Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1909 — PAID IN FULL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PAID IN FULL

Novelized From Eugene Walter's Great Play

...By... JOHN W. HARDING

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUB CHAPTERS. CHAPTER I—lntroduces Captain Amos Williams, president of the Latin-Ameri-can Steamship company, in very bad humor over a threatened strike of his dock laborers. Joseph Brooks, underpaid accountant and collector for Williams, expresses his sympathy for the strikers and Is ridiculed by his fellow clerks. ll—The president sends for James Smith, superintendent of the company’s docks, and Instructs him to spare no expense In crushing the strikers. Smith advises pacific measures, but is overruled and prepares to obey orders.

CHAPTER 111. HE was a skillful architect in* deed who first devised the baud box apartment houses so common now In all parts of New York and must have sat up many nights working out how to extricate Che maximum of rent revenue from the area on which be bad to fit the structure. If there were any flats Id Harlem of smaller dimensions than the one of four rooms occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Brooks the most experienced and persistent hunter after a place in which to lodge his family with relative economy and some semblance of comfort would have had the time of his or her life finding it. And if other flats there were more luxuriously fitted Up. as easily might have been—ln fact, certainly mus't have been—the ?ase. at least there was none, whatever its size. timt wiii Kept cleaner or neater or in which mure effective use of available material had been made than that over which Mrs. Emma Brooks presided as mistress and factotum. And Mrs. Brooks herself—how she graced it. altogether unconsciously! As the elder of two daughters of Stanley Harris, who. while not rich, had been well to do. she bad been brought up In the comfort of a goody home and bad enjoyed the advantage of qd education at a private seminary. Her father. whose constant companion she had been and whose sense of democracy In the matter of association she had Inherited, had adored her. and when she had given her heart to Joseph Brooks, electing him from among numerous suitors, including James Smith, he gave his consent to their union against his own judgment and in face of the strenuous opposition of his wife, esteeming the girl’s happiness superior to all other considerations.

Brooks, who bad been In the employ of the Lntln-Amerlcan Steamship company for one year and bad been brought Into relations with the family by virtue of his selection as secretary to her father, the general manager, had no means whatever of his own. and his salary, then SOO a month, was a desperately small Income on which to begin housekeeping for a girl reared as she had been. But her father helped them, and the young couple counted upon his Influence to procure the advancement of his son-in-law to a more remunerative post. Unfortunately for them, however. Mr. Harris had died a few weeks after their wedding, and they found tbeinBelves thrown upon their own resources. Mrs Harris, a sdflsh. shallow. unfeeling woman with social pretensions. Who regarded* her daughter’s marriage with the young clerk as a mesalliance and Brooks himself with disdain, left them to shift for themselves stud with her other daughter, Beth, who was seven years younger than Emma and shared her mother’s views, as she Imitated her haughtiness, settled down to the enjoyment of the modest fortune her husband had left her and the Indulgence of the ostentation she loved, but which during Mr. Harris' lifetime she had never been able to gratify to the top of her bent. She Old not for this, however, withdraw altogether from association with Emma nud Brooks and continued ou more or less amicable termu with them. New and then she condescend'd to caff upon them with Beth, but her visits, as a rule, were a good deal pf a trial to the young couple, for she regarded Brooks' failure to get on In the steamship company as a vindication of her opinion as to his ability and the Judiciousness of their marriage and was prone to condone with her daughter, assume an exasperating I-told-you-80 attitude and lament what might have been. During the four years of their married life Brooks’ salary had been raised only S2O a mouth, although In addition to his work as accountant, to which he had been assigned after Mr. Harris' death, that of collector had been thrust upon him. It bad been a bard, bitter experience for pretty little Mrs. Brooks, this unaccustomed drudgery of housework, this continuous scouring of greasy pots and pans and washing of dishes, which she loathed; this deprivation of comforts and luxuries that she had known all her life; this privation of many personal things considered Indispensable by the dainty woman; ( this necessity of perpetual rigid economising, which barely sufficed to make both ends meet. Kbe deIprlved herself of much needed clothing. to say nothing of finery, that .loa might go properly clad to his office,

but she never for that reason deecemF ed to slovenliness, never ‘let herself go.” as so many women in their own households make the mistake of doing, and never had she allowed one word of complnlnt. one indication at (egret, to escape hpr. She had married Joe for love, for better or for worse, and resigned herself bravely and cheerfully to the consequences, however hard to bear, hoping for the better times that were so long in coming and encouraging her husband to figbt on and win. Joe. for his part, lacked his wife’s grit and energy, and constant disappointment had undermined his fortitude. He loved Emma. He hardly could have done otherwise, though calculation had entered largely Into his courting of her. Chivalronsly. while the sweet bliss of their early married life held him In its spell, he had done as much of the heavier work of the menage as be could to spare her when time and opportunity afforded. but very naturally be bad soon tired of this—where Is the man who does not?—and by degrees bad left as much of It as be could to her, except when his moods of optimism and affectionate solicitude Impelled him to go to her assistance. At such times he wanted to do It all.

On the evening following bis outburst at the office he was-still resentful and “down In the month” when be let himself Into his little fiat, and the smiles of his wife as she raised her rosebud lips to receive his kiss of greeting failed to dispel his gloom. “You seem out of sorts tonight, dear.” she said solicitously. “Anything wrong at tbe office?" "Nothing In particular. I’m tired and hungry after slaving all day in this awfnl heat, that’s all ” “Never mind, supper’s all ready, so sit down and tuck in.” “What did you get?” “Chops and potatoes.” •Toe turned up his nose, but took bis seat at table and began to eat He answered his wife’s questions in monosyllables. Hu thoughts. It was plain, were not on his meal or Emma's conversation, and, seeing that he was preoccupied and troubled, she ceased tc try to engage his attention. “I paid the gas bill today,” he vouchsafed at length. “Ninety cents more than last month." “Ninety cents more!” she commented with concern. "I’m sure we didn’t use half as much. And we owe tbe butcher four-sixty.” “Every month it costs more to live. I don’t know what we are going to do. I’m sure.” “I’m sorry, Joe. Goodness knows I try to be as economical as I can,” “I know, but it’s all wrong. It's all wrong that you should be spoiling your bands with those beastly greasy pans. They weren’t meant for such work. I wish we could afford a hired girl.”’ “So do I, but we can’t, so what’s the use of wishing? Didn’t you get the raise you asked Captain Williams for?" she Inquired. “No.” He hung his head and lapsed Into gloomy silence. She dropped the morsel she was raising to her mouth and rose from the table, filled with dismay. her appetite completely gone. Tears of disappointment followed the realization of what the failure of their plans meant for neither had doubted that his request would be complied with, and she had built many castles In the air on the strength of it. A few dollars more a week added to their distressingly small income would have meant much to them. But, gazing at her husband sitting there utterly dejected and crushed, her heart went out to him in pity and love, and she moved over to his chair and put her arm consolingly round his neck.

“Never mind. Joe, boy,” she urged; “don’t look so solemn. We’re no worse off than we were before, and you’ll win out some day.” She placed her hand under his chin and raised his head to kiss him. He saw that she was smiling at him encouragingly through her tears, but refused to be comforted. “I made out the payroll today,” be said. “Three other men in the office who also asked for a raise last month got It; so did Smith.” “What, Jimsy?” she asked. “I said Smith. There’s only one Smith in the office,” he replied somewhat surlily. “Well. I’m glad for Jimsy’s sake he got what he wanted.” “I think he told Williams to come across with more money or he’d quit.” “How much did he ask for?” “Eighteen hundred.” “Eighteen hundred? My gracious. Isn’t that fine?” “It means that he’ll be getting nearly $5,000 a year now. Great for him, isn’t it?” "Yes. Indeed it Is.” “1 saw Jimsy today. Asked him to come to supper. He said he would If he could.” “I wonder why he didn’t?” Her husband did not answer immediately. When he did he burst out savagely: “Suppose he thought we couldn’t afford it. Two don’t eat as much as three.” “Why. Joe. how absurd!” she laughed, beginning to gather up the supper plates. “Jimsy knows It’s pot luck.” “That’s the trouble. Jimsy knowsyour mother knows—Williams knows—everybody knows, and they’re always talking about how you’ve got to work and slave because you married me and all that sort of stuff.” “Jimsy doesn’t” “Well, he thinks It, and your mother’s always rubbing It In, harping on the same old string—that I ain’t worthy of you. that it’s a shame the way you have to work and slave, that I don’t seem to get along at all and that you”—

“Oh, don’t mind mother; you snow her.” * “She never did want us to marry.” “But dear old dad did, and he was the one I wanted to please—after you. Joe, of course. Mother Is just a bit peculiar. I’m sure she doesn’t understand me much, and I’m equally sure that I. don’t understand her, so we won’t bother about her. Just sweep up a bit, will you, while I wash the dishes? Jimsy may drop in by and by.” Brooks went into the kitchen, donned an apron from force of habit Instilled Into him by his wife, ever careful of his clothes, and reappeared with a carpet broom and a dust cloth. He was laboring under excitement, as was manifest by the reckless manner in which he used the broom. Finally, with an expression of determination, he said In a firm voice: “Emma, you know it will be six months or a year before I get another chance at a raise—unless, of course, I quit and get a job somewhere else. I was thinking that perhaps you’re tired and want to call it off.” “Call what off?” “Why. everything—the whole business. I mean our marriage,” he said desperately. Her eyes opened wide with incredulous astonishment.

“You mean separation?” “That’s exactly what I mean.” “What for—because I’m tired?” “Something like that.” “What an idea! You must have the blues badly to talk such nonsense as that. Don’t yon think it would be as well to wait until I complain?” “You have complained.” "No—at least I can’t remember.” “Not In words, but”— “But what?” “Look here." he said Impatiently, “don’t you suppose I have eyes? Don’t you suppose I have feelings? I’ve seen —I know that you’re sick of this drudgery all the rest—sick of It and sorry. There’s Smith with his five .thousand—he wanted you first You could have”— She Interrupted him sharply, her face flushing. “Joe!” “Well, I think”— “That’s enough of that!” “Oh, well.” he declared sulleuly, turning away and dropping Into a chair. “I didn’t mean”— She followed him and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Joe, I married you because I loved you,” she said gently, “and for nothing else in the world. There wasn’t any influence except that, and that overcame all the rest—mother and all of them.” “I know all about that.” “There has been a little hard luck”— “There has been a precious sight too much of it.” “I know you haven’t been treated right, but bad luck and ups and downs are what a woman ought to expect when she marries. She has to take tbe bad as well as tbe good, and abe ought to know enough to accept the one as cheerfully as the other when tbe bad is nobody’s fault That is

“Joe, 1 married you because I loved you." what I think, and that Is what I have tried to do. But there are some things”— <• • She paused, reluctant to carry her thoughts further into words. “What? You may as well say all you’ve got to say while you’re about It,” he snapped. “It’s just this,” she went on. “Never refer to Jimsy in the way you did. I married you, Joe. Please try and leave unsaid things that might make me regret It” He ventured no further remark and lapsed into his gloomy reflections. Emma pot her arm around 'bis neck and snuggled her face against his. “Poor old boy I” she murmured. “That setback we got today when we had it all fixed up was enough to make you feel sore and glum. Never mind; cheer np. You know what Jimsy says,' ‘Hard luck can give you an awful battle, but If you’re on the square you can hand It a knockout punch some time.’ ” It was no use, however. Joe’a sulkiness had sunk in; his temper was vicious. deep and Ingrowing, a temper such as she had never suspected in him, and all her petting, all her loving coaxing, could not wean him from It She pressed her cheek more closely to bis and fondled him, but he jerked away from her embrace and surlily sought another chair. As he did so the bell rang from downstairs. “I’ll bet thst*s Jimsy now.” he mut-