Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 154, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1914 — RICH MAN'S PEARL [ARTICLE]

RICH MAN'S PEARL

By J. S. WOODHOUSE.

Like a golden link to bind in happy xmlaon the democratic and aristocratic extremes of the social chain, the little one-story yellow cottage of Magnus Hertz occupied a geographically harmonious position between .the minor ’TMnd major keys of a thriving municipal life. \ From under this modest little roof a man—because of his broad shoulders, his long, lank body, and his sinewy arms—went down the hill, pierced the smoky counterpane that almost hid the lewlands, and worked among the giant engines where there was heat and dirt and foul air. And the woman, because of her natural charms of beauty and grace of manner, went up the hill to mingle with those of the social set. They had married because of an ardent love for each other, but gold is a rare metal that'hgnnot resist a strain with the tenacity of the more vulgar iron or steel or brass, and the opposite weights were beginning to pull hard on this fragile link of love. Her intercourse with the more genteel had served to magnify in her eyes the crudity of her husband’s manners, and by gentle remonstrances at first she had undertaken to correct them. Her esthetic sense had developed to the point that it grated harshly on her nerves to see him drink his soup from the bowl. In the beginning she had tried to induce him to go with her into this newly discovered world. But he just laughed, lighted his corn-cob pipe, and sat contentedly down by the fire after a day of hard toil to enjoy a pleasant relaxation. All her coaxing would not alter him. He aspired to no society beyond the geniality of hie home, and his chief demand of wifehood was good cooking and a sweet disposition. Her increasing social Indulgence but magnified in her eyes the shortcomings of the husband, and frequently elicited from him a reproach. The time devoted to her social ambition was detracting from both of his chief demands of wifehood. This “social lure” then was the one element that had interfered with the hitherto perfect domestic peace. it required a mo®i remarkable Incident to arrest the development of this rapidly .widening domestic breach. The catastrophe was precipitated by her vanity, coupled with a pronounced conceit. The pretty compliments, the kind attentions, and the suggestions t>f wealth due such beauty, continuously showered upon her by men superior to her husband in both income and intellect, were attributed by her to no ulterior motives, but accepted with an audacious conviction that they were the truth. She had nourished her vanity so far that she believed the diamond brooch, proposed by an ardent admirer as an enhancement to the beauty of Jier neck, might conscientiously be accepted by her without moral turpitude. But one thing withheld the too eager hand from this and many other proffered gifts—the jealousy of her husband; a sentiment, she convinced herself, due only to his ignorance. It must be conceded that Mrs. Hertz, -regardless of the many indiscretions «of which she might be guilty, was—when the question resolved itself to the one-element measure adopted by moralists today—virtuous.

But to sacrifice ambition within one’s grasp to gratify the shortcomings of another is a concession that would wear on nerves even less feminine than those of Mrs. Hertz, and accordingly she soon found herself trying to evolve a method of harmonizing the difficulty that oppressed her on one side, and the temptation that lured her on the other.

How to accept from some admirer the wealth that would buy the dresses and jewels she would have and how to make her husband gracefully accept the situation was a problem that would readily have confounded a less pretentious person.

>■ Even she might have been compelled to bow beneath the weight of this problem had there not crossed her social horizon Horace Duval, who, as a distinguished visitor from the East, attracted considerable feminine attention, but who chose in turn to center his on the beaming Mrs. Hertz. Ostensibly he was an importer of African furs and very wealthy, but with a ripening acquaintance be confided to Mrs. Hertz that in reality he was an eastern fisher of pearls. To her curious eyes he exhibited some of the most beautiful specimens upon which she had ever looked. One of exceptional size and beauty which appealed to her feminine fancy he frankly admitted was worth pne thousand dollars. It became between them quite the chief topic of conversation, largely because a woman loves to revel in a secret . It was at Mrs. Lancaster’s ball bis attentions reached the height of their manifestatipns, and he suggested he would love to shower Jewels upon a woman of such magnificent beauty. So while Magnus Hertz sat in his little cottage home trying to figure how he could make his meager income covet his rapidly increasing expenses. Horace Duval whispered in the wife’s ear that he would gladly give her the big pearl if she feared not the bus•'crupjes. 1

That peculiar machination of Intellect that formulatea intricate plana within the twinkling of an eye and has been charged by some with being the devil himself, here entered with alacrity the woman’s mind, and she accepted the gift that was pressed firmly into her hand, while the giver extracted permission to call at her home the ’next afternoon. It was an ingenious scheme that had entered the pretty head of this ambitious young woman! It was with mingled feelings of as-, tbnlshment, gratification and hope that Magnus Hertz the next evening saw his wife bring to the table a steaming tureen of oyster soup. And seeing his wife’s face beam with a patronizing smile, ire accepted this as an offering of peace and notice that hostilities had ceased. • Nothing so thoroughly appealed to the appetite of this thrifty worker as oyster soup, and when his wife passed his bowl he smiled so agreeably that it quite banished from her mind > the wonder over the failure of Horace Duval to keep his appointment that afternoon. - . She bubbled over with laughing chatter and gave an anxious glance at every spoonful of soup her hueband raised to his mouth, blew lustily, and then sucked noisily through his lips. “I was reading In the. paper some time ago,’’ she naively suggested, “of a man who found in his oyster soup a pearl worth several hundred dollars. Wouldn’t it be fine If we could have euch good fortune?” “No such hick for us,” was the frank opinion expressed between two spoonfuls of soup. "Ah, but think,” she urged, “what It would mean! You could take a vacation. You haven’t had a day off excepting Sunday for five years." In a meditative way he slowly skimmed the crackers from the surface and chewed them with a deliberation that extracted every flavor of the soup for the gratification of his taste, unconscious of the fortune that might lay in the dregs. Mentally she had counted the spoonfuls. He had eaten 12 already. It seemed there might be a thousand more in the bowl! “And then,” she continued, “I might have some new dresses and an opera cloak."

He commenced to eat faster while she chattered on in an Incoherent way, scarcely knowing what she said, so Intently were her eyes fixed on her husband’s coup. Then, suddenly, when but a few spoonfuls remained in the bottom, he thought of an incident at the shops, which he deliberately stopped to relate. It was something about the work of the men. She lost her self-restraint and interrupted him abruptly: "There’s plenty more soup, Mangus, when you’ve finished that.” •

Before she could realize the effect of her words he had quickly grasped the bowl With a movement,of gratification, raised it to his lips, and downed the rest with a single gulp. Anxiously she looked into his face, confidently awaiting some exclamation of wonder or surprise. He interpreted the strange inquiry of her eyes as a rebuke for his greed, and blurted: "Well, you said there was more, didn’t you?’’ She sank in a heap upon her chair. The glutton had swallowed the pearl! Through her dizzy brain rushed the mocking recollection that she had, confident of her scheme’s success, already ordered the desired new dresses and opera coat. Then came the conviction that her husband’s uncouth manners were the cause of her failure, and, fearing to tell the truth, she rose in haughty indignation, resolved to have revenge in a tirade on hie vulgarity. “Such manners— ’’ Her sentence was cut short by a loud knock at the door, one that waited for no answer, and husband and wife turned suddenly to look into the faces of several officers. "I beg your pardon,” cynically explained the leader, "but a notorious pear] thief, masquerading under the name of Horace Duval, whom we tracked as the thief of the rare Cargan collection, has been arrested and has confessed. He has returned all the jewels but one pearl, the finest of them all, which he says he gave to Mrs. Hertz. If you will kindly return it we will trouble you no further.” Color rushed suddenly into the woman’s face. Now the husband’s jealousy and ire rose in turn. The storm so suddenly calmed in her now raged in his breast, but it was stayed by her prompt reply.

“I have no such pearl.” "You will pardon us for eeeming to doubt your word, madam, but our instructions are to make a thorough search.”

The officers departed with apologies, after leaving a wild confusion of furniture, rugs, linen and pictures. In the middle of it all, on the parlor floor, sat Mrs. Hertz, humiliated and dazed.

She was first startled to consciousness when her husband, who posed himself before her with arms akimbo, exclaimed:

“I- have a feeling within me—” “Oh, Magnus,” she shrieked as she jumped to her feet and looked wildly into his face, “what Is it? What —” “I say," repeated the husband, “I have a feeling within me that, after this experience, the airs of these society strangers will not so belittle your husband’s manners.” “You’re right, Magnus,” she sighed with relief, as she wound, her arms about his neck and let her head sink on the shoulder of his rough workingshirt. ’’There is more true value in yba than in.any man who eats his soup with a epoon!" (Cupyrighty