Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1910 — The Fourth Estate [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Fourth Estate

Novelized by FREDERICK R. TOOMBS

From the Great Play of the Same Name by Joseph Medill Patterson and Harriet Ford. COPYRIGHT. 1909. BY JOSEPH MEDILL PATTERSON AND HARRIET FORD.

SYNOPSIS. . Chapter I—Judith Bartelmy, society woman, goes, to the office of the Dally Advance to -protest against a story which— had severely criticised her father, a judge of the United States court. She discovers that the author of the article was Wheeler Brand, a brilliant young writer whom she had promised to marry. He refuses to cease attacking her father. ll—Judith discards her engagement ring. Dupuy, a lawyer, representing big advertisers, calls and demands Brand’s discharge, as his clients are friends of Judge Bartelmy. 11l Brand is discharged by the managing editor, for the paper, long owned by an insurance company, had been friendly to corporations. Michael Nolan, who buys the paper,’ comes in the Office and finds Dupuy to be an old enemy of his. IV—-Nolan calls for Brand and makes him managing editor. V—Brand tells Nolan and his socially ambitious family that the dishonest judge, Bartelmy, and his unsuspecting daughter have taken them up socially so as to try to induce Nolan not to attack the judge in his newspaper.

CII APTER VI. N^"““ OLAN faced Brand. . “Come, come. Wheeler.”, he said. “Let’s drop the sub j ec t now.” “Mr. Brand, you are forgetting your place,” contributed Phyllis. “Michael,” insisted Mrs. Nolan, “are you going to let this young man ruin the-whole of us? I, for one, am glad Judge Bartelmy has taken us up", and if it wasn’t for the way Mr. Brand runs wild with that paper”—her voice broke—“others might.” She crossed to the door at the left. “Here we’ve squandered money right and left aud nobody would have anything to do with us. 1 declare 1 was happier poor. At least when I asked anybody to eat then they came. Look at that table in there’*—she pointed—“groaning with good things to eat, and there’s SIOO for hothouse grapes, and nobody’s touched ’em!” She picked up a bunch of grapes from a stand and began to eat them. “Mother,” laughed the husband good naturedly, “I’ve seen you get away with three bunches all by yourself.” “Well. I felt it was my duty not to let them go to waste.” She burst into tears. “Come oh, PhylMs,” ~she managed to say, and the heartbroken mother and daughter went from the room. ( _ “You mustn’t mind what mother says,” Nolan said to Brand. “She’s been kind o’ lonely since she came back to New York.” The editor’s heart swelled with sympathy for the woman whose ambitions for herself and her daughter had caused the bitterest pain that injured pride can give. He saw that it would be difficult for her to learn that social position in a big city cau be won only by skillful maneuvering, the ability to do which Mrs. Nolan apparently did not possess. “Oh, I understand!” he answered feelingly. Brand and Nolan went into the library to smoke. Hardly had they disappeared when Pitcher entered the drawing room as an escort for Judge Bartelmy and his daughter Judith. Brand had not erred a few minutes previous when in the same, room be had pronounced the judge to be the best “handler of people” in the city. The conversation which ensued bet-” tween the jurist and his daughter as they awaited their hostess well illustrated his reasons for accepting, with his daughter, Mrs. Nolan’s invitation. When Pitcher had gone in search of Mrs. Nolan it was the girl who first spoke. “Father,” she said, “1 want you to., know that I’ve been to five teas this

afternoon. I’m doing you a great favor to come to this one.”

“Yes. my dear; I appreciate it, but social duties”— The girl laughed shortly. “Now, this doesn’t come under the head of social duties.” “O yes,” the judge answered quickly, “if you view society in its broader sense. Beyond your little world is a larger one where caste is of small consequence and where all men should be of service to each other.” “But the Nolans—they certainly haven’t been of service to you?” questioned the girl. He glanced sharply at Judith.

“But I wish them to be, and we’re getting on—we’re getting on.’’ “Their paper keeps going for you just as much as ever, father. 1 don’t suppose one ought to mind it, but 1 do.” “Judith, Nolans have lived in every age in every country,” pronounced the jurist. “He’s a composite of anarchist and autocrat. Eventually the autocrat in him will triumph. Just now he's hounding old institutions. 1, for instance, represent to him the judiciary, and he attacks me. No consequence whatever, but I’m here in defense of the United States bench. My cause is the cause of my colleagues. 1 tell you, Judith, I know the breed. I know how to get the venom out of his fangs. Diplomacy, my dear—diplomacy!” Judith became enthusiastic. “Father, I believe you would have been a grear prime minister in the old days!” The judge straightened up, smiling pleasedly at his daughter’s complimentary estimate of him. “Hardly that, hardly that,” he protested. He became reflective. “They were feeble old men, for a thousand years courteously moving kings and their armies like pawns on a chessboard. They were always very tactful, Judith, those princes of the past.” “Oh,” she admitted, “you never fail to illustrate your point, whatever it is!” . : “Just imagine,” said her father, “what one of those old fellows would do in this case.” “'Yes,. I suppose you’re right, and in the end you’ll make these people see how wrong they’ve beeh about you.” “Oh, yes!"—he tvent on confidently. “As they become accustomed to their prosperity you will find that the demogogism of their paper will be modified and ultimately ; vanish.” He seat; ed himself near his daughter. “That would be a terrible blow for wouldn’t it?” she suddenly asked. \ “Wheeler! Oh, Wheeler! He’s an entirely . different type—the idealist, the fanatical idealist. I’m sorry. 1 always liked the boy. His heart’s all right, but his head’s all wrong, and I hope he’s merely passing through a phase.” ' “I don’t think you quite understand Wheeler, . father.” responded Judith, rising. - r"■ He took hold of the girl’s hands.

“Oh, yes, I do! Just now he tjas lost himself in a labyrinth, and it will take an Ariadne to lead him out. I believe the right woman might bring him to reason.” He paused significantly. Judith lowered her eyes from his. “I forgive him any annoyance he may have caused me, and I hope you will forgive him too. I want you and Wheeler to be friends again and, like the princess in the fairy stories, live happily ever after.” He patted her fondly on the shoulder. Mrs. Nolan entered the room and, aglow with excitement, greeted her

guests. “Judge Bartelmy, I hope you haven’t been waiting long?” she inquired,anxiously. “Not at all.” “It is so good of you to come.” “Oh, I wouldn’t permit anything to keep me away!” he replied. “I’ve just had the pleasure of adjourning a rather important conference to be here.” This confession filled the fluttering heart of Mrs. Nolan with pure ecstasy. She could barely contain herself as she in turn greeted Judith Bartelmy. Pitcher announced another name that appeared in the social register. “Mr. Dupuy,” he announced. He had to keep his appointment with Nolan. “How do you do, Mr. Dupuy?” greeted the hostess, shaking hands warmly with him. “Here’s Judge Bartelmy. He’s just adjourned a most important conference to come to our tea. Pitcher, tell Mr. Nolan the judge and Mr. Dupuy are waiting. Say the judge has just adjourned his court to come. Miss Bartelmy, Phyllis will be so delighted to see you.” She grasped Judith’s arm and led her to a door, speaking rapidly as she did so. “Phyllis wants to show you her new gown Quinlan brought over from Paris. Very smart effect, but $450, and you could hold it in the palm of your two hands—a rag!” “ ■ ' “An amusing character, our hostess,” commented Bartelmy dryly to Dupuy. “Yes; she seems very appreciative of your daughter’s visit.” “Well,” decisively, “she certainly ought to be.” ■* . “I suppose we shall see it in the Advance tomorrow,” suggested Dupuy. “Oh, of course!” Bartelrhy laughed amusedly. “By the way,” remarked Dupuy, “did you see the evening papers?” A serious look came into Bartelmy’s face as he said: “I glanced over them on my way uptown,. and their accounts of my decision this morning are not at all objectiqgable.” “No blood drawn,” said Dupuy reassuringly. “A little surprising, too, for the Lansing Iron people have been in pretty bad odor with the public ever since tije receivership matter last year.” “That was the beginning of all thes* attacks upon me. I hope the morn ins papers will treat me fairly.”

“Oh, there will be no trouble about them. They have not investigated the matter thoroughly enough yet, of course, excepting ; the Advance. But you did just the right thing today to bring Miss Judith.” Bartelmy was showing not the slightest hesitancy at using his beautiful and accomplished daughter as a decoy in his plottings. In the first place, he desired that she should marry Wheeler Brand, hoping that the young reformer’s zeal against him would disappear; secondly, by prevailing on her to pay attention socially to the Nolan family he was confident that the owner of the Advance would capitulate and become his friend. As for Judith, she little comprehended the. entire significance of her father’s attitude, and if she had. her frank, genuine nature, which revolted at trickery apd deceit, would not have permitted her to continue to do his bidding. She admired and loved her father. She knew that her mother before her had aided her father in his work and ambitions to a considerable extent, and now that her mother was no longer alive she felt it her duty to fill her place in every possible way. After all, she had only a young woman’s knowledge of the ways of men in the business and professional world, and she could discern in the attacks on her father nothing beyond what he him self had taught her to believe—that they were the efforts of envious men or ignorant reformers or misguided fanatics, who assailed him entirely without just cause. However, it would seem that the judge would in any event nave attempted to concern from others his. motives for procuring the presence of 1 Judith at the Nolan home on this day. It would seem, no matter how low he had sunk, that he would have denied that he had ever employed her unsuspectingly as a decoy on other occasions. That was the least this father could do for his daughter. But he made no attempt to protect her reputation, at Phy rate to Dupuy, for in answer to the lawyer lobbyist’s remark that he had done “just the right thing to bring Miss Judith today" he replied with his characteristic coolness: “Oh, in matter* of this kind my daughter is of the greatest help to me!” After a moment he continued. “I don’t at all like your idea, Dupuy, of my proposing this man Nolan at the club.” “That’s our trump «ard,” insisted the other “Every man has his priceeven this young Brand if we could only find out what it is.” (To Be Continued.)

“This doesn't come under the head ot social duties.”

“HIS ONLY HOPE LIES IN AN APPEAL—TO YOUR FAMILY’S SOCIAL DESIRES."