Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 231, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1915 — OUT Of HIS CLASS [ARTICLE]

OUT Of HIS CLASS

By JANE OSBORN.

Katherine Morley, old Doctor Morbeautiful daughter, wai the undisputed widow of Clayton college. And after the had ushered seven into Clayton she was smilingly spoken of by the other girls of the town as "The Youth’s Companion." Whether it was because she resented this or because of a deeper reason it Is hard to tell, but Just as the eighth freshman class since her eighteenth birthday was about to enter Clayton, Katherine Morley assumed anqther pose. College men failed to interest her any longer, she told people. “They had no true feeling. Her ideal man was more of a primitive.” This was all right as a drawingroom pose, but when Katherine put it Into practice and began to be seen walking on Sunday afternoons in the country and attending local attractions with a certain handsome young factory foreman whose cheap green suit and creaky shoes, wide spreading hat and gaudy neckties were suggestive of Hungarian peasant origin, the college community was filled with consternation. And when this flirtation lasted through the winter, and Katherine quite frankly mentioned this young peasant— Alec Brajaska —to her friends and received him at her home when her father was away, things began to look serious. Most to be pitied was Doctor Morley, her father. One day his- assistant in the sociology department, Beardsley Drew, suggested that he might be of some assistance. “Something surely will have to be done,” replied the father. “It Is getting to be outrageous* - I have spoken to Katherine myself about It. I dread taking the step, but I see no other way out of it. I am afraid Katherine Is serious. I can have at least the satisfaction of knowing something of the man’s origin. I must know whether there is any reason why Katherine ought not to marry him. I know of no one who can undertake the investigation so well as you, Mr? Drew.” The result of this conference was that Prof. Beardsley Drew undertook the task of looking into the record and standing of Alec Brajaska. As a professor of sociology, he had studied, perhaps more interestedly than Dr. Morley knew, the life and the customs of the factory elements of the men and women in town, who were so far removed from the college circle and college interests. He knew their various dialects, and the task was not difficult. '

Drew began his task in a sensible way by discarding his regular clothes, which would have branded him as an outsider, and with a shabby suit and a pair of brilliant tan shoes and a cheap broad brimmed felt , hat he sallied forth. He went to the house where BraJaska was known to live. It was at the hour when the young man would naturally be at work. A young foreign woman answered his knocking and proved to be the daughter of the woman who kept the boarding house at which Brajaska and several of his associates took their meals. Professor Drew arranged to take board at the same place. It was the easiest way to evade suspicion, and as he was having a week's vacation he could carry out his plan without fear of being suspected. N He occasionally talked with Brajaska, but more frequently with the associates. He lingered after the other boarders one morning at breakfast and started to speak of Brajaska to Magda, the young daughter. “You seem to know Brajaska,” he said. "How is it? Did you know him in the old country?" Magda told him a few things about his bringing up, his boyhood ambitions. He was thirty and she was twenty. They had lived on adjoining farms in the old country and for years her father had been saving to come to this country and had influenced Alec to come. They had all come together and then her father had died. Suddenly the girl stopped talking and then Morley looked up in surprise ,to see that she was crying. He put his hand impulsively on her shoulder and she did not resent it. She was apparently too much preoccupied with her own grief. “Do you not know,” she asked, "about me and Brajaska? I was promised to him, and we were going to be married in the spring, and then a beautiful, very beautiful lady with a great deal of money took him away. She will marry him. Brajaska has said so.” Drew’s first feeling was for the unfortunate Magda. This feeling was followed by one of anger at Brajaskg, who had the insolence to desert a woman of his own class and because of his good looks win the affection of another woman of his class. Drew remained at the boarding house a week, each day growing more and more acquainted with the sorrowful little Magda. The last day of his vacation was to be the day of the excursion and Drew had seen that Magda had refused the invitation of several of the younger men to go with them. Then he asked her to go with atm She looked away from him shyly. "No,” she said. 'lt would not be r<gfct lam promised to Alec—” “But don’t you see, Magda,” said Drew With more feeling than he usually showed, "perhaps if you go with me and are very happy and I - ■. *.. ■", - * :

seem to be very fond of you—-perhaps Brajaska will be Jealous. We are all made that way, we men.” “But the rich lady win be with him,” said Magda. “He will have no eyes for anyone else. 1 could never stand It*” * However. Drew was able to persuade her that a little skillful acting might bring back Brajaska’s affections. She was very pretty. Drew told her, even If the other lady was beautiful.

It was a gay assemblage that met in the Woods, and although Magda’s heart was heavy the sound of the music and the festivity brought the light into her eyes and the color to her cheeks. She laughed and needed little artifice to disguise the true feelings of her heart. Brajaska and Katherine had been watched by their associates more closely than Katherine enjoyed. She was very beautiful, Drew thought, in comparison with their simple, stolid peasant women. He had never before realized how beautiful she was. He was alone for a minute. Magda had gone off to take part in some contest He was surprised to see Katherine standing alone at his side, her eyes flashing and the color high in her face. “Professor Drew,” she said distantly, “I am surprised. I never thought it of you.” "Never thought what, Katherine?" he asked, feeling somehow that what he had come to the excursion for had begun to happen. "I never thought that you would come to one of these affairs with a Hungarian woman. Don’t you suppose that it will get back to father and the college?” “What about yourself?” asked Drew. “That’s quite different. Every one knows about Brajaska and me. And you are Just trifling with these people. It is quite different.” “How do you know I am trifling?" asked Drew, feeling the charm of her beauty now that she was angry. “Perhaps I am as serious as you are.” “You, you don’t mean—it isn’t that little Magda creature?”

“I wonder how serious you Katherine,” he said. “Do you really mean that you are going to marry Brajaska?” “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that quite. But Brajaska is wonderful. He has so much more spirit than any other man I ever knew.”

“But suppose you were to find that the men of your own class had more spirit than you thought? Supjpose that I were to tell you and prove to you, Katherine, that I had more spirit than to let you throw yourself away on a person like Brajaska, that I had feeling enough to fight for you. Suppose I were to tell you that I have been following you and watching you for the whole winter and that for a week I have been living with Brajaska Just to find out for myself whether you and he were really capable of being happy together?” “But what about Magda?” Katherine’s Jealousy was still uppermost. “That little Magda,” said Drew, “Is going to marry Brajaßka if you have the good sense to let him alone. You have been behaving like a child, but I love you.” Katherine looked him in surprise, her breath coming fast. * * * * * * *

At sundown Brajaska took Magda home to the little boarding house, and Magda had forgotten all about the long months of her unhappiness, so happy was she to rest her head on his broad shoulders and feel that after all they were promised to each other and would soon be married.

“But Brajaska,” said Magda, suddenly remembering that the kindhearted boarder who had gone to the excursion with her had not returned, “where is the new boarder? He was a good friend of mine.” “The new boarder. I will tell you about him some time,” replied Brajaska. “We had a long talk last night. He and 1 are always going to be friends. He is a man, like ourselves with great feelings, but he knows, as l do, that to be happy, one must love a woman of his own class.” (Copyright, 1915, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)