Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 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. 0 & COPYRIGHT. 19*9. BY JOSEPH MEDILL PATTERSON AND HARRIET FORD. . _ _ '

SYNOPSIS. Chapter I—Judith1 —Judith Bartelmy, society woman, goes to the office of the Daily 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. HI Brand is discharged by the managingeditor, 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. Vl—Dupuy aids Bartelmy in endeavoring to have Brand and the Advance avoid attacking" the, judge regarding a tricky opinion he has rendered in the Lansing Iron case. “Every man has his price, even Brand,” says Dupuy. Vll—Nolan says if Brand will trap Bartelmy in the act of offering him a bribe to keep silent that the Advance will print the story in full. VHl—Bartelmy agrees to pay Brand $lO,000 to keep quiet about the Lansing Iron case. IX —Brand lays the trap for Bartelmy. X —Bartelmy arrives at the Advance office to pay Brand the SIO,OOO. CHAPTER XI. f Y’fr VvRTELMY, notg v . that he had I !■ I taken the final and extremely k ggR distasteful plunge and had ClUgj come to the office of the Advance, waited for Brand to make the opening remarks about the particular object of his visit.

Brand was waiting for the judge to do the same. It was the newspaper man who spoke first, after the two had seated themselves. He was anxious to get the matter over with as quickly as possible, for he well knew that, in spite of all his precautions, affairs in a newspaper office are so uncertain that an interruption of an unexpected nature might occur to ruin the entire plan. “Mr. Dupuy was here a short time ago,” he ventured. Judge Bartel my proceeded to explain the appearance of the lawyer lobbyist in the affair. While it was plain to Brand that the judge had sent Dupuy as a go-between so that it would be impossible to connect Bartelmy with the payment of any money as fi. bribe, the jurist did not propose to acknowledge that such had been his laudable purpose. He gave an entirely different reason. “Yes, I know,” he said. “He found me at the opera with my daughter. 1 hoped, Mr. Brand, that by allowing me to act through him you would spare me this last humiliation.” “Would it not be safer for you if no third party knew of your transaction with me?” suggested Brand. The 4 judge pitied the colossal ignorance of this amateur in trickery. Did not he know that in the superior spheres of crooked practices it became necessary to employ third persons on many occasions to put through matters of this sort? And he was a newspaper man of years of experience too. No, this peculiar young man would never finish supplying the judge with surprises; of that Bartelmy was positive- Perhaps it might be in order to observe at this point that, while Brand of course could not know that these thoughts were passing through his visitor’s mind, he at the same time would have been ready to confess that he was going to provide several more surprises for the jurist. But there are different varieties of surprises. “Dupuy is in my confidence,” the judge pronounced with an air of finality. “He’s not in mine,” responded the managing editor. “You’re mistaken in him. I know him intimately.” . “Oh. the pity of it,” exclaimed Brand, “that you should be intimately ac quainted with such a man as Dupuy!” Bartelmy could not restrain a sarcastic smile at the editor's sneer at Dupuy, “Mr. Brand,” he said quickly, “your moral reflections at this juncture impart a certain quaint humor to the situation.” “1 am afraid that is the trouble with me. My humor is nearly always unin tentional.”, Brand sighed as though sorry for himself. The judge began to show signs of nervousness. “Well, shall we get on with it?” the editor asked him. “Yes. I must rejoin my daughter. She’s waiting for me at the opera. She was very anxious that I should not come here tonight.' It was Tier persistency in the matter.” Brand drew his chair closer to tne desk—closer to the telephone. “Let us get to business,” he said. The judge went on talking daughter. “She displays an unusual, I should say an extraordinary, curiosity as to my mission here,” he said. “My daugb-

ter would havd made a great cross examiner if she had been a man.” “We’re wasting time, judge.” Now it was Brand who was becoming impatient. “Am I to understand that the payment of this sum”— Bartelmy began. Brand raised his voice to a high pitch. “Ten thousand dollars!” he said. “Yes,” agreed Bartelmy cautiously. “Am I to understand that it—ah—wipes out of your recollection not only the incident of which you were speaking, but also as to*'— He paused. Brand helped the would be briber to complete his sentence. “You mean your secret interview last night with Dupuy and the attorney for the Lansing”— The visitor raised his hand warningly at Brand's loud tones, as though to counsel cauiioD. ■ “Yes, yes.” “Lansing Iron corporation?” continued Brand, bending close to the telephone. “Yes. Will this sum. paid in hand, induce yon to forget—ah— not only that

incident, but also va rioas other matters to which the Advance setnfis to have taken exception in the past?" Bra nd sank back in his chair. “You mean you want us to let up on you all around?” “Precisely.” “Then that’s understood.” "You will make a memorandum

for me in writing to that effect—a receipt, so to speak?” He pushed a pad toward the man aging editor. “All right—certainly,” agreed Brand, taking up a pen. The judge began to congratulate himself on the ease with which he was handling the young man. “This is—ah—more businesslike,” he said. , ■ But Brand gave him another shock when he said: “Yes; I’ll draw it np in duplicate. Each of us will keep a copy—signed.”

“Ah—ha—ha!” The jurist leaned back and laughed. “You’re a clever lad, Brand. Well, well; youth will be served!” He pushed the pad away. Brand glanced at the clock fixed In the wall opposite him. “It’s getting late, judge,” he warned. Bartel my reached into the inside pocket of 'his evening dress coat and extracted an oblong package. Slipping off a rubber band that encircled it he unwrapped the yellow paper and laid before him on the managing editor's desk a neat stack of crisp new bank bills, all of the SSOO denomination. Bartefiny started to count the money, but he desisted and pushed the bills over toward Brand.

“Count it.” he said. “You count it.” The judge leaned forward and began the task. His bead was within four or five inches of the mouthpiece of the telephone. He picked up the bills, one at a time, and as he counted them he laid them in another pile. “Fire hundred.” he said—“one thousand. fifteen—two thousand, twentyfive—threp thousand, thirty-fiverfour thousand, forty-five— five thousand. There is half of it.” he remarked. ‘‘Yes; that’s $3,000.” assented Brand. “Six thousand,” said the judge, continuing with his task—“seven thousand, seventy-five—eight thousand.” “Eight thousand dollars,” agreed Brand. - : ’ “Nine thousand.” counted the judge. “Nine thousand-dollars,” said Brand. “Ten thousand dollars.” the judge counted. “Is that correct?” he queried of the editor. “Ten thousand dollars, correct,” was the reply. “That will wipe the slate clean between us.” , Brand held out his hand to take the money. The judge picked up the pile of bills, compressed them with his hands and extended the money across the desk. “Take it; Brand,” he said. As the false judge said these words and stood with the money in his hands and held it out to the editor a loud explosion thrilled every nerve fiber in his body. A blinding glare of light filled the room, and the air was filled with the choking gaseous fumes of the smoke of the powder used by photographers in making flashlights. A pang of terror shot through the craven heart of the would be briber. He started back in his alarm, his eyes almost blinded by the unexpected flood of light that had subsided as quickly as it bad come. “My God! What is that?” he cried, rubbing the back of one of his bands across his eyes. Wheeler Brand, who had risen in his place at his desk when the judge had finished counting the money, set his face into hard, unyielding lines as the judge besought him to speak, to explain. He had won. He had com-, pletely at his mercy this cold, crafty betrayer of the public trust he had gworn to hold sacred. And it was

with unmistakable triumpn in bis voice that he gave the reply that was to be imprinted on the brain of the false judge as long as he was to live—a reply that would haunt him while awake and awake him when he slept; “It is a picture of you in stripes, Judge Bartelmy,” he announced. The judge, realizing that he had been tricked—that he had been photographed in the very act of handing bribe money to the managing editor of the Advance—displayed rare presence of mind for a man whose complete social and professional ruin bad become suddenly imminent. He rushed across the room at the point where the flash occurred, hoping tp obtain

hold of the camera and destroy the plate. Owing to the pall of smoke he had been uuable to see just in what jnamier the camera had beeu arranged. But when he reached the side of the room there was no camera to be seen, only a round hole extending through ..the partition into the next room and from which the camera had been removed. He stood and gazed in dismay. He knew now that he was at the mercy of Brand and the Advance to a degree that he hardly dared to estimate. He turned around and walked back to the desk. Brand was still standing in his place, looking fixedly at the judge. Bartelmy was not beaten yet. He knew that be would not be beaten until the Advance appeared iu the streets spwkitdiny forth to all the world the story of his shame. Rk'fcing from head to foot in his rage, he pounded the desk and cried « ; v t ; "Yi Vi have gone to all your trouble f r a thing, 1 aui going direct tp Mr. ■'Nolan's house, and in less than an :h.>ur you will receive orders to kill that story—that 1 , dastardly pack of lies y ou want to print!” Brand smiled calmly, lie gathered the slo,o* 0 in bills, which lay scatterkl on the desk where Bartelmy had thrown them when he dashed for the camera. “I’ll keep these as evidence.” he said. “When they have served their purpose we will return them to you. or maybe we will send them to the minority stockholders ip the Lansing Iron company. That’s who the money probably belongs to.” . . Bartelmj' accept' d the situation with stoical composure for the time. He saw that he Would have no chance In a hand to band struggle with the young athletic editor for in is session of the money. Besides, he must see Nolan—must see him at once. That was the most important matter to which he should now attend. ne walked deliberately to the closet and secured his hat and coat. He turned the key and went out of the door leading to the outer hall. * As the judge disappeared Wheeler Brand sank heavily into his chair. He

spread his arms on his desk and bowed his head between them until his cheek rested on the cool polished surface. “Jndith, Judith!" he sobbed, and his body shook uncontrolledly as he wep* for the girl he loved. (To Be Continued.)

“Dupuy is in my confidence.”

“IT IS A PICTURE OF YOU IN STRIPES. JUDGE BARTELMY.”

“You count the money, judge.”