tut’RSDAY, JUNE 26. 1930.
| AMANDA |
| and the I
1 ESCAPED I
| CONVICT |
i ii
(® by f). J. Walsh.)
AMANDA STOCKTON handed 1 ,
her husband his dinner pail,
presented an apple-like cheek
for his good-by kiss and
opened the back door to let him out.
* .-bill. raw wind swept through the
kii, i»en and swirled around her skirts
«,(>.> stood in the doorway. For sev
enteen years, regardless of weather
parting was the saiuew
Be careful about opening the door
, v . A stranger,” he invariably warned.
Her answer was a good-natured
jannh. Not that Amanda ever took
bi< warning seriously. It was a pleas
part of the morning’s program,
, f; ,. because it came from Tim, she
loved it.
just as he passed through the alley
Tim always turned, and he and
iiuia lifted, simultaneously, a hand
r , \ a’-tl each other in farewell.
Though Amanda’s teeth chattered
with the cold, it did not occur to her
to - inside turn the moment of Tim’s
turning the corner at the end of the
alley.
Amanda poured herself a post-break
f:i>i cup of coffee. Its aroma filled
the kitchen. A sudden knocking at
the door surprised her.
"I wonder who it can he? It’s pret
ty early for callers,” .she puzzled, as
she opened the door.
The man who stood there was shock
ingly shabby and he shook as though
he had the ague.
•‘I smelled your coffee clean out to
the alley, ma’am,” he mumbled, apolo
getically. “Could you give me a cup?”
"Come in.” she said, with swift pity,
flinging the door wide.
She piled a plate high with fried po
tatoes and thick slices of bacon. She
set ilie plate on the table and indicat
ed a chair. Pouring a cup of coffee,
she added cream and sugar, and set
it beside the plate.
“If you’d like more.” she said, plac
ing the coffee pot on a china stand be
fore him, “help yourself.”
Then she tactfully busied herself at
the kitchen sink while the stranger
ate. Except for the rattle of dishes
and silver as she lifted them from the
hot suds to the drainer, and the occa
sional click of his cup as her unknown
guest settled it in its saucer, there
was silence in the small kitchen.
The man’s chair scraped on the hard
wood floor. He rose to his feet. Aman
da lifted her hands from the dish
water and, drying them on her apron,
turned and faced him. “Have enough?”
she asked.
The man nodded. He held out his
foot and eyed, inoaningl.v, the perfor
ated 'ln»e with its flapping sole.
"Your mister wouldn’t have an old
pair he wouldn’t need, would he?”
“That be has. sir,” she said cheer
fully. “They're nothing extra, but I’ve
been saving them for some oue who
might come along, and you may as
well have them. I’ll bring them.”
In a moment she returned with them
in her hand. A flush had crept into
the man’s face. He glanced at the
shoes, then at her, t and he was shak
ing violently, as though the coffee and
food, despite the color in his face, had
not warmed him.
“They’ll do nicely,” he told her, “but
I'm so cold, ma’am, and so stiff I can’t
, heml over. Would you mind putting
'em on for me?”
Without hesitation Amanda got
down on her knees and pulled off the
shoes. Then, the stranger assisting
with his feet, she deftly pulled on
Tim’s old ones over the ragged socks.
A* she tied the final knot, Amanda
•looked up.
Her eyes were discs of terror am!
her hands fluttered vaguely to her
breast, her forehead, and the color
drained from her face. -The man’s
hands were high above her head and
they were bound together with heavy
steol handcuffs! His eyes were half
shut and his face was working ter
ribly.
How long she waited thus for him
to strike, Amanda did not know. A
sick numbness tilled her. Her mind
waited blankly, conscious only of the
pounding, hammerlike staccato of the
alarm clock.
The unshaven lips of the stranger
began to move without sound, his man
acled hands still held above her men
acingly.
Finally lie opened his eyes.
Amanda swayed before him.
“h's t lie first time I’ve prayed in
•years,” said the man, with a sob, his
taco twisted like a gargoyle. “I was
asking Clod to bless you, ma’am. You
make rue think o’ my mother. If you
<'ould do one more tiling for me?” His
vyes questioned, implored, as lie held
bis bound wrists. “I can’t get
tar with these bracelets,” lie half mut
tered, with a grim smile.
Amanda, blinking with the sharp
Dish of restrained tears, struggled to
her seer, managed finally to force the
l°cks and removed the hands from
the dirty, swollen wrists.
With that he snatched his battered
green derby from the floor und was
gone. Amanda watched him go out the
back gate and face west down the
alley.
l ive minutes later three policemen
‘•a me up the hacksteps. One of them
tapped on the door with his club.
‘Cautiously Amanda opened it a crack.
“An escaped convict has been trace«
to your yard, missus.” said one.
“Do you know which way he went?’
asked another.
“A convict!” exclaimed Amanda, in
well-simulated amazement. As an aft
erthought, in a dumbfounded tone, she
demanded, “What did he look like?”
“He’d get a booby prize in a style
show, all right, for he robbed a scare
crow. He had on a green derby and a
has-been, swallow-tailed coat.”
Stepping to the stove, Amanda bent
over an imaginary cake in the oven.
She closed the iron door deliberately
and, as she straightened her face reg
istered mingled indignation and fear.
“Yes, I did see him,” she cried ex
citedly, “twenty minutes ago. That
man ran through my yard to the street
and turned east.”
The officers rushed down the steps
and around to the front of the house.
“I hope,” Amanda called after them.
“I certainly hope you catch him!”
Scientific Mind Cold
to Human Prejudices
Because its prestige is so great, sci
ence has been acclaimed as a new rev
elation. Cults have attached them
selves to scientific hypotheses as for
tune-tellers to a circus. A whole
series of pseudo-religions have been
iiastily constructed upon such dogmas
as the laws of nature, mechanism, Dar
winian evolution. Lamarckian evolu
tion and psychoanalysis. Each of
these cults has had its own deca
logue of science founded at last, it
was said, upon certain knowledge.
These cults are an attempt to fit the
working theories of science to the or
dinary man’s desire for personal sal
vation. They do violence to the in
tegrity of scientific thought and they
cannot satisfy the layman’s need to
believe. For the essence of the sci
entific method is a determination to
investigate phenomena without con
ceding anything to native human preju
dices. Therefore, genuine men of sci
ence shrink from the attempts of po
ets, prophets and popular lecturers to
translate the current scientific theory
into the broad aud passionate dogmas
of popular faith. As a matter of com
mon honesty they know that no the
ory has the kind of absolute verity
which popular faith would attribute
to it. As a matter of prudence they
rear these popular cults, knowing
'quite well that freedom of inquiry is
endangered when men become passion
ately loyal to an idea, and stake their
personal pride and hope of happiness
upon its vindication. In the light of
human experience, men of science have
learned what happens when investigat
ors are not free to discard any theory
without breaking some dear old lady’s
heart. Their theories are not the kind
of revelation which the old lady is
seeking, and their beliefs are relative
and provisional to a degree which
must seem utterly alien and bewilder
ing to her. —From “A Preface to Mor
als,” by Walter Lippmann.
Few Andirons Left
Very few examples of medieval
andirons have been preserved, al
though there is every reason to be
lieve that during that period they
were used in great numbers, writes
G. Bernard Hughes, iu the Bostou
Transcript. Their scarcity probably
is due to the fact that, while in use,
they were subjected to destructive in
fluences, such as intense heat, mois
ture, rust, warping, breakage, etc.,
which, after a time, would render
them useless, and. consequently, they
would he discarded.
The important place they occupied
among the furnishings of the house,
may he surmised from the well-known
inventory of Cardinal Wolsey's furni
ture at ampton court, where 47 pairs
of andirons were made of brass and
the others of wrought iron, aud all of
varying designs. Many of these were
specially made for Wolsey, for they
bore iiis coat of arms.
First Form of Plant Life
Millions of years before the first tree
existed, long before man walked the
earth, or any land animal lived, the
rocks show us that early forms of
plant life were in existence. Some,
says Forests and Mankind, are remote
but recognizable ancestors of trees,
and among them are the great club
mosses and the early fern-like plants.
Species of our older trees have be
come less numerous. Once the ,suo
never set on the liriodendron, that
magnificent tree we variously call tu
lip trej, tulip poplar, yellow poplar,
and white wood. It grew, says B’or
ests and Mankind, in all parts of the
globe, and at least nine different spe
cies have been found. Now there are
only two species, one in America and
the other in far-off China.
Proper “Education”
Providence bestows its gifts vari
ously, but none of us is unendowed.
A wise system of education would
aim at leading out (which is the. pre
cise meaning of “education”) that
talent and making the child a success
in his own line.
Children should never know they
are dull, and parents should never
despair. A dull child may be a bright
man and a bright child a dull one.
Exchange.
Resourceful Girl /
We’re a resource nation. An Amer
ican girl in Paris once halted her mil
lionaire father before a jeweler’s shop
in the Rue de la Paix and pointed to
a tiara surmounted by a coronet.
“Pa, buy me that!” she said.
“Buy you that?” her father chuckled.
“Why, girlie, you’ve got to be a dneh
ess to wear that.”
The girl tossed her head.
“You buy it,” she said. I’ll h»»d the
duke.” —Cldcago Tribune.
THE CHATHAM RECORD, PITTSBORO, N. C.
My Favorite
Stories
by Irvin <#“. Cobb
Leaving While the Leaving
Was Good
B»ERT SWOR, the minstrel man,
uses real life incidents for the
material of his monologue acts. He
gathers them up in the South during
his vacations and repeats them on the
stage in the theatrical season.
Here is one which he tells in black
face with great effect. He swears It
really happened in a small Texas
town:
It seems a colored girl was enter
taining a gentleman friend when an
other suitor for her favor appeared at
the locked front door and demanded
admittance. There was jealousy
his manner and anger in his voice.
Also, there was a justifiable suspicion
on the part of the occupants of the
house that he might be toting a razor.
Anyhow, the newcomer had a reputa
tion for behaving violently at times.
His rival within doors was of a more
pacific turn of mind.
“Gal,” he said to his hostess, “1
ain’t aimin’ to have no rookus wid
dat tough nigger outside .yonder.”
“You ain’t skeered of him, is you?”
demanded the lady.
“I ain’t skeered —I’se jest careful,
that’s all. I reckin de best thing fur
me to do is jest to climb out of one
of dese here back window's and go on
’bout my bizness.”
“You better not do dat,” said the
girl. “Dey’s a dwag in de back yard.”
“Honey,” quoth the departing one
as he skinned over the window sill,
“de way things is out in front it don’t
make no diff’unce to me es de back
yard is upholstered in dawgs.”
(©. by the McNaught Syndicate. Inc.)
®
ANNOUNCEMENT IN OFFICE
“All office boys going to wed
dings and funerals must speak to
superintendant by 10 o’clock the
day of the game.”—Yale Record.
, lTf *aTOllpP” • ••:< •• . 4mßM®mmms»*^
.. . •. •: iiilßl I wpWMSiI
fls Ipi
By :**|§r •■ ;| - j|fß II
W . s- '’.XX;'- ..v •:.-.% .'jw?. ;S ?
r «iiH mffiglf #• - i :,4PHTf .■■ps^aßi
r ■MM I 1 ffiHHH
r: ::: .y ::
|j >: ; ..j;alBBy;;, x Jki
f- : • : XX
JMm|’•. • ’"•• j|j|jj|
M E L— made to smoke i
♦
ALL THE PLEASURE that tobacco can give is found in Camels! Mild!
# i
Fragrant! Soothing! Refreshing as the -dawn of a holiday!
Camels are made for this one reason: To give you the utmost
1 i
smoking pleasure. And this can be assured only by the use of the
choicest cigarette tobaccos blended to an inimitable smoothness, and >*f,
prepared by the most modern and scientific methods of manufacture.
i - . \ , ; ... *
When you light a Camel you have the happy knowledge that money
can’t buy a better cigarette.
Don’t deny yourself the luxury of Camels i
9 % Jf}jy~X&
* ON THE RADIO ★ ’*
Camel Pleasure Hour—Wednesday evenings on N. B. C network. . - *
WJZ and associated stations. Consult your local radio tune table. '
© 1930. R. J. Reynold* Tobacco - A.V- 2
Company, Winston-Salam, N. C. .
SARGON GIVES HER I
SURPRISE OF LIFE
“I took nearly every medicine
j recommended for my -trouble but
| nothing did me any real good until
I took Sargon, and it gave me the
wm W
MRS. R. W. ALBERT
surprise of my life. I could hardly
retain food, my liver was disordered,
I was dreadfully constipated and
suffered with sick headaches. I had
lost so much weight and strength
that I hadn’t the energy or life
to do anything. Sargon gave me a
splendid eppetite and my digestion
is perfect. I never have headaches,
I’m fast regaining my lost weight
and have just lots of new strength
and energy.
“Sargon Pills relieved me of
constipation, cleansed my system of
poisons and left me feeling toned
up instead of causing that weak,
let-down feeling produced by the
usual laxatives.”—Mrs. R. W. Al
bert, 1802 Blanding St., Columbia,
S. C.
C. R. Pilkington, Pittsboro; Wig
gins Drug Stores, Inc., Siler City,
Agents. —Adv.
! DID YOU EVER
STOP TO THINK?
0
By EDSON R. WAITE
Shawnee, Oklahoma
Charles F. Scott, former member
of Congress and editor of the Tola
(Kansas) daily register, says:
“Competition now is between
towns rather than between indivi
duals. With an automobile in every
home and good roads in every
direction, the man on the farm
does not say to his family as they
get ready for the regular weekly
trade trip, ‘Let’s go to the Brown
Store or the Green Store or the
Blue Store.’ He says, ‘Let’s go to
Square Tow r n or Whoop City of
Welcome Center.’
“And whether they go to the
one or the other of these towns
will depend very largely upon the
p§l Qol’dßibbon yffi.
Coffee h Chicory | Master*
- - - ‘
impression the family has received.
j through the local newspapers. If
ithe .newspapers from one of these
twons comes to them every day
filled with attractive advertisements
in every line of merchandise, and if
editorally and in its local depart
ment the newspaper is a live wire,
creating the impression that some
thing is always going on in that
town, there is where the family
r is going.
1 “On the other hand, if it is con
ceivable that a newspaper should
i go out from any given town day
• after day without and advertise
r ments at . all for a period of six
r months, grass would be growing in*-
i the streets.”
’ <9
A “BOMB” WAITER >
> A bomb was recently discovered
: in a Nice restaurant. We under- -
stand several customers saw the
i thing and hoped it would explode
; aand perhaps draw the attention
s of a. waiter.—London Opinion.
PAGE THREE