Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 131, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1914 — BROADWAY JONE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BROADWAY JONE

by EDVARD MARSHALL

FROM THE FLAY (X GEORGEN-COfIAN

WITH PHOTOGRAPHS \J FROM SCENES IN TOE PL AY 1

SYNOPSIS. Jackson Jones, nicknamed “Broadway” because ot. his continual glorification of ffew York’s great thoroughfare, is anx-'' ipus to get away from his home town of Jonesrille. Abner Jones, his uncle. Is very angry because Broadway refuses to Settle down and take a place in the gum factory in which ho succeeded to his father's interest. Judge Spotswood informs Broadway that 1380,000 left him by his father is at his disposal. Broadway makes record time in heading for his favorite street in Now York. With his Mew York friend, Robert Wallace, Broadway creates a sensation by his extravagance on the White Way. Four years pass and Broadway suddenly discovers thft he is not only broke, but heavily in debt He applies to his uncle for a loan and receives a package of chewing gum with the advice to chew it and forget his troubles. He quietly seeks work without surress. -,-i CHAPTER lll.—Continued. Rankin brought him a pink envelope upon a little silver tray. Rankin was most careful to bring everything upon a tray. Broadway steadfastly maintained that If a drowning man asked x Rankin to bring help he would first go to get a tray to take It to him on. ' The pink envelope was marked with an elaborate monogram, of which the dominant letter was a “G.” It' was from her whom he had left so short a time before. Mrs. Gerard, by means of it. Implored him to become a member of a theater and supper party for that evening. The note almost was affectionate. The theater and supper parties were to both occur In Broadway! Ah. Broadway! It would be hard to leave It by. the chilly by-path, death, which leads out of the light into the shadows! It occurred to Broadway Jones that he might decently accept this invitation, even if the crowd which she would have would probably be not quite to his liking. Ah, there were crowds upon the thoroughfare he loved which were so fully to his liking! ¥ And then another plan flashed into his mind. Why not give a farewell supper? No one but himself would know it was a farewell supper—all the rest would think It just the best affair of many fine affairs which Broadway Jones had given. The restaurant - Which gave It. would be paid undoubtedly out of the residue of his estate, and if there wasn't any residue the restaurant could well afford to lose, it * - had many thousands of his money. He would make this dinner—no; It would be better to make It a supper—the finest little supper which had yet electrified Broadway. It should sparkle, It should flzs, It should resound with joyful chords and merry laughter; In short that supper should achieve the limit and surpass it Then would he be more content to go. He locked the poison and the firearm carefully In a desk drawer. He called Rankin, and, to that staid servant’s great delight, made out the list of invitations to the wildest supper e he had ever planned; he telephoned to his good friend, the restaurateur. Returning to the study he took the poison and the pistol from the drawer and, put them In another. The second drawer had two looks, while the first drawer had but one. He refused again to think about them until after he had given the extraordinary supper.

CHAPTER IV. : The asphalt glittered with the glaze of recent rain, reflecting coir Au lights of many colors. The sidewalks, crowded with gay theater-goers, wore as colorful and animated as the changing figures of a child’s kaleidoscope, and ho smiled at them. Even the odor of burned-gasoline wMch drowned the perfume of fair women's presence seemed m frankincense and myrrh to Mm—tor tMs was Broadway, the beloved thoroughfare. And was It not to be his last night in its glitter, Ms fast hearing of Its medley, his last glimpsing of its nervous gaiety? He smiled—the wan smile of the prisoner who sees his friends and joys in them before he marches to the guillotine. In the restaurant there wm obvious stir when he arrived. There always was a stir in restaurants when he arrived. With a practiced and a clever eye he examined with great eare the private dining-room wherein was to be sung the swan-song of Ms spendthriftlness. It wm extremely well arranged, th. table wm a (tarilng £ht the flowers were gorgeous and of all-per-vading fragrance, the colored candleehades cast a subdued, artistic glow upon the whole. The head waiter hlmMif, hls nrok enchained in sign of office, wee In personal control of details, Ms staff had been well picked from Broadway’s favorites among subordinates; a very pretty girl, who crown prince, wm ready to accept and Che ? J**. whUe 8 ” a11 boy buttonB ' who WBS to sort and store the outer garments of the brlght m Th. party promptly, coming in a bunch and greeting Broadway variously from the Arm and hearty handctap of Bob Waitae, to ta m(«y fnTtiTiiort*bomliu? kuK nW ’ i ’ BP * M * iXVta Ml M*th?BpSfCtaE? ffiWe wm a Brtter with the entranoe

of Mrs. Gerard, for, as ever, she brought with her her own maid, while her footman waited In the corridor, not for emergencies, but for appearances. t . • Her once pretty but now age-puck-ered face had been as thoroughly concealed as possible with various expensive substances which are found In beauty parlors, and her hair was probably the most costly in that part of town that night, and this is saying much, for very costly tresses sometimes deck the fair on Broadway. The restaurant had wrought evidences of its pride in its allegiance to Broadway’s favorite delicacy. A gigantic floral lobster occupied the center of the table, Its antennae extended toward the host, one of its claws stretched toward the seat reserved for Mrs. Gerard, the other somewhat less fond of the ladies, for It yearned hungrily toward Bob Wallace’s place. At each lady's place were little lobsters, nicely wrought of gold, with jeweled eyes, for each male guest a silver cigarette case had been fashioned into a disconsolate lobster’s shape with curled-up tall and drooping claws devoutly folded on its breast Broadway was a perfect host hospitable, easy, readier to listen than declaim, full of admiration tor the ladles, full of the perfection of good fellowship for his men guests. At first he found it difficult to put out of his mind the thought that this would be the last of all his gorgeous nights on Broadway. The notion fought for permanent position In his head that after these wild hours he would be as far from Broadway as that earnest cow-explorer which was credited with having first laid out the street The thought continually obtruded that this must be to him a funeral, not a festal feast His hand shook as he raised his glass to the flnft toast Visions of that blued-steel automatic pistol and that bottle with Its crimson label floated momently before his eyes. Ah, that steel was not the blue of the diaphanous gown which the pretty Winter Garden dancer wore across the table from him;' oh, how the red of that red label differed from the red of the red roses! It was not at all the red of the red lobster! In his dining he had reached that stage where over-stimulated emotion found an outlet In the bitterest selfcondemnation which he yet had managed to evolve since the beginning of his self-condemnatory days—that Is, since he had. been awakened to the realisation of the disappearance of Ms

patrimony and-the utter hopelessness of everything. He looked at the groat decoration In the.center of the table and said gravely, so that all might hear, although he wm addressing no one but the lobster: "You may be big, old chap, but I know a bigger lobster than you ever were." It happened at that Instant that a pause had come In the excited joyOusnoM about Mm—one of those brief, unexpected silence, which never fail, at leMt once In every dinner-party, to reveal to everyone some saying wMch the sayer wished to have unheard by the majority. Always It is something awkward, inadvertent, stupid or u&wholesome which Is thus made blatantly the property of everybody*, ears. TMs night tt wm our young host's confidential statement to the great, red decorative lobster In the center of his dinner table. There waa a chorus of inquiry. If Broadway know * a blnar lobster, who WM he, and where? "Be careful, Broadway! Don't name any friend of ours! We'd get peevish, hTt"Broadw^r ,T "Name, Broadway; aamel” demanded the whole tabletaL

Gloomy and dissatisfied with that life which he loathed to quit, yet felt that he could not continue, Broadway rose and bowed. “I’m It!” he answered. •!." Protests chorused. "What hard-hearted girl has turned you down, Broadway?" asked the lovely Ines. "Who Is It, Broadway? Who could possibly have the heait or been the fool to do itr Mrs. Gerard, his neighbor, bent on him a glance so languishing that he almost had to turn his face away. “No girl has ever turned me down,** he said, endeavoring to be gay. "No girl has ever had a chance to turn me down. I mean—” Realizing that this did not sound gallant, beipg Instinctively, by nature, a gallant, he would have modified It if he could, but the howl of approbation which arose from all the men, the chorus of mock criticism which arose from all the women, drowned his voice. From all the women except one. That one sat on his right, that woman was a widow and was worth a million. "No girt could turn you down,” she murmured. >■ < Ah, that thought which so repeatedly had festered In his brain! Here were millions which admired him! Here were millions which would pay the debts which had piled up, which would make the bottle with the crimson label and the weapon with the blhed-steel barrel quite unnecessary! Here were millions which would solve the last one of his difficulties and for which, If he accepted them, he could offer adequate return in a devotion which should be at once that of a son for an Indulgent mother and a neardrowned man for his rescuer! Why not? Why not? Why not marry Mrs. Gerard? ' ' ‘ • ?'■ • „ - • ‘ . ' ■ - "No girl could turn you down,” had been her words. - In the' hurly-burly of the questions and the answers, the frolic and the nonsense, he scarcely had an opportunity to speak to her in tender words, but he answered her by scribbling on her menu card: “Couldn’t you?” He felt certain that she gasped with pleasure. "Why do you say such things?” she scribbled. "Because I love you,” the unfortunate youth answered. “I love you, too,” she scribbled in reply. "What sort of game are you two playing there T’ demanded Robert Wallace gaily. “Don’t Interrupt, Bob,” Broadway ordered. "it’s a new kind of game of hearts. It’s played with menu cards. Shut up!” He turned again to his delighted, It ancient partner In the novel pastime. “It can’t be true,” he scribbled. “It is true," she wrote. “Will you marry me?" he scrawled. A With a coy look at him which made him feel a little faint, but without an instant’s hesitation, "Yes," she answered. It was tremendously to the relief of the young host that Bob Wallace, at about this moment, rose and said that he must leave. It seemed to Broadway that the others mattered less. For Wallace his affection was so genuine that It included an Intense desire to hold the man’s respect. Sighing with relief he called the major domo to his side as soon as Bob had gone and whispered to him that all glasses must bo filled. With the intense alacrity which the youthful spendthrift’s orders wore everywhere observed along Broadway, this was attended to, and he rose to his feet with all the dignity ho could command. "Friends," he said, “I want to tell you something. I want to tell you of my luck." "Is ft a hard luck story, Broadway?” someone asked. "Er—yes,” said he. *! mean—” "Jackson!” said a soft votes (perhaps a little cracked) close at his side with something of reproach In it. "For the lady,” be hastily corrected. "Hard luck for the lady. Tm—l’m going to bo married." The men shouted and there were more than one among the ladies who wore seriously agitated, their number being co-equivalent to the number who themselves at one time or another had had hopes of winning Broadway and his millions for their wy own. Everywhere about him rose the Shout: "Who is she, Broadway? Name! Name!” He swayed there on his feet, a somewhat sickly smile upon his face, his hand elaborately spilling champagne on his shirt front, a fart of which be was in ignorance and which no one noted for a time. It was Mrs. Gerard who called attention to it hr elaborately dabbing at him with her handThere were proprietary details even of movement of her hands sad some shrewd wits suspected tor an instant, even though they put the wild idea from them as absurd before it gained firm foothold tai their minds "Who Is she, Broadway? Name! Name! Name!” the shouts insisted. "Guess!” said Broadway strangely. He felt foes worry than he would have felt before he had Imbibed the last few glasses of champagne. He had been drinking very busily since

the dreadful thought had bfeen put Into execution. He had been certain he would need some artificial courage. It gathered in Ms soul and helped Mm fashion an extraordinary smile — vacuous and tremulous, but none the less a smile. “Viola?” hazarded a reckless youth across the. table, and Viola (who was present in the makeup which she had worn from the stage of a near theater, where she had, that evening, acted powerfully the part of a wronged and innocent maidenhood) hoped wildly for an Instant Perhaps Broadway, In hie cups, had decided on this most unusual way of asking her the fateful question! She had had high hopes of Mm. Perhaps—” “No,” he answered tMckly. "Guess again. Three guesses. It’s going to take some brains, I tell you that! Intellect's the only thing'll do It Whoever guesses right gets a cigar.” There was only one among the ladles present who was not favored by some speculative mind, and that one wu the right one. Guesser after guesser named some of the young and vivid creatures of that almost wholly young and vivid feminine company, none guessed the only faded flower in the gay group. Broadway, never dreaming of the ag ony which filled the faded flower’s much powdered bosom because of the omission of her name, feeling few emotions, really, other than the keen sensation of relief from his financial worries, stood smiling somewhat vacantly, but, on the whole, without much pain, upon the puzzled party. “Go on, guess with your brains," he genially suggested. "It's mind, not foot-work, that will win the prize.” But none guessed. Realizing that in tMs was something like reflection on her fitness for the covetable position of consort to the youth, Mrs. Gerard attracted everyone's attention, presently, by a wonderfully feigned embarrassment as she rose and stood by Broadway’s side. . The party gasped, but rose to the occasion as soon as It could get its breath again. It was Incredible, and there were those among the guests who were so sure of this that they believed a joke wm Mdden somewhere in the episode, but the majority were' so well trained to Broadway’s genius for producing mad extravagance that they simply charged this up as one of them. A dancer who had been brought up from the cabaret below after one o’clock and closing time had come, sprang lightly to a table, and, to the destruction of the floral lobster and some notably fine glassware, did a gay pas-seul among the wrecks of sanguinary shells and emptied bottles. The head waiter smiled, knowing that whatever might be broken would be charged up in the bill at double value and paid for without question by the sensational spendthrift, to whose own wealth wm now linked the extraordinary fortune of the recent John Gerard (wholesale leather) who had made his millions, married a very vital lady of his own ripe years and then died of sheer antiquity, to leave her, triumphant In superior vitality, relict and craving for that gaiety which life with him had not provided. "Broadway!” breathed the anctoht lady with a skillful simulation of embarrassment. "You naughty, naughty boy!” ' "Naughty, possibly; but how extremely lucky!” said the wholly unexpected bridegroom-elect without a quiver, much to Ms own surprise and self-congratulation. As It broke up the party rioted with joy, very largely alcoholic. Mrs. Gerard's oar, when It came up from Its hiding place around the corner, wm

straightway encumbered with the flowers from ladies’ corsages, table bouquets and men’s boutonnieres. One enthusiast thrust In a potted palm, and Mrs. Gerard screamed when she Mt on it. Another made a thoughtful contribution of two lobster-claws which, to Ms astonishment, he had found in his hands m he arrived upon the sidewalk. A lady, being under the Impression that the wedding had been celebrated while she briefly napped up at the tables Insisted upon throwing one white satin slipper at her whom she believed to be the bride, refusing to accept the theory that Mrs. Gerard wm, as yet, only Broadway's fiancee. “But you can’t walk without it," her escort pleaded earnestly. ‘Td limp a year for Broadway," she Insisted, missed Mrs. Gerard's coiffure by a quarter of an Inch and then burst Into tears. Four yellow government notes were placed in circulation in police circles before the long and rangy touring car reached the granite archway which invited entrance ten stories underneath the bachelor apartment In which Rankin waited for Mm, sleeping, but with <me ear open for the riot which frequently attended the home-coming of his master. ’ v

The car had scarcely come to a standstill before both eyes were open. And as the eyes appeared from their snug hiding places behind fat lids, Ms ears achieved astonishment. His maeter had returned at early hours on previous occasions accompanied by merry friends, but they hsCd never chosen as their happy, matin song, the "Wedding March from Lohengrin.” What could It mean? Going to the window he craned out, trying to see what was going on upon the sidewalk, but the extending cornice underneath the window made this quite Impossible, although the touring car beyond the curb wm visible. TMs lacked Interest, so he hurried to the Outer hall, where he stood near the elevator shaft and listened earnestly. Presently, as the group succeeded In getting up the three stairs leading from the sidewalk Into the ground floor hall, he caught a word or two of tMck, congratulatory talk. " 'Sh'ou joy, ol' man,” wm the most frequent of the crowding, earnest words. What could It mean ? As he heard the elevator door does and the swift swish of the ascending car, Rankin withdrew to the apartment, there to Unger, waiting for Ms master, consumed with carefully mastered curiosity. Devoured with curiosity he stood waiting m his master entered through the outer door which he considerately had left ajar for him. He had guessed at certain details of his young employer's probable condition and knew that in the midst of just those details Broadway wm impatient of latch-keys, bell-ringing or even knuckle-tapping on the door. .

The first thing he noted as the unsteady Broadway entered was the fact that his silk hat had been reversed upon his head; the second wm that someone evidently had been sitting on Ms raglan cape while It had been rolled rather carelessly; the third wm that his face wore an expression of rw lief and peace with all the world. Not so unsteadily that he failed entirely to reach the goal Jackson tacked across the room and found the window. His friendly escort wm still evidently ip Ms mind, for from the open window he now waved a genial handkerchief, wMspering meanwhile "Night-night m If the hearty spirit which Induced the words would take them to the sidewalk ten score feet be- ' low. (TO BH CONTINUED.)

Mrs. Gerard.