Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 311, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1913 — Page 2

PIN RAWN PROMINENT CITIZEN

by EMERSON HOUGH

AUTHORTHE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE; 51-10 OR TIGHT. IitUSTPATIONSJu;

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SYNOPSIS. John Rawn, a clerk In a St- Louis railway office, hears his daughter 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 *IOO,OOO a year, and Halsey as superintendent of the works, at a salary of *5,000. Rawn takes charge of the office In Chicago. Virginia Delaware Is assigned as his stenographer. She assists 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 tne new motor to the impatient directors, rie 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 puDnc with him. as a means to help him in > business way. Rawn is fortunate in mar- , ket speculations, piles up wpalth ana attains prominence. He gives his wire 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 li'e 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 ma- ... chine for Rawn and slaps his face. Virginia Rawn implores Halsey to reconsider, because his decision will ruin them aIL Halsey tells Virginia that he has abandoned his invention because it would put a great power in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many. At Rawn’s instigation Virginia agrees to try to bring Halsey to terms, no matter what it costs. CHAPTER —Continued. "Blit he didn’t affect you in the least, Jennie —he didn’t get you going with that kind of foolishness.” "I never heard any one talk Just as he did, before,” said she slowly. “You see, I hadn’t thought of these things myself, for I’m only a woman. He B&ld that all this power, taken from the hills and the forests and. the air and the rivers, belongs to everybody—to all the world —” "But he didn't impress you with that nonsense, Jennie?” “He said things—l told him .that I’d never thought of life Just that way. And I haven’t, Mr. Ravn. I told him, as I admit to you, that I hadn’t thought of anybody much but myself—l Just tried to climb. I think all women do.” “It’s right they should, it’s the only way. is the one great cause of the world’B progress, my dear.” “Well, I told him that his way of thinking was so new to me, that I needed time to think it over.” "But you didn’t believe a word he said —you never would! ” “Mr. Rawn,” said she, looking him full in the face, “we’ve bdth of us climbed pretty fast. I always put mjr family out of memory ail r could. But somehow I seqm to recollect that my father used to talk of things a good'

“But He Didn’t Impress You With That Nonsense, Jennie?”

•deal as Mr. Halsey does. I begin to realize what I told you a while ago—no matter how or where we climb, we pay for what we get, sometime, somewhere, somehow! “But listen," she leaned toward him with some sudden access of emotion. ’“I can do this much! I’ll agree “to bring In Charley HalSey, bound hand and foot! You can throw him and me, too, on the scrap heap when the >thpe comes! It’s a game. I’ll play (It \ I'll take my chance.” She half iproae, thrilling, vibrant. “I knew you would, Jennie.” "Yes, but you’ll have to pay." "Have I ever said I wouldn’t? Didn’t Just get done telling him l‘d make Jhim rich the minutis he said the ■word?”* * "It doesn’t seem to be, money he 'wants. I—don't —believe —thajt’s_what khe pay would have to be." “What do you mean? You’re getting •too deep for me now. I’m only a plain <man, mj girl!” • She imlled at him, still enigmatic, atlll cool fcnd calm, still almost insolent, as she often was with him. «"He’s been talking all sorts of folly about things in tune—getting gravi-! t«on In tune with labor-all sorts of lanstvections. Well, don’t you see, if

I got. in tune %lth his notions, I might be able to influence him!’’ Rawn grew cold and hard. “There’s one thing we can’t do, Jennie,”’ said he. “We can’t side in with any of his socialistic talk. What he wants to do is to give to the people of this country for nothing what this International Power Company is planning to sell them for ever. What we want is monopoly! I’ve been gambling everything I’ve got on the certainty of that monopoly. I’m in soak, in hock, up to my eyes oh the market, this minute. I’m margined to the full extent of diy credit. The biggest men of America are back of me. I’ll be rich if this thing goes through—one of the richest men in America. But I’d almost rather lose it all than to see you side in with him, or listen for. five minutes to his rotten talk about the ‘rights of man.’ There are no rights of mam except what each man can take for himself! As for him, I’d kill him. or get him killed, if I knew first how he got that current through the receivers. Give me that, and I’ll let the rights of man wait a while. I’ll show them a thing or two! “But of course,” he added, frowning again in helpless perturbation, “we’ve got to get him in hand. Grace couldn’t do it.” “No; on the contrary, I can —if I pay!” “Then pay!” he snarled suddenly, his voice harsh, half choking. “What’s the price—nothing worth mentioning. But it’s got to be paid, no matter what it is. We’re caught, and we’re squeezed! We’ve got to pay, no matter what it is, Jennie!” “Is it no matter to you, Mr. Rawn “How can it be 1 I’m almost cratsy to-night! Do it, that’s all. and draw on me to the limit!” "To the limit, Mr. Rawn?” “To the limit!” He looked her straight in the eye, and she met his gaze fully. She shivered slightly again, but her delicately clean-cut face showed no further sign. Only she shivered, and pulled her wrap a trifle closer about her shoulders. “Very well,” she said. “I may have to draw on you—and mysel,f, too.” “It’s all In the game, Jennie—we’ve got to play it together—we’re two of the same sort—we’ve got to climb, to succeed. We run well together. One must help the other’s hand.” “Yes, it’s a game,” she answered; and so rose, and left him without further word. t John Rawn followed her up the stair, mumbling some sort of conjugal affection, but she left him at the landing and passed toward her own apartments down the hall, giving him hardly even a look of farewell. He followed her with his eyes, standing a little time, his hand resting on the lintel of his own door, v Alone, Rawn seated himself In the Elizabethan arm-chair devised by his most favored decorator as fitting for this .Elizabethan rbom. A vast oak bed, /heavily carved, with deep and curtains, represented the decorator’s idea of what the Virgin Queen preferred. The walls were deeply carved in wainscot and cornice. A rude attempt was made at* strength and simplicity in this, the Banctum of the master of Graystone Hall. Granted the aid of a lively imagination, this might have been the apartment of some feudal lord of another day; as the designer and architect had not failed delicately to. suggest to Mr. Rawn. It Is possible that in the time of Elizabeth pier glasses with heavily carved frames were not common in the size affected by Mr. Rawn in his private apartment. He stood before the great glass now and gazed at what he saw; a face haggard and lined, shoulders stooping a little forward, body a little stooped, a little heavy, a little soft; the watch charm hanging in free air—the figure of a man no longer athletic, if ever so.

Rawn stood engaged in his regular nightly devotions—he made no prayers of eventide beyond that to his mirror. But now something he saw caused him to fling himself into, a seat ,at a smaller glass, where the light was better. He gazed into this also, Something seemed strange about hft eyes, a.bout his mouth. He turned his face slightly sidewiße and studied the deep, triangular lines at the comer of the chin. He saw a roll of fat at the back of his neck, and Observed a certain throatiness, a voluminousness of flesh below the chin. The latter stood out distinct, pushing forward; —the rich man’s chin, the old man’s chin. He lifted a Anger’and touched the arteries on his temples. They were firmer to the touch than once they had been. He looked at the veins on his hands, and realized that they stood fuller than was once the case. His nose, large, Just a trifle bulbous, seemed to him to have gained somewhat in color in late years. He looked at his eyes in eager question-' lng. Yes, they belonged to him! Bqt for some reason they lacked brilliance and Are. They were colder, less lmpressive, less responsive;—the rich man’s eyes, the old man’s eyes. He looked at his hair, now almost white at thte temples. He hesitated for a moment, then picked op a hand glass and

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

deliberately turned his '-back to the mirror. Yes, it was there, a shiny spot of naked epidermic -He knew that, but always, the knowledge and. the proof. For many years his. thick mane of wiry hair had been his pride. «•*/#-: John Rawn turned and put |he hand mirror on the dresser top again. He looked full into the glass at his image once more. His pendulous lower lip drooped, tremulously. He saw his' eyes winking. He saw something else. Yes, to his wonder, to his gasping horror, he saw and revolutionary! A tear was standing in the corner of his eye! It dropped, it trickled down his cheek. John Rawn for the first time in his life was learning what the one game is—and learning Yhat time is the one winner in that one game! lie was old. CHAPTER An Informal Meeting. It must surprise those simple folk. Messieurs Washington, Jefferson, and their like, were they to return to life at this advanced day and gaze upon the admirable republic which they fancied to be founded on immutable principles. As in politics to-day those principles would seem 'proved to have been not quite immutable, so, in commerce, men and methods would appear wholly different from those known in that earlier day. For instance, in commercial matters, the men of that day would now find in daily application a fourth dimension of affairs once wholly unknown; the sixth sense of the modern business man, a delicately di£ferentiated.facuity evolved In the holy of holies where events cast their financial shadows far in advance of themselves; John /Jay, or any financier of Revolutionary time, very likely lacked in that regard, and had but five senses. This keen sense of prophecy, property of modern leaders in finance, was not lacking In the case of the directors of the International Power Company, all and several; and more especially several. Capitalists hunt in packs—but only up to a certain point.- The sauve qui peut has small chivalry about it even in the holy of holies. Within a few days after the turbulent scenes which took place in the quiet surroundings of Graystone Hall, there was held, quite informally, indeed *on a wholly Impromptu basis, a meeting of the greater portion of the directors of the International Power Company. It was a meeting not called by the president, and the president knew nothing of it It was not set for the usual headquarters in the East; on the contrary, by merest chance, these keen-witted mem met by accident in» the western city were located the works and central operating oflflees of the International Power Company. They made their stopping place, as usual, at the National Union Club, where they were less certain to become the prey of prying reporters—a breed detested above all things by tliese and their like. There was, this afternoon, casually present, a' certain gray-haired, fullbodied of full beard and rather portly body. He wasspeaking with President Standley, xjf St. Louis, whd also by merest chance happened to be in town. To them presently came the former general trafllc manager of Mr. Standley’s own road, Ackerman, also present by merest accident Two or three others, moreover, by mere accident, Joined them, figures which were familiar at the long table in the New York headquarters. They looked at one another frankly, and laughed without much reservation. “Well,” said Ackerman, after a time, “let’s sit down and have a little powwow—informally, you know.” The gray-haired man grinned pleasantly again and said nothing, but drew up a chair. „ ■ “Of course, you kno&,” said Standley, as he seated himself, "that our dissatisfied friend, Van, is here in town to-day?” The full-bearded man nodded, and an instant later jerked his head toward the. door. "He’s here in the club, too,” said he, and smiled. "Just happened in, I suppose.” Indeed, as they turned to look they saw advancing, talking animatedly, a rather slender, youngish man of brown eyes and pointed beard; none less than the disgruntled director- who Jhad long ago been so summarily handled by John Rawn, president of the International Power Company. “Hasn’t he got the noße for neyrs, though?” commented admiringly. “Now, who told him there was anything doing?” “He didn’t need to have anybody

TRADE WAR LOWERED PRICES

Residents of German Town Would All Be Well Satisfied If Rivalry * Should Be Kept Up. Readers of a local newspaper at Zerbpt, near Wittenberg, Germany, were' startled the other day to read the following announcement in the advertisement columns: “In consequence of business difficulties the dpck and watch makers of Zerbst have decided to add to their business the sale of margarine.” True enough a day or two later the shdps were selling margarine, and as lt,was labeled with prices that were certainly somewhat lower than the inhabitants of Zerbst had ever before experienced, and was no less certainly well up to the standard to which they were aocustomed, trade was soon very brisk. Most of the Inhabitants treated the matter as a Joke arranged for their

s. tell him,” growled Ackerman. "He can take care of himself. And by Jove! I’m half lncline<f to think that he was a the lucky one to get out the way he did, and when he did.” . -v "Yes, he’B lucky,” said StandHfey gravely. He tafned to see the vast round belly of the gray-bearded man heaving in silent mirth.' The railway magnate obviously was amused. "I don’t know!” remarked Ackerman suddenly. “Others, eh?” , “Well, boys, why not admit it?” rejoined the older man. "We all kijow the facts. We all know why. we’re here. As you said, Ack, let’s hold a little informal,, meeting, and talk over what we had better do!” “How much did you sell!” demanded Standley casually. “Twenty thousand last week. You sold about double that.” “Yes, It’s leaking out, no use denying that! You don’t need to list this thing—lt leaks!” “Of course, Van’s buying it,” said Standley, nodding toward the slender

“There’s Most Always a Lady Standing Around Somewhere.”

figure of the ex-director. “First time I ever knew him to go out for revenge. It doesn’t very often pay." < “Well, I can’t figure it out,” ventured Ackerman. “The stock won’t do him any more good than it does us. He can’t get control over that old bonehead Rawn—l mean our respected president—anyhow, any more than we can. He’s sitting tight, with the papers in his box. I admit that I let go a little, because I figured It was time we were -doing something better than six per cent, with that stock, and all Rawn has done is to make one explanation on top of another. He can’t ( keep on putting that across with me, anyhow. But he can- Uu there, as 1 say, with the control in his hands, looking at those nice pictures of the Lady of the Lightnings, which he had engraved as our. trademark.” “He’s awfully gqpe on her,” spoke up one. “Not that I blame him, either. I hate to sell my stock, because I like the looks of our engraved goddess so much!” “There’s most always a lady standing around somewhere, with the lightning in her hands,” ventured the graybearded man solemnly. They loqked at one another again suggestively, but no one spoke more definite words than that. “Well, we’ve had high-sounding talk put up to us about long enough,” commented Ackerman, at length. “I was one of the first to go in for this, and in it yet, but I don’t want this thing with Rawn in control. Why, look at him—he was just a clerk when he came to us, and here he’s putting on more side than any other man in the town. He’s taken advantage of his situation to play the market in and out, all the time, which couldn’t have done if it hadn’t been for friends like us. He squeezed us into backing him —after we gave him that first littlefiyer in Rubber, and some Oil—that hadn’t cost us anything and didn’t look worth anything. In return he’s handed us promises anj} explanations and hot air, and nothing else. I’ve just got an idea that there’s a man-sized nigger somewhere around this woodpile. For me, I prefer being hung as a little lamb rather than as a full-sized goat Yes, I let go a little International—to Van —I’ll admit. Time enough to get back into the game when we’ve put Rawn out!" (TO BET CONTINUED.)

Sure Sign.

Gabe —"Smith Is the most agreeable ’man I ever met’’ Steve—“ Yes. he acts as though he had somethliil; to sell or was preparing to make s touch.”

benet.t, put some of the grocers were not a little annoyed, and when they protested in due form, the township was rather surprised that the Joke did not come to an end. It is now explained that the sale is scarcely a joke, but a thrust on the part of the watchmakers at several dealers whom they accuse of unloyal competition. For some, time past two- or three dealers in margarine had** been giving away watches as bonuses for the sale of several pounds of their produce, and they had refused to discontinue this sale when politely requested to do so by the watchmakers. Then the jewelers decided to sell margarine without the watches,, and so doing managed to sell it cheaper than the original dealers.

Method of Softening Good.

Pure gold may be softened keep* ing it at the boiling temperature of water for four days.

STILL TRAVEL by STAGE

THE crack of the whip in the hands of the expert stage driver is still heard in the Ozarks on both sides of the Missouri and Arkansas line. This rollicking old style vehicle of early day travel still carries its jdaily load of passengers and mail dn a hum dred different trails through the hills. A thousand little villages that appear as fly specksjton the postal map are served in no other way. The driver is the same old character we knew so well in the early days of the west, except that he is modernized to some extent. He is complacent, loquacious, gossipy and genial in fair grouchy, swearing and pessimistic in bad. Barring the road agents and hostile Indians, the overland trips by stage through the more isolated sections of the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks hold all the romantic interest of the old time trails of the west, says the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Each Route Has Its Interests. Each overland route holds its own interesting anecdotes, its special brand of scenery, its chacteristlcs and Individuality. Each driver knows them all by heart. Each time he talks about them they are magnified. There is a romantic strangeness in the name of every mountain, valley, ridge and hollow. The stage toils slowly up Pine mountain, dashes' gaily around the mouth of Coon Hollow or the Little Sugar Orchard and descends into Turkey Bottom. Coon Hollow blends gracefully into Possum walk, way over to the west, and the driver calls our attention to Buzzards’ Roost, a big white bluff on the river that wind* lazily away like a blue ribbon in the distance. The eye never grows tired, the scene is ever changing. From mountain to farm, from farm to ildge, from ridge to valley, and always no matter where you look a creek or river. Stage travel in the Ozarks Is slow, but sure. It is wasted apprehension to worry about getting to your destination when you clamper into one of the lumbering old vehicles. They; always go through. The driver takes as much pride in coming in on time as the most punctual engineer on any of Hie other fast trains of the west He has a reputation to maintain as well as the skilled railroad engineer and he is fain to tarnish it. * He also has a schedule, furnished by Uncle Sam’s postal department, that calls for a report every time he Is late, and the average stage driver Isn’t called on to make but few. About the only thing that will stop him at all is high water, and only then when the ferry boat is washed away or sunk. Modern times have modernized .the stage driver if they haven’t his vehicle. He does not drink any more and there is no hidden bottle in the boot. It is not because he does not want to drink in most instances, hut because Uncle Sam has put a taboo on it. The taboo was pretty hard to swallow, hut he did —because he liked his job. No driver can drink and no liquor can be carried on any conveyance that carries Uncle Sam’s mail now. He has discarded the broad brimmed felt hat for slouch. He has cut off his long mustache and discarded the high topped boots. ' ’ He does not pack any long barreled guns. He is held up only by some weary pilgrim who tries to worfchlm ,for a free ride, for which he generally falls if there is room. It is weather he wants protected from and the gun has been replaced by* a slicker. That romantic part of overland travel that used to center around the driver’s costume is no longer visible. All the rest is still intact. In the last fifty years all sizes and kinds of horseß and mules have been tried on the stages of the hills as motive power. The medium sized horse has been the greatest and only success. He has stuck and made good. Occasionally some man breaks Into the game with large teams, but it isn’t long before they are limping badly, with tender feet cut to pieces. The roads are rocky and their weight and gait make, them undesirable. «■ With mules the same foot trouble has occurred, and besides this, after a Hw trips they become so slow they

GOING AT FULL SPEED

cannot make the schedule A The average time made by the stage lines in’ the Ozarks today is between three and four miles an hour. On down hill and over level stretches of road this time requires a jogging trot, allowing them to walk uphill. For this work this branch of the government service is probably the poorest paid. All hack lines carry the mail except in rare instances. The carrying of the mail from point to point is let on contract to the highest bidder and in most localities the-peo-ple have bid them down until the unlucky man who is unfortunate enough to land one of them lives pretty close to the ragged edge during that time. This work is harder on horses than any other work in the hill country andthe rough roads bring the blacksmith bill up to the maximum. The parcel post has helped the contractor out a little. *lt has Increased both his load and his pay. .Route of Seventy-Five Miles. The longest daily route that used to be carried in the Ozarks was that route from West Plains, Mo., to Yellville, Ark., a distance of seventy-five miles. The route was eliminated by the building of the White river roadIn the longest days of summer it used to be made between daylight and dark. In winter one started in the dark and got to thd destination soibe time between dark that night and the next morning. This route was a favorv ite one for mining men who came into this section in the ’9os before the railroad was constructed; and the memory of the trip has never fadqd from the mind of the pioneer of this section nor from the minds of the men who came and went. Owing* to the distance the whole trip was made at a spanking gait. Relays were stationed every fifteen miles and some twenty horses were used in making the trip; The big stages then used carried four seats that would hold three to the seat. Those passengers who sat on the outside had to hold to the standards and the middleman had to wedge. The longest route now is from West Plains, Mo., to Gainsville, in Ozark county. Gainsville is the county seat snuggled down on the banks of Lick creek in the shadow of the Three Brother mountains. Next in length is the route from Zinc, Ark., to Protem, Mo., a distance of twenty-five miles, through one of the most picturesque sections of the Write river country of the Ozarks. From Yellville to Rush in Marion county, Arkansas, Is a favorite trip with a. great many. Rush is located at the mouth of the Rush creek on Buffalo river and is famous as s>; zinc mining center. It is located between two rocky bluffs God made some million years ago, and it takes the stage some full two hours to get out of the hole and on top of the hill, with scenery of the wildest, ruggedest kind every foot of the way.

The Grasp of a Hand.

The clasp of two hands is literally a physical contact of two pieces of human flesh. Woefully secular and lifeless It can be! We all know the flabby, the clinging, the nervous, the icy hand-grasp. Yet who haß not sometimes rejoiced in the grasp of a hand that conveys life and love? Two souls are here united by a physical contact which gives birth to new aspirations and new certainties. Two human beings are here linked hand t<v hand in mutual respect, mutual encouragement.—Richard C. Cabot, In the Atlantic.

Burning Cubes of Solid Alcohol.

Cubes of “solid alcohol” are coming into use in Germany and to some extent in America for cooking, heating curling irons or small amounts of water, and for any purpose which requires a small amount of heat for a short time. Put up in pills ot- 1 small containers, solid alcohol Is much more convenient than liquid alcohol, because It can be used on a sheet of metal or asbestos without a burner, and the user knows just how much heat to expect—Popular Mechanics.

" “Is thill > stag party?" , ‘T should judge so, the staggers.” 1

The Signs.