have but one end. I must go.” "Go? Leave me? You’ll do nothing of the sort! I’ll take care of this thing myself, I say—l’ll stand between you and all that sort of talk.” “Mr. Rawn, I don’t understand you.” They sat close together on this brocaded couch among many other brocaded equehes. Crystal and color and gilt and ivory were all about them; pictures, works of art in bronze and marble and costly porcelains. The air was heavy with fragrance, dripping with soft melody and music. She was beautiful, a beautiful young woman. He caught one glance into her wide, pathetic eyes ere she turned and bent her head. He caught the fragrance of her hair —that strange fragrance of a woman’s hair. Dejected, drooping as she sat, her hands clasped loosely in her lap. he could see the bent column of her beautiful white neck, the curve of her beautiful shoulders, white, flawless. •

The flower on her bosom rose and fell in her emotion. She was a woman. She was beautiful. She was young. Something subtle, powerful, mysterious, stole into the air. She was a woman!

Suddenly this thought came to John Rawn like a sudden blow in the face. It came in a sense hitherto unknown to him in all his life. Now he understood what life might be. saw what delight might be! He saw now that all along he had admired this girl and only been unconscious of his admiration. God! what hid he lost, all these years! He, John Rawn, had lived all tiiese years, and had not loved!

He reached out timidly and touched her round, white arm, to attract her attention. She flinched from him a trifle, and he also from her. Fire ran through her veins as from a cup of wine, heady and strong. He was a boy, a young man discovering life. The glory of life, the reason, had been here all this time, and he had not suspected it. What deed for pity had been wrought! He, John Rawn, never before had known what love might be! He was the last man on Manhattan to go mad over Virginia Delaware.

She drew back from him, seeing the flush upon his face, color rising to her own. Indeed, the power of the man, his sudden, vast passion, were not lost upon hei*, different as he was from the idol of a young girl’s dreams. But Virginia Delaware saw more than the physical .image of this man beside her. She knew what he had to share, what power, what wealth, what station. She knew well enough what John Rawn could do; and she gaged her own value to him by the flush on his face, the glitter in his eye. <

For one moment she paused.. For one moment heredity, the way of her own people, had its way. For one moment she saw another face, different from this flushed and corded one bent near. It was for but a moment; then ambition once more took charge of her soul and her body alike.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

Offers Hair for Pardon.

Mrs. Irvin Dodd of Boston, imploring the pardon committee of the governor's council to release her husband, serving two years for larceny, offered to sell her raven black hair, which reached to the ground, if thereby she could secure money to pay back an express ‘company the SSOO which he was convicted of stealing. Dennis D. Driscoll, assistant penal commissioner, appeared before the committee to urge that the pardon be granted. Judge Ely, who sentenced Dodd, sent a letter favoring a pardon.

joyed the presents. Shall I take the Statement that you were surprised that I made the leather articles as a compliment or otherwise? “I am sorry, too, that the suit would not look appropriate on me. I will make the best use of the money you sent, and can enjoy a spring suit as much as the other, if different circumstances prevailed. "My cold was not so bad on Christmas as before, so I was not made miserable on a day to be given to joy.” And he was hers truly—and no foolishness about it Yet he is the same boy l who can’t eat if Her letters don’t reach him on time.

Hospitable.

“Well, did New York appeal to you?” "Yes. It was.‘welcome’ when I came, and ‘well done* when I want." —Cornell Widow.

Messina Stillin in Ruins

MOIJE than four years have flown since I steamed up these classic straits ‘ on the morrow of the most appalling catastrophe in human history, writes Austin West, correspondent of the London Chronicle. In less than half a minute at that dull December dawn, what the world of today talks of as “the Messina earthquake” had shattered into dust no fewer than twenty-four towns along the Siculo-Calabrian seaboard. The devastation caused by shocks, by tidal wave and devouring flames extended over an area of 100 square • miles. With just one swipe of his scythe Death had mowed down nigh upon a quarter of a million members of humanity. Here, banked by mountains and lying snug between the fiery breasts of Etna and Vesuvius, slumbers the new twentieth century Pompeii.

On approaching its magnificent sickle shaped harbor—suggestive of Messina’s ancient name of Zankle — one sees that the long, stately sweep of palatial facades along the Marine, which formerly seemed to be playing a hideous joke in belying the utter destruction hidden behind, has lately been in part demolished, exposing vhridly to view that vast necropolis where almost every crumbled edifice is at once an altar and a tomb. The harbor works, which ought to have been among the very first concerns in reconstruction, are instead the most neglected. The government gave out £IOO,OOO of repair work nearly a year ago, but the contractors have not yet started on the job.

I ’found the port much as I had Iqft it. Yet, so lucky is Messina by virtue of its natural position that, despite all drawbacks, the world’s ships prefer dropping anchor here in increasing numbers, and its port trade Is greater than before the disaster. Neptune Alone Remain*. Wavelets ripple over the sunken wharves, the quayside and adjacent streets remain rent asunder in mighty gaps: the Parade all uphoven, smashed, and incumbered with rubbish as when the tidal wave, 150 feet’ in height, retired after its vent of herculean casitgation. One object rivets attention. The giant form of Neptune, trident in hand, surveys the scene serenely from the summit of his superb fountain. The sea has respected its god. Pious folk pointed me to the survival, of this and like pagan memories, in contrast with the annihilation of their own sacred shrines, as proof positive, that the quake was ttiq handiwork of demons. Among the most artistic sanes of Old Messina was the fourteenth century church of San Nlccolo. Several months the calamity a commission of civil engineers reported .the building to the authorities as being in an exceedingly dangerous epnditlon, and an order was issued for its Immediate closure to public worship. San Nlccolo is the one solitary chdrch which the great earthquake spared! The grand old Norman cathedral which ,bravely withstood the upheavals of BQO years presents an unforgettable appearance. Cleared of its mountain of debris, the interior—3os feet long and 145 feet across—looks as though it had fallen prey to the iconoclasm of a barbarian horde. Sculptured fragments of its glorious baptistery, pulpit and royal tombs are piled in the nave. Twenty-two gigantic pillars of granite that upheld the clerestory lie smashed and tumbled about the pavement in impressive chaos.

What a wonderful history has been theirs! Centuries Christ trod the earth these columns reared their heads aloft in the famous Temple of

BCENE IN MESSINA.

Neptune alongside Charbydis at the northern’ extremity of x the straits. From their niches in the massive outer walls which, to an unequal height, are all that is left standing of the holy place, mutilated statues of apostles stare around, some in amazement, some in unconcern, or as if pointing out in mute melancholy the havoc encompassing them. In a corner by the west entrance lies the great peal of quaintly inscribed bells, Incrusted with verdigris. Several of the smaller ones are uncracked. Grass has grown thick on the ruined wall tops, over which it is proposed to extend a roof of light material, and so preserve the relics as a national monument. ‘ Rich in Burled Treasure.

The art treasures in this cathedral w’ere valued at SIO,OOO. The gem laden high altar —erected in 1628 for enshrining a letter said to have been sent by the Virgin Mary' to the people of Messina through St. Paul, prpmlsing their city everlasting protection against all calamities —was perhaps the costliest in Christendom; for the bills recently recovered from the burled archives show that the price paid was 3,800,000 lire, or nearly |l,000,000. TJhe sanctuary, with its remnants of gorgeous mosaic apse, has been stoutly built around. All photographing is forbidden, and I was informed that the authorities, for some

unascertainable reason, had bought up or sequestrated all existing pictures. The night watchman inside told me they always bad to do duty in groups, and armed with revolvers, tb repel the incursions of sacreligious depredators; /md that, in spite of all, large quantities of precious mosaic, marbles, statuary and so forth had been plundered.

ODD NAMES GIVEN TO DISHES

Fabulous Animals Appear Right Along at the Dinner and Supper Table. > When one comes to think of It, It Is surprising how many fabulous animals come regularly to the dinner ta- • ble or supper table. Among them, of course, the most familiar is the Welsh rabbit, which In Its original form was merely toasted cheese. Some folk declare that the name is a corruption of “rarebit,” but this has never been proved. Scotch woodcock Is two slices of hot buttered toast, with an anchovy on each slice, and a sauce made of a half-pint of milk and the yolks of three eggs poured over them. The mock turtle is one of the most familiar of fabulous table animals, being “Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" will be found a striking picture of the remarkable reptile, represented with the body nt a turtle and the head of a calf. Mock turtle is a roll of chopped meat and bread crumbs baked. Mock crab Is made by mixing equal parts of grated cheese and butter, season- 1 inr with salt, pepper and vinegar, and adding a few drops on slices of dry toast or sometimes served in crab shells. .<> .

Jugend has heard of Miss Marie Lloyd’s reception in New York, and now it publishes a picture of a woman and a man Just landed and standing before a window In which a brutally official head appears. There Is this dialogue: "A Officer— Are you a singer! Are yon married? Singer—No; the gentleman accompanies me only on ths plana Officer—Get outl

Mads In Germany.