the blessed
BARRIER
v
Bv I ANME HURST
S0MEW11KKK In the heart, the
mini and the spirit of young
Sterling was a barrier as high,
praei ically. as his life was long.
Had you even suggested anything
of (li s to any member <rf the Huh
low f.i y. they would have met the
Implication with loyal and heated de
nial.
How 'OiiM Sterling secretly feel
himself sm outsider in the Huhlow
family, when not one of the Huhlow
children, although they had quite sim
ply been tohl when they each became
eight. i' 'i an atom of consciousness
that S:er was not blood brother?
As a matter of fact, bending too
far i?a? ; -v..r.l perhaps to achieve this
em!. Ami and l'roscow Huhlow took
pains i ?? s?'e to It that Sterling re
ceived i'wn more than their own chil
dren ??f parental solicitude.
The fart that Sterling had been
adopted by Ann during a previous j
marriage was as remote in the minds I
of h? -r j.nscnt husband and children [
as if it had never happened.
St? r! : r; ^ belonged. As the senior
menil" r "f a remarkably alert group i
of rl ' <'n. lie was the acknowledged
leader ? i the clan.
*'S rling is too outrageously clev
er." A uii was wont to remark of her
allen-l eldest, treating him in the col
R gMpi::il >oung fashion of the modern
met I r. "He sets a dreadful example
to the r?'st of the children. They
have to live up to him.*'
"Sterling is not clever." Ann's real
It eldest. Shirley, would sing out on
siirli asions. "He's a soulless m:s- i
antiirope. an nrid-llinging cvnic.
niisin-li \ iorist, and he passes off
amotiL' the unworldllngs of my moth
er's u'-ni-ration as clever."
"Oh, Shirley, be yourself," Terry,
two y?-.irs below Shirley, would re
tort on the fling of a soft pillow.
"You know you'd give your sleepy
head to be as clever as Sterling."
"What Shirley can't be. she is not
goi!!-; tn bid for," remarked her fa
ther. dodiring in turn the same sofa
pillow tlung by Shirley toward him.
that had been flung by Terry to his
sister.
"Fat r. it is a good thing you make
It a point to speak your true words i
in jest. Otherwise your family would
i never grant you a hearing."
Typi .1. all this, of the way Ster
ling stood in the admiration of liis
so-called parents and brothers and
sisters. Not only the two ojder of the
Buhlow children vested him th\i?% in
their full and enthusiastic approval,
but the stepladder of younger ones
followed suit with hero worshiping
eyes.
"Sterling this." "Sterling that." "If
I had Sterling's brains." "Sterling is
the genius of this family." "If only
Sterling would take the trouble he
could he anything he set out to he!"
Something undoubtedly there was
in Sterling. The something that
would not take the trouble. Time
after time, her sweet, anxious eyes
scrutinizing this youth, Ann tried to
analyze that trouble. Proseow, too.
And ns Ann said banteringly of her
husband, as a famous alienist whose
job it was to analyze the workings
the human brain, Proseow ought
to be able to ferret o?t the way to
attack the streak of cynical Inertia
in Sterling.
"Darling, with all your brains. Isn't
there anything you want to he?"
"I want my father to subsidize me
with ten thousand a year ns guar
antee against the horirble thought of
ever wanting to be anything."
"Sterling, won't you be serious just
once? You're twenty now. The time
has come when you simply have to
decide v hat you want to do with your
life. You're too talented ! .Music
Painting. Writing. I've a snspioion
y?u ran he a great person 1 n any one
of them."
"Perhaps.**
"Proseow. you talk to him."
f urious, with any one of their own
children, this problem would have
been treated In quite another manner.
I" fact, the problem of Terry had al
ready been handled with derision and
the school for his medical training
selenod. With Sterling, just because
?f his equivocal position In the
household, the dilemma of stimulat
ing him to action was a subtle and
troublesome one.
"You know after all. Sterling, your
father, in spite of his wealth, could
never h?? wealthy enough to encour
a?e a dilettante in the family."
A flush run u.reath the pallor of
the best-looking member of the Buh
Ann had struck in. Proseow.
'nd rightly, would not permit one of
sons to live off of his largess
? ? . much li'-s Stt-rlin:. the out
sider.
How to convey to these ,|ear. warm
discreet people that Knawiii^-. sicken
ins sense of hi.* outsidenev. The
very coloring of tl?. oy<^ ?n.j ,,.llr
of his live foster brother* :in,| sis
ten. u;,s sometliiiiK Sterling coul.l
never I.K.k upon without the col, I
sense of ileitis alien sweeping Ihroush
the lonely inner .if 1
tion.
The I'.uhlows were blond, every on
of i hen), blue-eyed, >; raw-haired.
I Hirk, nloof, alone, lie in tl.i iv !
dear. kin?l world? t lie alien whose
isolation no one dared mention. Th?=
alien, who ?.y very virtue of t he
anomaly of his position, was treated |
with considerations tli:i t hurt mor.
than helped. All of his childl
Sterling had yearned for the h? rtier
reprimands handed out so unsHtVor
scioiedy to the liuhlow < hiMn i:. No
childish dispute had e\er been
tied against hi in. The alien defem- 1
to!
The same way now with I < re
tarded decision. With n<>t one ..ther
of his children wouM I'roseow have
heen so Indulgent. Terry was a con
crcte example. Fven Shirley, nly
girl in the group, had never met tlip
quality of imlulgcme that had been
meted out to Sterling.
It made the bitterness : Ht ' ijrt
Ing and the secret gnawing p:<in ?-f
being special, and a little outside the
dear, inner group of people who were
dearer than dear to him. almost |<>o
vast to be borne.
It was not alone the sense of heim:
the outsider. It was the knowledge
that their unspoken sense of it kept
them all s<? eruellv considerate. so
deferential to his special position.
Not even his foster lather wa< to
sense this out as the see ret ?>f the
curious problem confronting hiui in
this foster son of his.
Yoo bad. Most gifted member of
the family. I trains. Talent. Will get
his bearings in time, of course. I'ut a
curious licked kind ??f psychology to
the lad. Doesn't care ;i great d*al
about anything. Fine intelligence.
High strung, but not unduly nervous
Sensitive, of course. I'.ui somewhere
in the machinery of the boy's fine
mind, a monkey wrench.
For a while Shirley had seemed to
have easiest access to the confidence
of Sterling. They were so close; so
tilled with admiration, each f?>r the
other. Their entire childhood ?!
been like that. Merciless in their
repartee, gibe and banter, they were
nonetheless closer than any other two
of the children.
Hut then at this stage, when more
than ever Sterling had become the
noncommittal dilettante, even Shirley
had fallen back defeated. Something
was eating Sterling.
However. In the end it was Shirley
who was to find her way into the tor
mental labyrinth of Sterling's di
lemma.
The recital of his years of secret
anguish and hurt and jealousies came
from him one night in a torrent, on
the heels of a discussion they had
been having together on the subject
of his refusal to compete for an art
prize.
Sentence by sentence, revealing
conunitiuent by commitment, the
strange secret tortures of the years
lay revealed.
**rm too jealous, Shirley. Too eaten
with the devilish pain of being an
outsider to the people I love best in
the world, to care about anything. I'm
licked before I start. Von can't want
anything badly enough to so out and
get it when you're eaten with a devil
like that. It will always he that way
with me. Homesickness, heart sick
ness, to be one of a group that will
always too consciously and conscienti
ously try to make me think I am what
I am not."
"You fool," said Shirley, after hours
of letting this too long Oammed-up
confession How from him. "You dar
ling. blessed, adorable idiot. The only
thing. Sterling, that has made all these
late years of mine the grand luminous
years that they have been, is the fact
that you are not one >?f us in the
sense you mean. Fool. Darling idiot.
Please, please don't sit there pretend
ing you don't know what I mean.
Sterling ? how terrible it would be if
really you were of us."
Suddenly, seeing her there in a ra
diance that was as heauiifnl as it was
unmistakable to him. Sterling did see
. . . ami seeing, came to bless the
fact that he was not one of them:
Biblical "Slip*"
Our recent note on a clergyman's
discovery that a Bible verse ran:
-Gird up thy lions,** instead of "loins,"
brought from correspondents letters
concerning other errors that have
slipped into this and kindred religious
works. Thus 'n one Bible an error in
punctuation made a certain passage
run: "The wicked flee, when no man
pursue! h the righteous, is as hold as a
lion."
And the omission ?f a letter In n
nass;iue in the "f Common llnyer
niwle I run: "We slmll nil he liange.l
in the twinkllrg of an Boston
Tmnscrit.L
Stowaway Takes in Sights of London
Very Simple the Way La
Raviere Tells It.
London. ? Strict as immigration oltt
? i's and steamship otlicers are, it is
sl'H possible to cross the Atlantic
::s 51 v' "waw ay, eat two square meals
?i:iily for seven d:iys while mingling
with the passengers and crew, anil J
then enter Urea; r.ritain without so
much as a question from the autliorl- '
ties.
Uaymond La Uaviere, twenty-eight, .
who says he lived at JITJ Marquette
ro;wl, Chicago, did it. Travelers who
l.a\e experienced the thoroughness of
tin? Kuropeati investigations of foreign
er.-, at ports and frontiers, plus the
it>u;il ticket and passport inspections
of stewards and others aboard ship,
an rely go through formalities in no
w:tv essential. La Uaviere proved it.
lie hoarded the Ohmpic in New
York 15 hours before the vessel sailed,
made himself comfortable, traveled to
Southampton, landed, tramped to Lon
don, and was going for a walk with
two newly found girl friends in Drury
Lane some time later before the police
called him to account. Then he was
lined S10 or given one month in Worm
wood Scrubs prison for the offense of
entering Lnglnnd illegally.
Afterward he restored himself to
the trust of the oflicials and spent a
month doing the tower, houses of par
liament, Westminster abbey, Kew gar
d'-ns, and other points of interest.
La Uaviere was even given a police
r<_i>t ration card such as all Ameri
cans and other foreigners who stay in
Knuland any length of time must
have.
It all sounds easy as he explains
it.
He walked tip the Olympic gang
plank, stored his 1 u - - . i in the crew's
quarters, and went for a walk, lie
came hack at eight, g??t his bag, and
picked out an unoccupied third-class
stateroom. Mattresses and other un
use?* bedding were stored in the room,
and o it of these he built a screen to
shield himself from the door. Then
he made his lied behind and turned In
for the ninlit. When lie woke up next
morning ho was at sea.
La Uaviere stayed in his stateroom
until evening, when lie -'row hungry.
So lie chatted his clothes and went
on deck. Then he learned that the
night crew was about to be fed, so
he dashed back and got into his sea
man's clot liiiiL. in time to follow the
3QO-Year-Old Bean
Sprouts in Museum
San Antonio, Texas. ? A large
white bean, picked up in the ruins
of Grand Quivira and believed
to be 3(10 years old, has sprouted
into a living stalk at White Me
morial museum here.
The bean was found in an ex
cavation 70 feet from the sur
face at ruins located 100 miles
south of Santa Fe, N. M. Fran
clscan missionaries founded a
mission there in 1G29, and prior
to that time the IMro Indians
maintained a settlement there
called Tahira.
The bean was soaked in water
for five hours March 11). Less
than two weeks later a stalk six
inches tall had grown from the
seed.
crew In to supper. Ho helped him
self and nobody asked any questions.
He made this quick change twice :?
day for seven days, lie ate lunch
with the day crew and at night he
fed with a different watch. Nobody
suspected. The rest of the time he
lolled in deck chairs and mingled with
the passengers.
La Uavicre meant to debark at Cher
bourg, but found this impossible be
cause of i he landing card necessary
to board the tender. So he went 0:1
to Southampton and was unlucky
enough t ?? arrive there in mid-after
noon. He saw two gangplanks taken
aboard, one for the passengers an I i
the other for the crew, who immedi- |
ately began unloading laundry. Then
he did his quick change for the last
time, lie left his hag behind to avoid
customs ollicers and .walked off the
ship with the crew.
He was unable to get out of the
dock yards at Southampton because
the only exit Is through n gate in a
high steel wire fence and this is guard j
ed by immigration ollicers.
Hut he waited until dark and then i
Jumped the fence, the last hurdle of
his crossing taken. Then he walked
Spain Ignores Death
Penalty in New Regime
Madrid, Spain. ? Although the con
stitution of the second Spanish re
public is silent on the subject, and the
new criminal code has not yet been
drawn up. the death penalty his gone
out of vogue in this country.
Recently, the minister of justice,
Don Alvaro de Alhornoz, announced
the commutation of the death pen
alty to life imprisonment of a man
who had killed the wife of a dairy
owner, and their twenty-seven-months*
old baby.
The Cortes Const ituyentes, a few
weeks ago. refused to take into con
sideration a hill proposed by a deputy
belonging to the radical party, which
would provide the death penalty for
all robbers who engaged in holdups.
The bill was proposed on the day
when a hank in M;.drid was held up
and robbed of Sl.tMM), hut It was
promptly hooted down by the Social
ists and Radical Socialist deputies.
These two events are sympotonta
tic of the spirit of the times in Spain.
Twin* Celebrate at Eighty
Itristol Kerry, It. I.? Mrs. A. Oore
Trueman and Mrs. George S. Martin,
twins, recently celebrated their eight
letli birthday here. They were mar
ried at a double ceremony 00 years
ago and each is the mother of two
children.
to London, a fraction less than 80
mil os away.
lie confessed to a policeman guard
ing the door of -m American organiza
tion in London that he entered as a
stowaway without a passport. This
policeman. La Kavicre claims, refused
to arrest him then, hut when lie saw
him on the following day strolling with
two pretty Utiglish girls he put hi in
under arrest and took him to the Im
migration office in How street. I!e
w:is convicted of entering the country
illegally and on the same day they
took him to Wormwood Scrubs, u
prison on the outskirts of l.ondon.
There he says his treatment was
of the best.
After his sentence was finished La
Kiivi'-re w:is sent automatically to
I'rixton prison to await deportation,
lie appealed to the home office for
release and to pol:sh oil his experi
ences he was allowed his freedom In
the name of Sir Herbert Samuel, home
secretary. Throughout his difficulties
American consular officials were anx
I i?us to help him. but thev could do
! not* !ng without proof of his Ameri
can citizenship. This he could not
supply without a passport, and it was
necessary to write to Chicago for IiIjv
I birth certificate.
KING'S BODYGUARD
ft ? ? ? !
Here is the bodyguard of a king of
Hie west coast of Africa, a soldier in
the guard of the King ?>f Ko, who
wears green spectacles, a straw hat on
his mini plastered hair, a handana
handkerchief, and decorates his arms
with a siring of bracelets.
U. S. Memorial in France
Old French Defenses Are Dis
covered by Laborers.
? , ^
IUir-le-Duc. ? As excavations for the
construction of an American inonu
nient were being made on the peak of
Mo afucoti. In tl?e Ar^onne, the foun
dations of an old fortress built there
l?y CSodefroy Ue Bouillon in 107G were
discovered.
The American monument is to com
memorate the 1,512 sTftdiera of the
United States army who were killed
there in September, 11)18, when the po
Best cf the New Coast Guardsmen
i ??? n ? ? v- 1 ? , 1 k .
Four members of tlic graduating class of the L'nited Stales Coast Gunnl
academy at New London, Conn., who were awarded prizes as well as diplomas
at the ceremonies conducted in the casemates of old Fort Trumbull. I .oft to
right: Cailets It. D. Srhmidtman of Washington. D. C? winner of a prize for
proficiency In military tactics; G. I. Lynch of Met linen, Mass., awarded the
Charles S. Root prize for being best in drawing; \V. II. Snyder, honor student
who won I he alumni association prize for the highest academic standing for
the entire three year term, and J. I>. Craik of Andover. .Mass.. awarded a sword
by Hie Connecticut I hi lighters of the American Revolution for having best con
du>t!?l himself during liis course.
sition was taken from the Germans.
The old fort is said to have been de
stroyed and reconstructed in t lie Elev
enth, Thirteenth, Fifteenth. Sixteenth
and Seventeenth centuries and finally
burned with the village during the
Thirty Years' war by t lie Swedes.
Godefroy de Bouillon was a young
vassal of Emperor Henry IV, from
whom he received the title of Mar
quisate of An vers at the death of
Godefroy-le-Bossu. The fortress was
dismantled when the Due de Basse
Lorraine left with the Crusaders.
Explorations are being made by
Baron Benaux. curator of the Verdun
museum and library, under the auspices
of the ministry of fine arts, in col
laboration with Canon Almond, histor
ical savant of the Meuse, and other
authorities. Anions the finds so far
are nn entrance stairway, a series of
galleries of different sizes, small rooms
in one of which was a stone bench,
and several piles of burned wheat. In
dicating the destruction of lfiliG. Those
were all discovered at a depth of eight
or ten meters.
The American battle monument Is
tc be made of reinforced concrete
faced with Burgundy stone. It will
be 200 feet high, overlooking the en
tire battlefield. Dedication ceremonies
are scheduled for this summer, unless
present excavations postpone the work.
New Yorker Owns Goose
That Lays 11-Inch Egg
Pen Van, N. Y. ? Peggy J., owned by
Mrs. J. F. Goundry, is no ordinary
goose.
Peggy lays eggs so large that one
of them, mixed with two quarts of
milk, will make enough custard for
the family.
Every spring Peggy goes on an ec
centric production schedule. On al
ternate days she lays n huge double
yolked egg weighing ten ounces. It
measures 11 inches around.
When hot weather sets in, she set
tles down to one normal egg a day.
The man whe lacks faith in his
ability seldom a complishes anything.