Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-12-16
TURNING A CORNER
BY THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.

Peter Duke, of thu firm OF Duke &
Co.-(his only son Philip, was the COM
pany), was busy and prosperous man.
The firm Was making money very fast
in the soap line, and desired to make
more. He was a plain. honest and
hard working man, apt to boast that
he had started business with only a
hundred dollars in cash and now had
multiplied the original capital by thous-
| ands. He spent little time in boasting,
however, being too busy in his effort to
| make the whole world wash itself clean
with Dukes Kimolia, as he called his
soap, and to force every laundress to
use hisKoDia,a powder whose detergent
qualities were we'll known. Peter did
not know the meaning Of these words,
but they sounded we'll. He had paid
literary Bohemian ten dollars to invent
him something sonorous. The latter
had turned to Greek English dictlon.
ary, and found these under the head OF
soap Peter was pleased and so was
the Bone enian-With the ten dollars
and dozan cakes of the soap thrown
in. The soap itself was good. The
aim of an expert soap boiler is to recon
cile soldity of structure with a large
volume of inclosed water. Some OF
them increased the weight of the COM
pound by the addition Of extraneous
matter, but Peter was homes: and left
out the dirt. His sale OF kimolia was
great, and so was the profit.
Besides son, Peter had a fair
daughter, and, next to his soap factory
and his shekels, h3 loved her. And
| Millicent-her mother, now uead and
gone, had picked up the name from an
English society novel-was quite Iowa.
BILE person. She was good look king, fair
| ly educated and put on good style.
Through her school acquaintance and
| her fathers money she went into a
very respectable set, and as she looked
well. dressed well and talked well, had
pleLty of pocket money and prospect
i've portion of some size, and present
tongue of her own, if needed, they for
bore to turn up their noses at soap.
At first those who were poor and proud
and proud poverty is frequently inso.
lept-undertook to snub her little
but she gave snub for snub, and then,
! leaning against the valuatle pile oi
soap bars, defed them. Whether be-
cause of her manners or her fathers
money, she had many masculine ad
mirers. Chief among these was Myn-
dert van Stopel. the great operator il
! Wall street, whose huge fortune wa:
built up of the wrecks of railway and
other corporations. He had met her at
Long Branch the summer before, and
thought, to use his own words, that
she had heap Of go in her. My ndert
though he prided himself on his noble
Dutch ancestry-the first of his fore
fathers was Cornelis Pietersie, with nc
Van at although more of slaughter
ing the bears in the Street. And he
had slaughtered them TO some purpose.
He was forty years old, short, stout
and red faced, with loud voice and OBJ
structive manners s-everything but the
imaginary, shrewd looking man of af'
fairs. He bad begun as boy in bro
ker's office, rose to be a clerk, went
from there to the curb stone and then
to a seat in the Exchange, and bis
wealth was very far up in the millions
He had been too busy to think Of mar
riaye, but he had remarkably fast
horse, and why should he not buy a
wife =? Millicent rather rebnffed bis
advances, but he knew the value o.
money and bided his time.
There was rival in the field, Myn'
dert did not know it, though if be hat