Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 304, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1913 — JOHN PAWN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JOHN PAWN

PROMINENT CITIZEN

EMERSON HOUGH

THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE; 51-10 OR EIGHT. ILLUSTRATIONS CQMMGtir J9J2 W MM/GH

John Hawn, a clerk in a St. Louie railway office, hears his daughter Grace's l» v ? r ’ a y° un ß engineer named Charles Halsey, speak of a scheme to utilise 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 1100,000 a year, and Halsey as superintendent of the works, at a salary of $5,000. Rawn takes chafge of the office in Chicago. Virginia Delaware is assigned as his stenographer. She askrats In picking the furniture and decoration for the princely mansion Rawn has erected. Mrs. Rawn feels out of place in. the new surroundings. Halsey 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 3 and appear tn public with , him, as a means to help him In a business way. Rawn is fortunate In market speculations, piles up wealth and attains prominence. He gives his wife 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 tn the cottage near the works. Halsey’s machine proves a success, but he keeps the fact a secret. Virginia Delaware becomes more and more indispensable to Rawn. He takes her to New York on a business trip. Idle talk prompts him to offer her marriage. They are married. Halsey threatens to get a divorce because his wife refuses to return to him. He tells Rawn that he has broken up all the machines after proving the success of the invention. Rawn, in a great rage, threatens to kill him. Halsey declares he will never build another machine for Rawn and slaps his face. Virginia Rawn Implores Halsey to reconsider, because his decision will ruin them all. Halsey tells Virginia that he has ahawßloned nis invention because it would put a great power in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many.

CHAPTER XV.—Continued. "You know what Mr. Rawn did when he Wished to change—he -put away, xyhat he had, and reached out for that which he had not. For my own part, I don’t see how any woman could be happy with him. He ruined the life of one woman, his wife; of another, his daughter. Now, you tell me he hasn't made an absolutely happy life for yet another woman—yourself. Oh. it’s brutal for me to say it, but it’s true, and you’ve just said it’s true ” "If only it could come to the question of what a woman really wanted « —’’ she resumed, pondering. "That’s for each woman to figure out for herself, Mrs. Rawn. I’ve only said what most American women want We’re living in a wholesome and beautiful age, Mrs. Rawn!” "I thought I was right!” said she suddenly, looking "Now I believe I was wrong. Charley—” "It’s in the air," she said, as though to herself, after a time, finding him silent, troubled, pale. "Don’t you know, Charley— ’’ She turned to him He leaned toward her. now, his lined young face illuminated with sudden emotion. "I wish I could explain that to you, Mrs. Rawn.’’ said he. "I feel it, too! 1 Now maybe we can understand ! How did I drive my car over here, charged from one of our overhead motors? Ah. that’s my secret. But I took it out of the air! That motor of ours was in tune with it—the great power that’s in the air, everywhere. Mrs. Rawn, it’s getting in tune with the world that makes you bappy. Nothing else Is going to do it! Get in tune with the plan! All I’ve ever done in my receiving-motor has been to get in tune with the hills and the rivers and the forests—with life." She leaned toward him now, that on her face which he had never seen there before. He looked her fair in the eyes and went on, firmly, strongly "I’ve done that; and I’ve said to myself that I wasn’t going to throw that away and give it to a few, when it. belonged to everybody. lam unhappy as you are; more so. I’m not in tune with life as we live it No, I certainly am not But I know that to be perfectly happy we’ve got to get in tune with the purpose of the world. What is it? What is that second current? I don’t know. What is it? You tell me— ’’ "I’ll tell you what I believe," said Virginia Rawn slowly, her hands dropping in her lap, her face pale. “I shouldn’t wonder if it was—love!" "And that belongs to everybody, not just a few—to every one—not just to the rich men, with money to buy what they want?” He was looking at her keenly now. "To everybody?” She shook her head. “Not always, Charley." "Why not—Virginia ?"

CHAPTER XVI. Means to an End. "Well, he’s gone, then?" Rawn turned toward hie wife a face years older than It had been an hour ago, a face haggard and lined, pasty In color. His bitter agitation was evident in his voice, in his 'expression, In the stoop of his shoulders—in a score of signs not usual with him. Virginia was even more noncommittal than, her wont as she faced him. Grace had disappeared. "What did you do-‘■how did you handle him, Jennie?" he began—“you were talking for over an hour there! Did you manage to hold things together—will he let up?" She faced him now, as he stood in the blaze of the electric lights ip) the interior of the house, where Halsey had left her. in the chair from Which she had not moved since his departure. Every delicate, clearcut feature was

fully visible now. Her lips just parted to show the double row of white teeth In a faint smile. Her chin was a trifle up, her head high. “He will wait a little while,” she answered quietly. “At least, I think so." “Good! Fine! I knew you’d do it, Jennie! You’re a wonder—l don’t think there’s a woman tn all the world like you!” He advanced toward her. “Don’t paw me over! "she exclaimed, drawing back.

“Well, now, then—l only meant —" "I don’t want to talk,” she said. “He’s gone, yes, and he’ll not do anything for a little while, I think. It’s enough for tonight—l’m tired. This has been a horrible evening for me. I never thought to seS*a time like this!" x

"frorrible for all of us!” exclaimed John Rawn. "That man took advantage of me out there —I ought to have wrung his neck for him, and I would have done It if it hadn’t been for you, two women. Of course, we don’t want scenes if they can be avoided, for there’s no telling what talk might run into If It got out. But just the same, Jennie, don't you see—” and his face assumed a still more anxious look—“he can ruin us all whenever he gets ready, and he’s wise enough to know that. I can’t do anything with him, now. Something’s gone wrong with him, and I don’t know what!” “No, you don’t know what,” she said slowly, “I don’t thlnk>you in the least imagine what!” “Do you. then?” he demanded. "If you do, why don’t you tell? Do you know that everything we’ve got in the world is up at stake on this? He can kill my credit, he can split this cqpipany wide open, he can break me In spite of all. See what he’s done in

return for what I’ve done for him? Sometimes I wonder If there’s such a thing as honor left in the world P “So! Do you?” She rose now, and would havte left him. "Well, I want to talk this over with you. Please, Jennie. Sit down," he said. “Tell me what you said. 1 want to know where things are, so I can act tomorrow—or maybe even before tomorrow. You don't realize what a hole I’m in."

“What did I say to him?” ghe repeated, looking down at her wrists. "Nothing very much. I told him If he went on he’d ruin us all; that It wasn’t right for him to do it. I told him we wanted him —I wanted him—to wait—for my sake.” "For your sake?" “Yes, I did,” she answered calmly. "I said that."

“It was best!” he cried, rising and walking up and down excitedly. "What a mind you have, Jennie—what a woman you are! Where’d I be without you, I wonder now? Why, of course, that was the way! Any man will do anything that you tell him to, especially a young man—of course, of course!"

"Thank you," she commented coldly; “thank you very much.” He sought to put a consoling or an explanatory hand on her shoulder, but she shook him off, shivering. "I don’t mean anything," he began confusedly. "Get me straight, now. I only wanted to say that when you work for me in this you are working for your own sake also. It’s all up to you,, Jennie, right now. If you can't land him, we’re gone—it’s no use my trying to do anything with him. Do you know, I’m going to send you out after him.” "Send me out?"

“Yes; things have to be done the best way they can be done. That fellow can say one word whlch’ll ruin us in one day’s time. He can break the values in International more than we can mend in months. Our men would begin to cover as soon as they caught a hint that anything was really wrong. As for me, I’m spread out for millions in the general market If they began to hammer me I couldn’t come through—l wouldn’t last a week. The thing to do is to keep this news safe until I can protect myself—until I can protect us all. Now it’s you. Jennie, that’s got to do that—ft’s you! I'm sending you out after him."

“I-always thought, Mr. Rawn.” said She, “that you played a dangerous game, so long as you simply trusted ’that he’d do anything you told him." ■ “Yes, I see it now. But he always was odd—he always held something back. I tell you, he’s crazy! Now, he’s either just crazy over his fool SocialiSfeideas, or else he’s going to hold out for a squeeze. In the first case you can handle him. In the second. I can.

"You see —I couldn’t tell our directorate,” he went on; "but there was always something lacking which I couldn’t handle myself. We need him. and we’ve got to have him! You can get him, I know you can. You can do anything you like. You're wonderful!"

She sat and looked at him, her lips still parted in the same enigmatic smile which he did not like to see, but she made no answer, f "What’s wrong with him?” he went on Immediately. “What does he* say. Is the trouble,, anyway? And is it the truth that he’s got overhead current?” She nodded. “Of course, I .know something about it from my work in the office. Yes, he told me that he had done what you have all been trying to do so long. He said he came over under power from the overhead — just as he told you.” “He may be lying, for all we know. You can’t look at a car and tell where its charge came from. Electricity is eltectricity, to all intents and purposes. What 1 want to know is, what he’s got against us, anyhow, Jennie?” “Well, for one thing, he seemed troubled because Grace would not go back with him. He seemed to think that you and the life you could give her had been the reason for her abandoning him.” “Why, what nonsense! Grace hasn’t abandoned him! And I only got her over here because I needed’'Jtier myself—before—well, before we '* were married. Who was to take care of me, like to know? And you say he complains of that!” “That was one of the things.” “But’ Grace would go back? She’s none too well pleased now, since yon and I have taken charge here. She’d go back to Charley tomorrow if he asked her—why, I’d make him take care of her, of course. The trouble with him is, he values his own personal affairs too much. That’s no way to begin in the business world, A man has to lend everything to the one purpose of success. Look at me, for instance.”

She did look at him, calmly, coldly, without the tremor of an eyelid, without raising her hand to touch him as he stood close by, without indeed making any verbal answer. A slight shudder passed over her, visible in the twitch of her shoulders. “It’s getting cooler!” he exclaimed. “I’ll fetch a wrap for you.” And so .hastened away, obsequious, uxorious, as he always was with her. "But Charley never woqld take any counsel from anybody.” resumed he presently. “He’s always been tractable enough, that’s true; never raised much of a disturbance until tonight—l don’t see why he cut up so ugly now. He’s not crazy over Grace, and if the truth be told, Grace isn’t the sort of girl that a man would get crazy over. You’re that sort” “Perhaps not,” she smiled faintly. "Just the same, Grace’s attitude may have started hljn to thinljing. When he began thinking he seemed to conclude that all the world was wrong.” “And he’s staining in to set ff right! He’s going in for the uplift stunt, eh? That’s the way with a lot of these reformers! They want to set the world right according to their own ideas. They don’t pay any attention to the men who keep them from starving. I made that boy—what he’s got he owes to me.” >

“Indeed! How singular! He says that it’s just the other way about; that what you have you took from him! He says you want to take more—more than your share—from things that belong to everybody ” "What’s that! What’s that! Well, now, of all the insane idiocy I ever heard! Good God, what next! Him. Charles Halsey, the man I brought up with me! Jennie, I never heard the like of that in all my time.” “But if that’s the way be feels, now’s not the time to argue that with him!"

“But, good God, the effrontery—" "All the world is full of effrontery, Mr. Rawn,” she said—continuing to address him formally, as she always did. “It’s buy and sell. Everything we get we pay for in one way or another. Even if we took power out of the air by ’our overhead motors.

we’d pay for that, one way of another . —nothing comes ‘from nothing—we pay, we pay -all the time, Mr. Rawn!” "You don’t need to go into theories and generalizations;” said he testily. “We’ve had enough ot that from him. We are both practical. You simply get that man and bring him back into the feai, that’s all! Do your share?* “My share? It’s easy, isn’t it?’ She smiled at him again annoyingly. "But you can do it.” “Yes, I can do it. But I evade the truth I just told you. I'd. have to You’d have to pay.” '“Welje beggars, and can’t choose,” said John Rawn savagely. “Besides, there’s ho harm done—l’m not asking you to do anything improper, anything to compromise yourself—but get him, that’s all! And when we’ve got him in hand—when I know what I want to know —I’ll wring him dry and throw Rim on the scrap heap. That’s what I’ll do with him!”

“Yes, I think you would,” she said. "It’s the only right thing to do,” Rawn fumed. “He’ll get what’s coming to him. He’s been throwing down his one best friend." “Are there any best friends in business, Mr. Rawn?” she asked“Of course there are. Haven’t I been a friend to him; haven’t I got a lot of friefids of my own?” ’‘What would they do for you tomorrow, Mr. Rawn?” ’

“Well, that’s a different matter; they might take care of themselves—l would take care of myself. But, this fool here that I’m asking you to handle isn’t taking care of himself or anyone else. He’s ■ crazy, that’s all about him! Did he hand you out any of this talk about the rights of man? I more than half suspect him of sympathizing with these labor unions. He’s a Socialist at heart, that’s what he is!” V

She nodded her head a little. “Names don’t make much difference in such matters.”

“Isn’t it a funny thing,” he rejoined, turning to her in his walk, “that the very men who have faile<| f the very ones who most need help themselves, are the ones who are out to help everybody else! The blind always want to lead the blind! These labor unions depend on us for their daily bread and butter, yet they want to fight us all the time. There’s no trust in this country so big as the labor trust, and there’s no ingratitude in the world like that of the laboring man’s. “Why, look at me, Jennie—you know something of my plans. This very month I was going to put fifty thousand dollars more Into my co-operative farm in the south, a thing I have been working out for the benefit of my laboring people. I’m going to do more than old Carnegie has done! You and I ought to have set up some kind of prizes, medals —start some sort of hero competition. Helping colleges is old. and so are libraries old. I don’t place myself ,any station back of Rockefeller himself. The Rockefeller Foundatian was a great idea, justwalt ’ TH raise him out of the game! When I get all my plans made, they’ll sneak of John Rawn when they mentiomphilanthropy! “And just to think, Jennie,” he went on excitedly, “that all such big plans for the good of humanity, should come to nothing! To be held up and handicapped by the folly of a man who has never been able to do anything for himself'or anyone else! It makes mt sick to think of it. He claims to be a friend of the laboring people, and here he’s. tying the hands of the greatest friend of the laboring men in this town today—myself, John Rawn, standing here! Why, if I’d hand this country the John Rawn Foundation for Industrial assistance, all thought out, all financed, all ready to go to work tomorrow, that crazy fool there, with his Socialist ideas, would block it all. He’s going to block it all. “Now, it’s up to you. You’re the only one that can keep him from doing that very thing. Don't you see, it isn’t just you and me he’s ruining. It Isn’t himself he’s ruining. He’s going to hurt the whole country.’ Jennie, there’s considerable responsibility on you to-night. Where he is wrong is in thinking that the weak can help the weak. It’s the other way about—it’e the strong that can help—Power! —that’s what copnta! It’s for yoi. to show him that. Jennie, girl—it’s not so much myself. But think of your country.” "Yes,” she nodded, "that’s precisely It!" (TO BE CONTINUED.)

A man generally loses confidence in humanity a year or so after humanity has lost confidence in him.

"He Will Walt a Little While.”