Newspapers / The Caucasian (Clinton, N.C.) / May 23, 1912, edition 1 / Page 6
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THE CAUCASIAir ' ' X V' tTfcurUy, Pe Six. ii if f J l! i. ft I j Hi V I! s u J J 3 5- 1 t! f - 1 ? 1 s it : 1, 1 1 u W i ii ? ! ; . : a II i i ? ! in 4 ii I St -; ? ! 1 ; i 5 i i : ' ill A Change of eart By LoU Wiflosgaby (Copyright. 2312. by Associated IJterary j Press.) I The president'! outer office was be iing enlarged and generally made ovei during his trip abroad. Tbe room was In confusion tbe floor corered with tools, boards of all lengths and sizes, and general debris. ) Over in one corner was a saw bench fwblch bore many marks of antiquity, tend on it sat the old carpenter "Dad" they called htm. He had finished his lunch and was contentedly puffing away at his pipe, and as he smoked !be looked down at the sawdust and 'shavings which surrounded him. There ain't no use talkin', "be said to the stenographer, "mahogany makes pretty shavin's, and I've planed off lots of them the last few years. They're putt in' on considerable trim xain's in offices nowadays. A man don't do business any more no, sir he transacts it, and he transacts it right up to the latest style, too. I never get in one of these busi ness parlors but I think o' BilL Bill was good company and I miss him lots. He was a good worker, too, and you just set him down in some meek and lowly place and tell him what had to be done, and he'd light into it like fury. But when we'd get sent on some of these jobs where tbe buildin' was strictly up to date, Bill'd go all to pieces. He couldn't stand mahog any any way you fix it; he was a reg ular porcupine the minute he spied it If there happened to be a fancy shade over the electric light TifTny, I guess they call it it made him all the madder; and he threw a quill evry time he saw the boss push one of them little pearl buttons In a silver frame. "'You're all wrong, Bill I used to tell 'Im. 'If cuttin' up a few square feet of mahogany into strips and nail in' it on to the wall is goin' to make a man happy let 'im have it maybe it's only baywood anyway; and if smashing colored glass into ragged pieces and solderln it together with "You're All Wrong, Bill," I Used to Say to Him. Iron, pleases him let's be pleasant. And there ain't no use klckin' about . them push buttons; he ain't got time . to stand out In the hall and yell every j time he wants anybody. Them bells ain't as stylish as you think they are. "It wasn't much use tryin' to argue with him, but I was such an old fool I used to try it Why, whea moon j would come and we was alone, Bfll'd ' glare and growl like a crazy man and J he'd harangue something fierce. Shut up I says to him one day, the first thing you know the placeH be pinched . and maybe they've got the cells done '. la mahogany now "It was just ign'rance with Bill he couldn't understand humaa nature , didat know everybody had it When we worked for one of them plutocrats, as he called them, he'd spend a whole hour ia the morning foolin around with his tools and layin' them this way and thea that just kfllia' time; land whea 'twas about time for the . - captain of industry to blow in, BflTd wrtri th rinnr IfkA a. fn t vatihfl a. mouse hole, and he'd always manage to be doin' nothia just nothia' when the captain walked through. That was about all tbe fun Bin had. - "Maybe I didn't give Bill due credit, Sdt I guess he knew somethia' about - human nature after s&; he knew that woald make the captain, mad. It usually did, aad Bill would get as near tas he could to the door to the private office and listen to him kickia' about t The captain would be riled up all iday long and we'd hear him tell evry anan that went in his officef how aw tfully capital was being cheated and jrobbed by the workin' classes; how 'twas an outrage, a dowaright outrage, . that the money interests should be so , imposed upon by unscrupulous labor, aad that some day some day I ai rways have to laugh whea I think how : 29 used to double up on them 'some Jdays' that some day the interests oi (capital would be protected by law. 1 Jwaa kiad o' sorry for Cap, for h ! actually thought he meant it while ht lsa taUdn. , "B21 'd be reasonably contended aS j 2 fay if the eart&ln bad enonrh csUfrsJ but long about uittln tine he'd get downhearted and glum, and Td say: What's the matter. Bill? You're had the captain upset all day, you ought to be happy bear him klckin now. Yes says Bill, "but he's gettia' about 110 a minute for klckiaY "If we ever had a long stuck-cp job, Bill got so cantankerous there was hardly any llvfn with him. . One after noon the captain was gone and w was workin' along as peaceful, and suddenly Bill stopped his work and fairly roared at me: What does ht know about trouble? He never had any "I didn't know what be was thinkm' about la particular, but it wooldnl have made any difference if I had, 'cos Bill had on sort of a blanket grouch it covered everything. So I says to him: Ton dont know what you're talkin' about. I heard the cap tain teUin' a man this morning what an awful time be had piayln golf yes terday. He said he got ia a highly critical place them are his words and he couldn't tell for the life of him what golf stick to use. He could re member just exactly how the play ought to be made, but he couldnt re member what to do It with. First be thought 'twas the driver then be thought 'twasa'L It kind of seemed like 'twas the brassle, and then al lowed 'twas the mid-iron; then he felt pos'tive 'twas the putter. I didn't hap pen to hear what the right one was, bat Judgin from some of the language I heard him use after he specified, he didn't get it "Now, Bill I says, that's trouble and it's just as bad trouble as yoa have when you can't tell what tool to use, and after you've tried everything from a rabbit plane to a gouge, find out you've foozled the door jamb. Them woes are alike I says, 'and you ought to be more considerate But Bill was a little short on good com mon sense at times. "There was something about Bill you couldn't help likin', but if anybody else 'd had his notions I would o' been all put out with them. Of course," I didn't like 'em in Bill, but somehow I always felt he wasn't so bad just young and a little misguided. "Once he come in where I was, just as forlorn. I didn't stop work I just said Welir "What chance have I got with them college fellows?' he demanded. " 'Oh, shucks says I, because he did try my patience a lot at times. If you want somebody else's chance, pick on a chap your own size.' "It seems he drove a nail more than he'd intended to; he'd made up his mind to do jus' so much that day, and he got to thinkin' about his wrongs and forgot and went right on workin'. He said if you went to college they taught you to concentrate, and if he could have concentrated on not doin' the work as he'd figured, it would o' been all right "Well, I was sick for a spell and Biit kind of drifted away from me. He fell in love with a girl who was pretty ambitious and she liked him, too, but she saw his faults. He was ratin' around one day about capital and plutocrats and tellin what ought to happen to them, and I tell you Sodom and Gomorrah got it light com pared to what Bill was goin' to hand out 'Hit it easy, Bill she says, 'as smart a man as you ought to be a plutocrat himself some day; maybe you're only plannin' suicide "That made Bill awful mad, but I guess on due deliberation he seen things a little different .He never let on, though, for a long time. She went out west and got the second prize in a land draw in'. He tried to hate her because she wasn't poor and down trodden any more, but she just laugh ed at him. "They got married and went out to live on the ranch. Out o' doors seem ed to do Bill a lot of good, and things kept comin their way right along. He made a lot of money on sheep, and I guess by this time he's rich. The last I heard about him he was goin' at a pretty rapid clip and lookin' over airsnip catalogues. j "Alf Simmons stopped to see hha when he- was out west He says Bill sent me a special invitation to come an' visit him. Alf says I ought to go; says he's just as sociable as can be and ain't changed a bit toward the old crowd. He says, though, that Bill has acquired a ravenous appetite for a lot of things he used to think was poison. "His last fad was fancy hens, and Alf said when he was a-goin through the henhouse he saw a dull mahogany frame with a dozen solid pearl push buttons in it; that every time a hen lays an egg she has to press a button so BillH.be advised right up to date. "Alf told me how nice he was livin; told me all about his house, mahogany j trimtnin's asl through, and everything ' nice- ? course 1 know he was xxst xxavui a iiu iuii wim me auum mem hens, but I would like to know if Bill really got TifTny windows la his garage." Judge Hoar's Retort Oa innumerable occasions whea Judge Hoar indulged In the retort mor dant perhaps ' none gave him greater satisfaction than the following: B. P. Butler, his chief adversary at the bar ia the early fifties, as the coun sel for the defense, closed an emphatic appeal to the Jury with: "We have the highest authority for saying: .'Everything which a hath win he give for his life.'" When Hoar's turn came he said. "It has for a long time been suspected by those who have watched Mr. Butler's career that he recognized as the high est authority the individual upon whom he now relies. For, gentlemen, as you well know, the statement which he quotes from the book of Job made by Satan." 3 raoea vioieis i: By PhlUp fitta (Copri lxU 131X, by AtsoeUUd UEttrary Press.) T never wear violets," said Mis Jaoca, briefly. I I prefer rosea." Tte gray-haired man across the room glanced up sharply as the clexr l yoken words were carried to bio. The woman beside him laughed. "You aren't listening to me," she said. "You never miss one word that Phyllis James says." "Do you wonder that I do not?" he asked. "Isn't she the loveliest thing In the world?" "Yes," Mrs. Harmer agreed, "and I forgive you for not having any in terest in my story. When a man goes away and comes back after fifteen years, to find the girl he left in her awkward teens grown Into ex quisite womanhood, it Isn't any wonder that he loses his head." "Tbe only wonder Is that she isn't married," said Whitney. "She has had more than her share of admiration, but she doesn't seem to care for any one." "Strange," he said. "As a girl she seemed to have a very responsive nature. You see, I knew her pretty well. I was a big boy home from col lege when they moved next door to us, and she was a youngster of six teen. And we used to be together a tot during the holidays. Then I went abroad and we wrote to each other, and then somehow we ceased to write." He remembered with a sudden shock that it was he who had ceased, He had found other Interests; an in terest, to be explicit In a widow of uncertain age and of very certain frivolity. And the pretty school girl bad faded from his vision until he had come back to find her the beau tiful Miss James." At the other side of the room they were stiU talking flowers. "I think I like roses," Phyllis was saying, "red ones big and glowing." "If you don't mind," Whitney mur mured to Mrs. Harmer, "I'm going "You Should Be Loving Other Things." Dver there and butt into that conver sation." He laughed as he put it slangily. "Go," said his hostess, "and peace with you she's worth winning, Grant" He crossed and sat down beside Phyllis. "You used to love violets," he said softly. She smiled frankly. "I did? When?" He had a vague memory of a bunch he had given her, and, her tremulous word of thanks, her blushes, and the look in her eyes, as she had said. "You knew I loved violets how sweet of you to remem ber." There were no blushes now only the cool questioa, "Did you?" He wanted to say. "You know you did," but instead he asked: "Whea may I come and see you?" "Tomorrow a week from tomor row, whenever you like," she said. "I give up only Wednesdays to my friends I am suoh a busy person." "Oh, your book. Why should you write books?" he demanded. "Why aot?" "You are beautiful enough you do not ned to charm otherwise that you write such exquisite verse is almost an embarrassment of riches." "It is my life," she said simply. "I love it" "You should be loving other things." "What for instance?" "A husband." She shrugged her shoulders. "Have you, then, learned sentiment in Italy?" "I have always known sentiment Do you remember the day I gave you the violets?" It was a daring speech. For a mo ment she seemed to stiffen,- then, she smiled at him serenely. Tea. Bat that had nothing to do v;tth senti ment." "I told you I loved you." "That was a conventional protesta tion. It belonged to the "n?r days, aad the proximity of a pretty girt." "You think I did not mean it?" There was a moment's silence. The candles on the tea table in fronf zt Phyllis made thaios which czt thecs off from the view of the other. When Phyllis spoke her voice had la It a note which Whitney ccrer heard from any woman. 1 know yoa did not mean It and yoa know It" Then suddenly he said the right thing. -No, I did not mean It But f was a prig; an insufferable cad. Phyms. You were a dear child and I dldnt know enough to realise the wonder of you then. I deserve any punishment But dont punish me. Let me have a chance to prove that Pve grown away from the calf stage. Let me prove that whatever ray faults I can at least give yoa some thing worth while In the way of friendship. Let ae prove to yoa that I am at least a man." She was very pale, but her voice was steady. "I shall be very glad," she said. If yoa can prove yourself a man." The words stung, hut he bowed his head. "I deserve It" he agreed again As she poured tea for him the next day they had it out together. "I love you," he told her. "I know I have no claim upon your considera tion, but I ask only this, that I may come and that you wiU not shut your heart against me." "It is useless for you to come," she said quietly. 1 Then he blundered. "There was a time," he said, "when you loved me. "There was a time," she said very quietly, "when I let you kiss me because I thought you cared for me because I thought our love was a holy thing. I don't suppose any man ever realizes how such a kiss burns forever the Hps of a woman. When I found out that love had meant for you only a passing mood I was heart broken. I might forgive you a thou sand times, but I could never forget Erven if I should marryyou now, you can never be the lover of my dreams as you were that day when you gave me the violets." He realized suddenly the hopelessnes of It alL He had destroyed her girl ish ideal. And he could never re build It "There Is only one way," he said earnestly. "Fifteen years have passed since then. I am not the boy who hurt you, but the man who would cherish you. I have nothing in common with that boy. I know what a fool he was. I know now that if I could have you back as you were then, with all your dreams in your eyes, that I would thank God for such a perfect gift And it isn't because you haje grown to be so lovely, such an exquisite realization of all my dreanss, Phyllis, that I say this. For tea years I have thought of the little girl who was all that was sweet ar4 true and pure. I had five years ut madness after I left you, and because of that I was afraid to come back. How could I meet the question in your eyes? I who had dragged love in the dust by my fool ish infatuation for a woman so un worthy. But now oh, I believe you must understand Phyllis. He had risen and was standing be side her, pleading with all the force of his awakened manhood. "You can you must" With a gesture, she stopped his protestation. Then she crossed the room, a tall, graceful figure, the folds of her satin gown rippling noise lessly behind her. She opened her desk, and came back with a little package. "Open it," she said briefly. In it he found an old picture of himself, a letter or two, and a bunch of faded violets. "They are all that is left of our love affair," Phyllis said,, sadly. "Can we bring faded violets to life. Grant?" "No, but I can bring you other violets," he said, "iresher ones, and sweeter ones. You must let me, Phyllis." For a moment she wavered. "I I had not thought of that" she said; 'It seemed to me that those faded violets were the end of the story but if there is something of the fragrance of love stiU left for me, perhaps oh, perhaps you might bring me other violets. Grant" Subterranean Journey. Some of the subterranean riven that gush out of caverns and pour in to the river Pinega in eastern Rus sia flow 50 er 60 miles, or even more, beneath the accumulated leaf-mold of a thousand years. "Up some of these rivers," writes Mr. Stephen Graham in "Undiscovered Russia," "it is possible to row a boat underground through a tunnel much larger than the opeaing seems to promise. "At a place called Soilt I heard a very strange story. I had landed there to see the country. Going into a cottage, I entered Into conversation with the owner. He told me of a muzhik who, while cutting timber In the wood, had been swallowed up in the tundra., "A party .were cutting virgin forest when suddenly Steoppa slipped, cried out, and sank from sight before the eyes of his comrades. It happened so quickly that there was not time to save him. All gave him up for dead. Prayers for his soul were of fered in church. "But he wasat dead, after all. What was -he surprise of the villagers whea he tiraed up at his own funeral feast! He had fallen through the bog into the bed of an underground stream, asl had made his way ia the darkness a'ong its course until he came to an o pening and clambered out" The Minute. "Would you touch tainted moneyf "Who dp you know has got enough of it for me to touchr " II I U AM j Dy UoUy SJdXasscr Jc (Cepyrlsfc. tSX by Associated Llurary John M alter entered the suburban train hound cityward and took the seat nearest the rear door. Ills rea son for taking that particular teat was ffpedne; he believed be saw hi sister-in-law in the seat just ahead aad John's greatest delight was teas ing. His brother's wife had not seen him enter and he slipped quietly into his seat John Mailer had supposed that the feminine world kept its new Easter bonnet carefully wrapped la tissue paper until Easter Sunday morning. Evidently his sister-in-law did not This was most certainly the new bonnet she had brought out for his masculine admiration not two days before. John had recognized the hat because there was nothing else visi ble not evea one shining black curt But the long green tweed coat he also recognized. Jean had been sporting that since her honeymoon trip to Scotland. John eyed the little gold tassel that swayed with the movement of the train close to where Jean's ear must be. He could not see the ear under the poke bonnet Jean's brother-in-law started with soft little jerks at the gold tassel. No response. He gave another tug. a trifle more definite. Stin no response from beneath the Easter bonnet John became annoyed at his own futile efforts and pulled the golden tassel with an Imperious Jerk, at the same time leaning forward and cry ing, "Ding ding!" He started back suddenly as the girl turned and flashed a wrathful glance at him. The face under the bonnet was not that of his sister-in-law! He caught his breath and would have apologized but the indignant young woman had arisen angrily from her seat and had taken another. Feeling very uncomfortable at his own awful mistake, yet Irritated that She Turned With a Wratheful Glance. the young woman had not been will ing to listen to his apology, John spent an uncomfortable fifteen min utes while the train pulled in at Jamaica. Taking the bull by the horns, he attempted, when the passengers got off tbe train, to make one more at tempt to right himself in the eyes of the girl. That he was suspected of being a common flirt was not pleas ant When the train stopped. Mailer went oat Just behind the girl and, raising his hat, said politely, "I beg your pardon, but " The girl la the Easter bonnet turned swiftly and two crimson spots buraed ia her cheeks. "Sir, if yoa do not cease to annoy me I will call an officer!" She went hurriedly into the tain for the Pennsylvania sta tion, and with many muttered words of short, decided . nature Mutter stamped into the Flatbush avenue car. The Incident turned his whole day to gloom. He was annoyed at his sister-in-law for buying a hat and cloak Identically like that of my other woman. He resolved then and there that if he ever had the priv ilege of writing checks for feminine apparel be would stipulate exclusive style in those garments. MuHer smiled with a touch of malice. Jean's bat was far more becoming to her tbaa the same hat was to the wrath ful girl of tbe train. -Jfohn Muner tried to remember the color of the girrs eyes, but nothing save outraged expression of her had impressed itself on his mind. Storm, haroc and thunder attetedto recan the girfs face, liner's day was filled th dnfL lr dof shopping in the Wg city had i nnpleas f?. moyer had crossed W . ii XXsyrr with htr the was lwturBlnr to snhurh ca the vateT? train at Jaaalca , 3 startled by a man's rok, T? and at the saza u 4 t encircled her wain cs-Vr cmI? many persons boords ; tuT5 -Caught wita the iaxv lag voice chlded her. Wren Jerked arrOy , turned to face the mxx had thus Insulted hr you?" she cried. txsic rage. Bat the man cer, than she was, drew Wk crimson stain fiasb2 1.7 1 of his cheeka. "I bee your pardon.- u stamaer. "I thought yon , wife!" Thoroughly uastren quickly Into the train iLf seat beside a cocforutt T! woman with a baby, aai leTT? beside her until tfc car rJ? her station. She had several block t reaching the heme at ma visitlnc and durinr hr ' she knew that the nun bo his arm about her vu jun Hysterical and tretnblir , i u ill i n as v I J v i (U r ICOEW for, "Wren, dear! What'i lit znru-- Jean's startled eyes scarnM tu face. "But before you tfi! have good news! Oorr v, here to night! Isn't that tr Now tell me what harjo! about the shopping!" "Oh. it's nothing, except thit r man In town Iniults yoa'" ci Wren beginning to et br ci into place now that bo u Jean again. "This morning cs u train a man pulled my or n? yourgold tassel and tjild, ding to me!" "How perfectly abominable xj on your first visit to me Witt meet George I want you to tIl your experience and s if be m do something to protect mors5c here he is now!" Jean tarai te fling herself Into the ami of ti man who had come In with a rsa case in hand. Wren gasped! It was the cu she had Just seea on the trais. She turned from white to rH it! In an attempt to gain time tcrtwi u take off her outdoor garments. "Great Scott! Jean!" the ma , whispered hoarsely. "I mistook kt for you on the train and " "Wren turned a laughing. dlcrW face to Jean Muller and her cid-M husband. "It Is all Jean's fault" tU explained, and extended a frtetiy hand to Jean's husband; "she i sisted on lending me her new Vxm bonnet because she said I looked t Tiayseedy In my own OMrD clothes. I also had on Jean's tv4 coat." Wren's laugh was iofertioa She liked Jean's husband now that she had met him, and with a tnii start she realized that she liked k'a because he looked like yes lite the person who had sat behind her tx4 pulled her golden tassel. Jean stopped laughing Ions cnoctf to Inquire as to the appearance of bet earlier admirer. Wren blushed and a wblmilcil light dawned in her eyes. "I only re member that he was very good to lag much like your husband." bowed in mock flattery. "His IJ were laughing and brown and he k a black mustache and his checks vrt like the sunny side of an appk " "John!" exclaimed Jean and Georff In one breath. Then Jean continue: "I showed George's brother mj Easter bonnet yesterday and be I made the same mistake that Gcorfl did!" Wren blushed happily, and a t wistful smile played upon her "I wonder if he will forgive m. "He is coming to dinner toe.- you know. Wren." Jean reminded i girL Later In tbe evening, when wrrs and John had abandoned the he for the cool of the hammock the apple trees. Jean cast a triss; ant glance at her husband. "Matchmaker!" he adraoni and pulled her down Into tbe ctw beside him. Couldn't Help It. Simeon Ford was talking to s f York reporter about tbe breaxw that happen in hotels. . "An average amount of brfl you dont mind." he said. "bt J and then you happen on a waiter chambermaid whose breakages v all bounds of reason." j . Mr. Ford then recounted the ages achieved In one day by bermaid of this stamp. . m "I found out after she ended, "that she wasat a ge chambermaid at all. She was 3 phant trainer really, but she compelled to give up that Pr?f because she couldn't handle tB pbants without breaking their tcs Cruelty In Trapping A"!1 Writing about the barbarous v tice of trapping, E. E. Ericson, Intendent of schools of Brist0l ays that there should be eSZ against the practice which J21 hours of intense agony on the inoffensive creatures "in fa a certain class of degenerate . youths may be afforded amttSfL He refers to an advertisement "sporting catalogue" in which Is thus described: "This rP webbed jaws. The animal co off its leg only at a point ' i t& tance below the meeting edges o jaws. The' flesh left above tni of amputation aad below the J swell and make It Impossible w tbe leg stump out of the trap. - A ( - - w
The Caucasian (Clinton, N.C.)
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May 23, 1912, edition 1
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