Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 309, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1913 — JOHN RAWN PROMINENT CITIZEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JOHN RAWN PROMINENT CITIZEN

by EMERSON HOUGH

AUTHORy THEMSSISSIPPI BUBBLE; 51-10 OR FIGHT. iILDSTRATIONS^ KXWM&rr /XU £Y f/V£fcSQff rtOZ/GH

14 . SYNOPSIB. John Rawn, a clerk In a. St. railway office, hears his daughter Grace s lover, a young engineer* named L-naries .Halsey, speak of a scheme to utilize the lost current of electricity. He appropriates the idea as-his own and induces to perfect an experimental machine, we forms a company, with himself as president. at a salary of J100.0CK) a Halsey as superintendent of the works, ai a salary of $5,000. Rawn takes charge Of the office in Chicago, ytrginla Etelaware IS assigned as his stenographer, sne assists in picking the furniture and decoration for the princely manslqn Rawn nas •erected. Mrs. Rawn feels out of place in the new surroundings. Halsey t goes t New York with Rawn and Miss ueiaw%re to explain delays in' perfecting th new motor to the impatient directors. He gets a message that a deformed daughter nas been born to his wife, Grace Rawn. Rawn bargains with Miss Delaware t wear his Jewelry and appear in Photic 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 wile a million dollars to leave him. He asks his daughter, Mrs. Halsey, to take' charge or 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 ne 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. • CHAPTER XV. The Becond Current. "Charles.” said Virginia Rawn. “Charley—” And always her white hand touched his shoulder, his arm, his hand— “You really mustn’t go. Believe me, you’ll both he sorry tomorrow. You don’t know what you’re doing! You’re only angry now. You’ll both be sorry.” Her eyes glowed, evaded. Halsey shook his head. “It’s all over, so far as I’m Concerned.” His eyes glowing, sought hers. “Why, Charley, boy, that’s all foolishness. Don’t you know how wrong it is to talk in that way? What hasn’t Mr. Rawn done for you? And she’s your wife!” “He has done little for me and much for himself,” he answered hotly. “As for her, his daughter, she left me for him and what he could give her. She liked this sort of./thing rather better than what I could do for her. She weighed it up, one side against the other, and she chose this. Most ■women would, I suppose.” "Charley, how you talk!” Her voice, reproving, none the less Was very gentle. very soft. “One would think you were a regular misanthrope. The next thing, you’ll he saying that I was that sort of a woman because I live here. Of course, other things being equal, any woman likes comfort. But you to think that we all would choose luxury to love.” "Don’t —don’t you all?” demanded the uffhappy youth. “Some do, of course. Would you? Haven't you?” He was reckless, brutal, now. The young woman before him started, shivered. She passecT a hand gropingly Across her bosom, across her brow. There 'was a strained; very strong quality in the air of Graystone Hall that evening. Thought seemed to leap to thought, mind to mind, swiftly, without trouble for many words. These two at last looked at each other face to face, deliberately, she gazing beneath Heavy, half-closed lids, a superb a beautiful a creature for any man’s admiration, Hq, was a manly young chap. He stood a victor as she had seen but now. He gazed at. her out of eyes open and direct. Reckless, brutal in his despair, he now allowed —for the first time in all their many meetings—his heart d> show through his eyes. For the first time, their eyes met full. “You must not ask that,” said she quickly. “1 wouldn't want to tell you anything but the truth about It." She was breathing faster now. “What is the truth about it? I want to know if any woman is worth while. J’m down and out myself, and it doesn't master for me. I just wondered.” / “I used to see you often about the office,” said she irrelevantly, “when . you came in to see Mr. Rawn. I, rather thought Grace was lucky, then! • l was Just a girl then, you know. Charley.” “What do you mean, Mrs. Rawn ?” “Nothing. What did you think I meant?* v “I didn’t know. I’ve never dared think much. I supposed everything was going to .pome out right somehow. Now it's come out wrong. I don’t know Just where it -began. Don’t you see, Mrs. Rawn, it’s ail like a faul•ty conclusion In logic? It builds up fine for a long time. Then all at once things go wrong—it’s absurd, andi jtdu wonder why. Well, it’s because thebe’s what you call a .faulty premise somewhere down close to the start. If that’s the case, there Isn’t anything In all the world is ever going to make a conclusion come out right I reckon there’s a wrong premise somewhere down in my life, or ours, or In this!'’ —He swept an arm,, indicating Mr. Bawn’s opulent surroundings. ~

“I’m only a woman, Charley. Maybe I don’t understand you.” “Well, I’ll tell you. There’s wealth, luxury, everything here. Where did they get it? They took more than their share.” . “Now you’re talking like a Socialist. Mr. Rawn tells me you are a Socialist. Charley.” “I don’t believe I am. But I believe a good many would be if they’d gone through what I have. Now, what those two took, they took from me—what got from me. I don’t mind that. ,Ts.e big trouble is —the wrong premjse about it is—that what they took they took from this people, this country. And there are so many who even are hungry." “Oh, we’d never get done if we began that way! All success does that way, you know that,. Not all can he richr” Her eyes still came about to him. “Yes, all success succeeds —until that wrong premise comes out. Then there’s trouble!” “Are you going to sell us out. Charley?” she demanded suddenly. / “I never sold out anybody. Dm the one that’s been sold out.” “Aren’t we your real friends?” "No. You ought to he, but yon aren’t. The only friends I’ve got are over there in the factory—Jim and Ann Sullivan, Tim Carney—a few of the working-men that stuck it through. They’ve‘killed five men for ub over there. Their sluggers are out all the time.- As for me, I don’t fit in, either there or here. Look here. Mrs. Rawn,” he went on, turning upon Stdr suddenly and placing his hand impulsively on hers. “Let me tell you something. I haven’t sold out —I’m not going to. Where do you stand yourself?” Her eyelids fluttered. “Charley,” said she, “you know better than to ask me that.” "Yes, I suppose 1 do,” he answered

slowly and bitterly. “You stand for this place, for everything that money can buy. Have they made you happy? I often wonder—does money really make people happy? Are you happy?” His eyes were very somber, very direct. “I wonder If I am,” said phe suddenly; “and I, wonder how you dare aßk me. Oh, I’ll admit, to you I’ve been ambitious, and always will be. But do you know, some time I’d like to talk with your friend —with Ann Sullivan!” “Then you’d begin to get at life. You’d be getting down to premises, then, that aren’t wrong-wlth Ann Sullivan and her sort!” “Oh. well, I reckon you’d only find a little sincerity and honesty, and, well —maybe—love, that’s all. Just the things I didn’t get myself. Have you?” "Why didn’t you?” She ignored his brutal query. “Because I’m a theorist. Because I’m a visionary and a fool, I reckon. Because I like to see fair play even in a dog fight, and the people of this country aren’t getting fair play. Because I’m the sort of fool that Mr. Rawn isn’t. There’s the difference! “Are vomhappy, Mrs. Rawn?” again he demanded suddenly, since she still was silent. “Tell me the truth. I think you know I’m not going to talk I’m going away somewhere —anyhow for the summer. I suppose* maybe, this is the last time I’ll ever Bee you—in all my life.” She felt the candor of his speech and replied in like kind, smiling slowly, "No use my lying." she said. “You know I’m not happy. And, yes, I know you'll not talk Who is happy? We all just get on just the best we can. I take, my Joy in making other women envy me. Isn’t .that about all women want? Isn’t that the height and limit of their ambition? Ipn't that success, so tar as a woman is concern? they cling to it. all of them —till they get old? I suppose bo. but I'Tfnow it hm't happiness. Yes, I’ll admit to you I do miss something."* His eyes rested upon her, searching. Unconsciously she looked down at her wrists. The red mark of his fingers still lingered tberq, “I’ll have.

f::■ : . .jr to ask Ann Sullivan some time." she laughed. "One thing,” answered Halsey. “She’d tell you that she isn’t to get the envy of her neighbors. I don't •belieye she’d be happy in that!” “Oh, hut she’s fresh over- —she’s not American yet. don’t you see? She had a chance can’t tell' what she would do if she were rich.” “There are) two ways of looking at it,” said Halsey musingly, his anger passing, now leaving him meditative, relaxed. They were talking now as though there were not two others, unhappy, waiting on the gallery near by. “I’ll tell you something, if you’ll let me talk about myself, Mrs. Rawn.” “Go on; I’m glad!” “I don’t suppose you care for things that interest me. You Sailed me a Socialist I’ll admit that I studied a lot about that, attended their meetings, all that sort of thing. Maybe that made me think. It seems to me that money is rolling up too fast in this country now—we’re all mad about money. It’s like the big apple with no taste to it. I had it offered me to choose between those two, and took the little apple that to me seemed sweeter. "Now, I’ve perfected that Invention. It’ll make somebody rich any time I say the word —any time I like .that bi£ apple and not the little time I like that success which comes from outside and not from inside. But I’ve figured that that doesn’t mean happiness. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know. Somehow T believe that Abraham Lincoln, or John Ruskin, or Jim Sullivan, or Tim, or Ann, or Sir Isaac Newton —any- thinking person —any philosopher—would come in with me about this. I broke up the machines.” “Why—where it meant ruin?” “Because they’d tighten up the grip of a few men on the neck of the people! I don’t know whether you call that being a Socialist on not, and I don’t care Change is coming. It’s not the fault of the poor that it’s coming. It’s the fault of the rich. I broke them up—because things can’t go on this way, money rolling up all tha time for a few, and life getting harder all the time for so many. God didn’t make the rivers and the mountains and forests for that purpose —to give them to a few. We’ve got to make changes, and big ones, in this government, or'we’re gone. I’m >no Socialist at all. I don’t want what some one else has won—ls he’s won it fair. But the wrong is in our government —the very one of all on earth that meant fair play. We don’t get it—now. Some day we must. I don’t see what difference it makes what name you give the new form of government. There must be that’s all; or else we’re gone! “Well, now, what they wanted me to do was to give that all to a few. I couldn’t do it! My God! Mrs. Rawn, 1 faced it and I tried, and I couldn’t do it! Maybe I was wrong. Anyhow,here I stand.” “Do you know,” she said at length, slowly, “these are things that never came to my mind in all my life? I never in all my life thought of any of these things. I only wanted—” “You wanted to win. You wanted what most American women do — money—station—power —to be envied; that’s what you played > for. Well, you’ve won! Look at all this about you. I don’t suppose there’s a woman in this town more admired by men or more envied by women than you. You’ve got what you craved, I recken." “I thought I had. But row, tonight. I’m not so sure!" “You couldn’t give it up” he sneered, “any more than Grace could, and she couldn’t any more than a leopard could change its spots. It goes too deep. You couldn’t expect anything different. , “I told you I was a student, Mrs. Rawn,” he went on after a time. “I haven’t got much mind. But somehow, while I don’t suppose religion can change business very much, I think of the twelve disciples and their Master, trying to lift the load off of human beings, trying to lift the people of tile world up above the day of tooth and claw. I don't reckon they can do it. But you see, each fellow has to choose for himself. I’ve Had this put before me. I could have thrown in with Rawn —I can do so yet, right here, now,' as you know. I can hold him up, as he would hold me up. or any one else —I can take his money—fifty thousand, a million —I don’t think he’s really got as much money as most people think. He’s in debt, deep That’s all right so long as your credit is .good. He has had all sorts of credit —and it depended on me —on my invention. It wasn’t his. It isn’t going to be. I’ve told yott^why. —But

you see, I could make him divide even with him take a third, a fourth, Of what I’d won. He’d liave to come to terms. He knows that. All J rtgbt, I'm not going to do it! Failure as I am. I’ve got a few ideas which i think are right. Maybe I got them £rom Ann Sullivan—l don’t know! Go ask her about things.” * ■ “And you won’t put back the machines? Not qven for me?’ “Not even for you.” he “Not that I know what you mean by that.” He looked at her keenly. His toilstained hands twitched uneasily in his lap. “You’re talking about things that never cable into my thoughts in all my life,” said she. with the same strange direct look at him. “But you couldn’t expect an ignorant woman to learn it all in one night, could you?” “I’m not trying to convert you, Mrs. Rawn. I’m going to leave this place. You’ll not see me again. But I’m not trying to change you. I wouldn’t —’ “Listen!” she broke out sharply. “I’m set to do that for you—l’m expected by him. out there, to change you. Isn’t that the truth? Didn’t you see?” -'“Yes, it’s, easy to see,” he answered grimly. “It’s up to you.” “It’s up to you and me, Charley, yes. You can ruin me and all of us by walking out that door. You can break the lives of those twcv people out there, and mine, yes, of course you can, and your own. —You can do all that. You can make me come down from this place where you say everybody envies me. and you can have everybody laughing at me and forgetting me in less than six months’ time. You can get me snubbed, if you like; you can make me wretched and miserable, if you like. Of course you can. Do you want to do that?” “It isn’t fair to put It before me* in that way.” “I do put it before you in that way. But that isn’t the worst of what you could do—you’d leave me unsettled and unhappy for ever if you went away tonight that Way—Charley—” ■ “What can you mean?” “Things are moving fast tonight, Charley, and we’re discussing matters pretty openly—” “Yes,” he nodded. “I don’t want to set a wife against her husband. Neither must you. But the truth Is. , Mr. Rawn is not what a good many think he is—” “Do you think that’s news to me?” she asked of him, and looked full into his eyes. “Good God, Mrs. Rawn! What do you mean?” “Much what you do!” “But you loved him—you married him!" * “Oh, yes, surely. That was some months ago. But you see, there’s a distinction between master and superior.” “I’m very miserable,” was his sim; pie answer. “Things are getting too much confused for me. And now you say you’d never be happy if I left you now, tonight—” “Then why go, so long as we are so confused? Why don’t you wait? I’ve asked you to! Do you expect to settle all this in a half-hour’s time, in a passion of anger? Now listen. Although he’s my husband, and she’s your wife, I don’t blame you. I’m only asking you to wait a little. I’m making it personal, Charley!” “How dare you do that, Mrs. Rawn?” “Because I have the right to do it! I don’t intend to have you make me more unhappy than I am. I’ve Just told you I’m not happy. I don’t know —” She laughed a little amused ripple of laughter—“but I’d have been happier if he had handled you as you did him! I’m not talking Just the way I meant to when I came through those doors to stop you. I’m like you —it’s all confusing—l’ll have to wait, the same as you. There’s a lot of things to be figured out! I’m covetous of everything in the world—that any woman ever had—/rom the queen of England to Ann Suljivan! Yes, I’m ambitions, I’ll admit that And you’ve set me thinking—l’m wondering—wondering what really is the best a woman can get out of life.” “Mrs. Rawn', you’ve got success as you understand it, by marrying a middle-aged man. You’re young.” She shook her head. “It isn’t possible," said she frankly, catching his thought “I’m far enough along to see that!” iTO BE CONTINUED.)

“You Know I’m Not Happy."