Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-01-17
A FORTUNATE FAILURE.

A FORTUNATE FAILURE.
How Love Was Put to Test, and How The
Test Ended in ~ wedding.
If you have map at hand giving ten
miles around the city. look carefully
along the outer edge and You will be
sure to see the village and perhaps the
very street where Lucy and Rachel
King live. 49,
An enterprising and busy man is
John King, the builder He can see
from any window of his house one OF
another of his operations. Yet he is
not rich but only on the way to become
SO some day. His half dozen "opera-
tons are SO much stock in trade, that
must be sold befo.e- he can pay fol
them to the material and other m n
who are interested with him. ~
John Kings family consists of his
wife, Eliza, their two daughters, Lucy
and Rachel. and son Joe, the boy-baby
of the family now twenty years Old.
The family is wonderfully well con-
trastcd. Tue father is a bustling, busy,
practical man, the mother both busy
and practical, but without any Dustin
whatever The oldest daughter Lucy,
= is of light complexion. tall. vivacious;
her sister Rachel rather below the av-
T.erage height, of the middle complexion
and somewhat sta:d in manner Brother
Joe, a young man of TWEEN Y, tall, slim,
given to mimicry and practical, Jokes.
q You would never dream, looking at his
features in repose there in his last pho
tograph, that he could play SO many
pranks with them, twisting them into
5 caricatures OF friends and foes with the
strictest impartiality. He has even
gone so far as to make game of Richard
Stockton, but that was when he was
angry at Lacy. WHO had an increasing
interest in Richard.
This Richard Stockton was an ambi-
tious young drau4 htsman. not yet
twenty-eight, tail. robust, with pleas
ant countenance. HIS was an inventive
genius. All his thoughts for the past
few years were concentrated upon an
improvement of an agricultural imple-
ment, which would be invaluable to the
cultivator and a fortune for Richard.
would not pretend to describe it for
YOU, even if you care to have me do so.
But for Richards saka will say that
the full details aud specifications are to
be found on pag, 246, volume xx., Pat
ent Office Gazette. and is numbered 9S7, :
), 654, 321. from which.you will see that
e invention is tlourishing business.
An additional incentive to Richard, if
: such were, needed, was Lucy King.
This young lady, who was fully as am
bilious as Richard, took a great interest
in his plans and praised and ..encour-
aged him in every way. They were
not formally engaged to be married.
but they might rs well have been to all
who knew them; and the only reason
that induced these disinerested third
persons to wait was that Richard Stock
ton was going to make a fortune out OF
q patent in few months and then an
astound ng wedding would take placa
: stand ng between Lucy and Richard.
OF his two daughters John king
thought most OF Lucy. and being OF
that hard-headel variety cailedrprac-
tical he gid not look with any favor up
on the prospect of Richard becoming
his son-in-law. He had no faith IN the
ID immediate fortune that was to be
poured out to this inventor and he
Il knew that two young people like Lucy
and Richard would eventually marry,
success or no.. ~
Beside that, there was much better
Man wanting Lucy--a keen, smart fell
low--Dr. Stone, who owned and edited
the village newspaper, called tle Week
s fy Gross Er99liner. He WAS arriSinr
man. and even now head and shoulders
s abevc Stockton. ire doctor was a
rather older man than he would have
chosen for Lucy, but forty is not so
> Very ancient. alter all.
An additional interest was created in
the doctor from the fact that Joe was
employed upon the Weekly Cross Exam
liner. But If this fact helped the doctor
with the father, it had the reverse eff
.sfect with the daughter, for doe thor
3 oughly disliked the doctor, and some of
/, Joe's greatest efforts in what might be
r called the dramatic line were expended
2 in making the doctor ridiculous in the
q eyes of the people at home.
iiw 1t was Saturday Sfteraoons Septem-
8, the publication day Of the Kseklj
b CrOss-Eaasntaer. Richard had~called
. on Lucy to tell her that at last the anx-
:, iety of the past month was to be ended.
! On Monday five capitalists were to see
his patent in operation, and if the
were satisfied of its merits-and of that
there would be no reasonable doubt-a
company would be Immediately formed
to manufacture his patent upon a large
scale.
Lucy was in high spirits; 50 also were
her mother and her sister. Rachel
{ thought a great deal of Richard, and
he in turn showed that his sister-in-law
might calculate upon being benefited
by the good fortune that was on its way
to him. Lucy=oftea iestingiy said to
Rsehel that shewas Jealous of her and
peant to bring Richard to the point,
Tor fear that she would find herself his
sister-in-law instead Of his wife. y
= While the four were talking over the
great event Of Monday Joe came in,
fresh from the Office Of the Weekly
Cross Examiner, and fresh from the
presence of DIR. Stone.
"What is it, Joe2" asked Richard.
s'Toothachep"