Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 190, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1919 — The Magnet [ARTICLE]

The Magnet

By R. RAY BAKER

■ (Copyright, I*l*. tar the McClure New*- • paper Syndicate.) For three years Leah Wellington and Grover Gary were true to each other, which might be considered a remarkable record. By this it Is not meant that the present generation of men and women is so ruled by fickleness that three years of being true is out of the ordinary, although you will find soured-on-tbe-world cynics who will assert that such Is the case. One of the' extraordinary things about the fealty of Leah and Grover was that during the three-year period in question they were in different cities and yet did not exchange a letter or a postcard. But the feature that really justifies the use of the world “remarkable” Is the fact that the young lady and young man concerned never had formed an acquaintanceship—did not, In fact, know each other’s names. Leah- was clerk in the magazine, cigar, popcorn, candy, postcard counter at 'the Union station in a city of some 100,000 souls in Illinois. Grover was one of those hustling young men who can convince you that not to take out insurance on your life is rank treason against the human race. Grover arrived at the station one evening, weary from a slow, bumping ride on a local train that appeared to scorn the rails and insist on traversing the ties between them. He had a grouch which he directed against the railroad, the insurance business and the world in general—until he spied Leah. Leah was not in a joyful mood. She was obliged to work overtime because the night clerk at the stand was sick and she had to miss a theater party with four girl friends. She scowled as she sold a fat man a package of gum, but when she looked up from the cash register and saw Gcover wreaths of smiles adorned her countenance. “There he is at last,” breathed Leah; “the handsome man I’ve dreamed about so often. I always knew I’d meet him some day!” “By George'! That’s the girl I’ve been waiting all these years for,” Grover told himself. “Isn’t she the pretty thing?" As a matter of fact, neither of them was beautiful or handsome, although each possessed the normal amount of attractiveness.

Grover at once approached the stand. She smiled welcome at him, somewhat timidly, for her experience with men had been limited, as "bad his with girls. He was far from being at ease, and somehow he could not decide on what to purchase from her. Naturally, when a stranger approaches a place where things are sold and stares at a clerk, the clerk expects to sell something he argued, and still he cquld not think of a thing he needed. He looked over the magazines, finally selecting one, but when he thrust a hand into his pocked he found that his purse had vanished. She was rolling up the magazine. “No, I don’t want that after all,” he faltered. “I have read it, come*to think of it.” i She laid .it back. He ransacked his brain for the name of some magazine that he did not see on the stand. It was useless. The supply laid out before him apparently included every publication in the world. She was waiting and he was being tossed helplessly on a stormy sea of distress. He fidgeted and perspired. At last, desperately, he blurted out: “The magazine I want is ‘The Magnet.’ Have you the last issue?” The smile left her face and disappointment crept into her eyes. She wanted to please this stranger, to furnish him with the article he desired to purchase. She had failed. “No, sir,” she answered, “we don’t keep that magazine. In fact, I never heard of it, and I thought I was an authority on periodicals.” He thanked her and trudged homeward with a curtain of gloom settled over him. He had made a mess of it, he raged, and he went to sleep to dream that he had met the girl that was meant for him, and that, just as he was about to lead her to the altar to make her his bride, a witch descended from the clouds and transformed him into a donkey. However, on thinking it over Grover saw that his blundering had opened the gate of opportunity for further conversations with the girl that fate had selected to become his partner on the highway of life. So at least three times a week he appeared at the station and asked if the “Magnet Magazine” had appeared. Every time Leah Was obliged to confess that she had been unable to get track of it. If it had been possible she would have obtained it for him, for she had made a search which included all the agencies in town. If Grover had used the same tactics in love that he used in selling insurance it would have been comparatively easy to win his heart's desire. Leah was ready and waiting, for she was a firm believer in the doctrine that every woman born into the world is Intended to wed a certain, particular, preselected man. Leah had been told, and she believed, that if a woman failed to niarry the man that fate had selected for her unhappiness would be certain to result. It was the reason for many failures In matrimony, she was convinced. People didn’t wait for the right one to

come along. Somehow Leah always fell that she wouid know when her right one appeared, and now she was sure that Grover Gary was he. So she njerely waited for him to get down to business and make himself acquainted and ask her to be his wife. But Grover didn’t get down to business. He found himself tongue-tied whenever he tried to talk anything that bordered on the personal. He could not even bring himself to the point of introducing himself. Lovemaking, in its Initial stages and in all others, is so different from selling insurance, particularly when one has to fight back bashfulness in the presence of the other sex. ~ ■— ~ One morning Grover got out of bed with the determination to do two things. First, he had made up his mind to “write up” a very wealthy but obstinate “prospect.” Next he was going down to the Union station, Introduce himself and propose to the girl that was rightfully his. He did neither. When he got to the office he found a telegram summoning him to the head office in Chicago on the first tfrain that went. The train left before Leah went on duty at the stand, and it took Grover away for three years. Leah watched in vain for the man that was meant for her. When days dragged into months and the months into years she was forced to the conclusion that he had deserted her. “Well, lef him go,” she sighed. “Just because he defies Destiny is no reason, why I "should. I shall remain true to him.” It was early in the evening when he returned from his three-year absence. Leah was thumbing the first number of a new periodical, when a familiar voice inquired: “Have you the ‘Magnet Magazine’?” She jumped back and her eyes opened wide. Then she smiled her first real smile in three years. “Why, yes, I was just reading it. But it contains an announcement that it is the first number of the magazine. There’s a good article Jn the front about ‘Every One Was Meant for Some One’.” “I knoTjv it,” he said. “You see. when I used to ask you about the ‘Magnet Magazine’ I knew very well there was no such publication. It simply gave me an excuse to come In here and talk with you now and then. Three years ago I went to Chicago and got interested in the publishing business." I made some money, and finally launched the ‘Magnet.’ I know that article is good, because I wrote it myself. In fact, it’s a proposal from me to you, and therefore It has to be good, doesn’t it?”