Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1909 — PAID IN FULL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PAID IN FULL

Novelized From Eugene Walter's Great Play

By JOHN W. HARDING

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. CHAPTER I—lntroduces Captain Amos Williams, president of the Latln-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. Ill —Mrs. Emma Brooks, the handsome young wife of the discontented clerk, tries to encourage him on his return to their bandbox apartment, but he is bitter against his employer and also against his wife’s mother and sister, who dislike him on account of his inability to gain position. In his desperation he turns on his wife and suggests that she must regret her choice of him when she might have had Smith, who had offered himself. IV—Smith, who is the intimate friend of the family, makes his appenrance on the scene, and Brooks continues his bitter arraignment of his employer and violent protest against his own Impoverished condition. The discussion becomes rather personal, and Brooks takes his hat and leaves the premises. V—Accompanied by Captain Williams, who Is an old friend of the family, Mrs. Harris and daughter Beth, mother and sister of Mrs. Brooks, enter the room. During the visit Brooks returns and makes a scene, accusing Williams of being the cause of his unhappiness. Mrs. Brooks reminds her husband of his breach of hospitality, and he apollgizes and leaves the house.

CHAPTER V. WHEN broad minded Mrs. Brooks observed to her husband that she did not understand her mother any more than her mother understood her she had expressed exactly tha mental relation in which they stood toward each other. Mrs. Harris was one of those women occasionally to be met with who continue to treat their grownup sons, and especially their grownup daughters, as children and feel it incumbent upon them—nay, consider it their bounden duty—to Interfere with advice and comment in the natural progress of domestic sophistication of their young wedded offspring. Moreover, she was a woman wholly lacking in tact and depth of mind and possessed to an exaggerated degree that “quicksand of reason,” vanity. Mrs. Harris and Miss Beth Harris were out for a ride with Captain Williams, who accompanied them, and all were in automobile tenue. Her mother and sister greeted Emma effusively. Their escort extended his hand, but Mrs. Brooks was too much occupied for once in responding to her parent’s embraces to notice it He stalked in with rude familiarity without removing his automobile cap, upon which he had pushed up his goggles and found himself face to face with Smith. “Hello! You here?” he said by way of greeting, greatly surprised to see his superintendent there on that above all nights. “Ya-as.” replied Jimsy. “I’m here again.” “Ought to take a berth here,” grunted his employer, looking round for the most comfortable chair and installing himself in it. “You’re always around.” "Much as possible,” admitted Smith tranquilly, remaining standing. “How do you find your new car?” “Good enough. Cost ss.ooo—ought to be good—ought to be.” Mrs. Harris and Beth bustled in, throwing open their automobile coats and disclosing very handsome gowns that contrasted strangely with Emma’s poor little cotton frock. “Why, good evening, Jimsy!” cried Mrs. Harris. “Where’s Joe?” “Gone out for a walk, I guess,” he answered. “Howdy, Beth?” “Very well, thank you, Mr. Smith,” responded that young person somewhat frigidly. “Mr. Sml£tj?” he echoed, looking at her curiously. The girl raised her eyebrows and affected surprise. “Isn’t that right?” she inquired.

"Te*—Smith ia the name, ,r he replied “It ain’t that I’ve forgot it—no—only to remind yon that the first one—Jlmay—ain’t been changed." “No, dearie; Jimay wouldn’t know what it meant to be mistered,” observed Mrs. Harris with an Intonation of disdain. “Me neither," put in Williams, “but a man’s got to get used to it.” “Have you got used to it, captain?” asked Emma. “Yes and no. I never bad it given to me until I came east—always used to be Cap’n Bill or something on that order—but with eastern airs and a bit of prosperity your old ways have got to change.” Mrs. Harris had been gazing about her deprecatingly. She wanted to know why they should stay in the dining room. Emma explained that they had succeeded in inducing-the janitor to have the sitting room papered and that It was all upset. “This ain’t bad,” commented Captain Williams. “It’s real cozy, and you can see a woman’s bad a hand In the arrangement.” “But it’s a little bit of a stnffy four roomed flat,” objected Beth, turning up her pretty nose. “Really, I should die in one.” “Well, Beth,” remarked Smith, with his quiet drawl, “you never can tell. Maybe you will.” Beth made a grimace. “I would, if I had to do my own work, washing dishes—ugh!” “I don’t see how Emma stands It,” declared Mrs. Harris. “It’s just drudgery !” “Well, mother, please remember it’s Emma who does stand it, after all," retorted that little woman patiently, “so please, please, don't you mind.” “I think It’s a great little nook, Mrs. Brooks,” opined Williams. “Thank you, captain,” she said gratefully. “And fixed up nice and comfortable. Can’t say as anything looks cheap.” “Thank you again. Perhaps it isn’t.” “You know, captain, you ain’t the only one who’s found out the secret of making a dollar produce 500 cents.” said Smith, with his whimsical smile. “Has he done that?” inquired Mrs. Harris, affecting surprise and admiration.

"Figuratively speaking, I presume?” chimed in Beth primly. “I always thought 500 was figuratively speaking,” said Smith. Captain Williams had produced his pipe, filled it and lighted it without asking permission. “Smith says I’m close. I’m not!” he declared. “To me business is business. If I’ve got money nobody gave it to me. I earned what I earned, and then I made; that earn more.” “You sure ain't given it no vacations, captain,” commented his superintendent dryly. “And that’s right.” affirmed Mrs. Harris with some heat. “I believe in men getting money. Mr. Harris was one of those soft hearted men who never made the best of his opportunities—always trying to be fair and square with other men, and what thanks did he get?” “Mother, please!” remonstrated Emma. “It’s true,” went on her parent. “If he hadn’t been that way, Emma, do you suppose you’d be here doing your own work?” “Mother, I insist—you must not”— “Mother is perfectly right,” interrupted Beth. “Emma, you don’t deserve this kind of a life.” “But have I complained?” demanded Mrs. Brooks desperately. “Why do you say such things?” “Because I’ve got myself to think of,” snapped her mother. “You’re wasting yourself—tied up to the house all the time—and everybody—all my friends know just how you’re fixed. You’re never invited anywhere any more.” “Completely forgotten,” said Beth. Brooks, who had let himself in silently and unobserved, stood in the hall irresolutely, watching them and listening to the conversation. “Please don’t,” entreated Emma, greatly distressed. "It’s my affair, and. besides, before people”— "You might say the captain’s almost one of the family since your father died,” put in her mother. "I knew you should never have married Joe—that he couldn’t take care of you the way he ought.” ‘'it’s too iate now,” said Beth, shrugging her shoulders. “Captain, don’t you think Emma should have more?” “Well, Mrs. Brooks must know her own mind,” he replied. “Your father when he worked for me always had a way of his own. But It does seem as if she should at least have a hired girl and more than four rooms to a flat, but”— Brooks strode into the room, livid with passion, goaded to a .white heat of fury, reckless of everything, murder in his heart, and, hurling his bat to the floor, faced the company. “It does seem so, does it?” he fairly hissed, going over to his employer. “I’m glad you think so. And why hasn’t she? Will you tell me that? Speak! Will you tell me that? I’ll tell you why, you slave driver!” Mrs. Harris and Beth sat speechless and pale, but Smith rose. “Steady, Joe, boy!” he admonished. Emma had hurried to her husband and grasped his arm. “Oh, Joe, don’t!” she implored. “You don’t”— He flung her roughly from him. “Let me alone!” he-shouted and turned to Williams again, quivering with rage. “Do you know why she hasn’t?” he continued. “Well, I’ll tell you all. It’s because this man ain’t on the square. He began by cheating and murdering niggers who worked for him aboard his rotten trading ships. Then, after he got through with the belaying piu. after he got his money, he picked up the salary list for u club.

and - he’s murdered and. wounded and maimed with that. You see my wife here? Bhe’s only one of hundreds, and she suffers. It it too bad she married me. It it too bad that she’s got to do her own work. It it too bad that she’s got to wash and scrub and sweat in the heat, but that man’s to blame. If you gave roe a fair share of what I produce, if you didn’t grind down, oppress and pinch, she wouldn’t have to. I’ve worked for you five years, hard, honest, and all the time you’ve been grinding me down, down, and thousands of others, thousands. You know, all of you know—my motber-ln-law and Bmart sister-in-law know—you’ve piled up your money on the blood and sweat and misery of others. That's the kind of a man you are, and you might as well know It” , Captain Williams had listened to this denunciation at first in utter amazement. Then his shaggy eyebrows bad knitted together, and his little eyes had narrowed to slits, while the blood had spread over his face in a deep glow through the veins that swelled out like cords on his neck and throat “There ain’t no one ever said them things to me and got away with it” he thundered, clinching his fists and gathering all his tremendous strength as he rose to crush his accuser. Mrs. Harris and Beth sprang up in great alarm, and at the captain’s terrifying voice and his ferocious aspect Brooks shrank back. Smith stood impassive, but watching Williams, toward whom he had been edging. Emma had stepped quickly between the captain and her husband. “Please please, captain for my| sake.” she pleaded. “I don’t care—let him come on,”* cried Brooks doggedly, but bis voice faltering. Williams gazed at the sweet frail Woman standing Imploringly before him. and as he gazed his muscles gradually relaxed, the wrath faded from his eyes, and finally the corners of his mouth twitched in a faint smile. “All right. Mrs. Brooks.” lbe said gently. “I almost forgot where I was. I apologize." Smith, his hands in bis pockets, moved away across the room. “Joe. you kDow it’s your home—our home," expostulated his wife. “I—l—forgot. Excuse me,” he muttered sulkily, looking ashamed. Smith spoke up, bis winning smile lighting his face: “You know, it’s been an all fired hot day—Just the kind of weather when about every mother’s son is on edge. Now, Joe. he slipped a cog, and that sort of put the whble confounded machine out of gear, including the captain. But now, you see, it’s just all forgotten.” “Possibly. As far as I’m concerned I must be going,” declared Mrs. Harris coldly. “Indeed, yes!” chirped Beth. Brooks now, his rage having spent Itself and his bravado fizzled out, was almost crying. “I—I” he began. But the words choked in his throat and, picking up his hat he hastened out of the room and the flat “Will you please take us away, captain?” requested Mrs. Harris. “Just a moment” be said. “Mrs. Brooks, I’m almighty sorry about what happened Just now.” “I—l’d rather yon wouldn’t speak of It,” she told him. “Perhaps I have been a little hard,” he said earnestly and apologetically. “I want you all to understand that

I've lived a hard life with hard people. Since the day 1 shipped before tbs mast In a north Pacific sealer I learned what a cuff and a blow was; what rotten grub, the scurvy and all them things meant, and I knew that the only thing between them things and comfort, decency and the-respect of folks was money. I started to get money, and maybe I have been a little hard—Jnst a little hard." “No one would call you easy, captain,” agreed Smith. “Anyway. Mrs. Brooks,” continued Williams, “Jos keeps his job. and It ain’t going to make a bit of difference between ns.” —- “Not tbs least?” she asked, with wonder. “Certainly not,” said Mrs. Harris. "Joe." declared Beth languidly, “was absurd. He quite hone me.” Smith smiled at her and injected a good deal of irony Into his tone as he •aid: "Yes. you looked as If something

was wrong,,Beth.” The captain approached Mrs. Brooke with an attempt at gallantry that was elephantine and grotesque and seized her hand, which she suffered to remain limply in his clasp. “Well. Mrs. Brooks.” he said, “if Ife all squared you will come riding with us. won’t yon?” “Not tonight Yon will excuse me," she replied. “Certainly," he assured her, warmly shaking her band as though it were a pump handle. "Good night” “Good night” she answered. Then she advanced to receive the parting kisses of her mother and sister, which were a good deal less cordial than those with which they had greeted her on their arrival. Their osculatory reserves seemed to have been kept in cold storage during the intervaL The fact that In the engrossing ceremony of leave taking with Mrs. Brooks everybody, forgot to be polite enough to say good night to Smith did- not ruffle his equanimity In the least (To be Continued-)

“Hello! You heret"

"Ples e—please, captain—for my take,” she pleaded.