The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-07-12
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
By MARY c. VAUGHAN.

Persons who acquire wealth and z
pOslstion by slow degrees and untlrlng
efforts II early life, are apt to set an
inordinate value upon them, And
they are very likely to look down upon
those who are still poor-though less
poor. perhaps, then they themselves
nave been and especially to despIse
any man whose calling 1t IS to mlnlst
er merely to the tastes and fancIes Of
mankind. without direct reference TO
the question Of money making.
Hugh Cranshaw and his wife belong
ed to this class. Getting suddenly
rich, they had very high opinion of
their wealth, and the luXuries it had
surrounded them with. and OF them
selves IN consequence.
That, despite their riches and their
fine house. grounds. equipage5 and
other fine things ad lntinitum. they
were a pair of very coarse, ignorant
peTsOns-purs proud. greedy and
vain were facts not likely to have
been recognized by themselves, how
ever the world might see them. Nor
were they any more likely to arrive at
any Just estimate Of the worlds OpIn-
ion Of them. In all ages men have
deyoutly worshipped the golden cali,
and its visible representatives, in the
shape Of Hugh Cranshaw and his wife,
We're still the objects OF that strange
idolatry.
Then oldest son was many years
Oldcc than the younger members of
the family. He remembered his par
ent's days of poverty and struggle
He had low tastes his mother SAID
and could never come into the fam
lily belief OF the transforming power
OF money. In fact, he was an honest,
simple-minded fellow who had not
learned refinement at home. or amidst
his early associations. And when he
was about tWenty-One, he fell IN love
with and married a girl much below
the present pretentions Of the family
as greatly to the grief and scandal of
his father, and mother They did not
cast him off, but the feeling that he
had dlsgraced them never quite left
them, and his wife was not cordially
welcomed amidst the grandeU5 Of
their new home; and aS he loved her
too truly and sIngly to bear patiently
any slight that could be put upon her
it followed that he estranged himself
from them. THIS was the one sorrow
Of this hard and sordid pair, and they
resolved, aScribing their sons defec-
ton solely to his low marriage, that
no other member Of the family should
ever be permitted to rmame5salliance.
The faire5t flowers spring from the
dark and ugly mould. deriving color
and fragrance from source that
seems utterly incompatible with both
Mary Cranshaw was a living protest
against her paYentage. Fair as a lily,
sweet and timid as the violet and
graceful, too, as they-she seemed
misplacded amidst the vulgar ostenta-
ton OF her home and the coarse AFRO
gance Of her parents But they loved
and were proud Of her in their way.
and had a certain unreasoning delight
IN her beauty and manifold attraction
Of speech and manner. She was next
to the younger Hugh in age, but so
much younger as to have known moth
ing Of the early days Of struggle and
poverty in which he had shared.
Every possible advantage OF educa-
ton had been afforded to Mary, and
she had improved all. Her modesty
prevented her from being what the
world calls brilliant, but she was
known, everywhere, as a gentle and
attractive girl.
1t was not to be expected that Mary
would reach hdr twentieth year with
ont lovers. She had many. but her
own heart was to all appearance TN
touched Her father was instructed
to give one answer a decided mega
tive to all.
But though Mary did not acknowl-
edge it. even to herself, there was one
whose place in her thoughts was not
I exactly that Of friend. though that
was the name by which she called him.
/ There were circumstances which. she
4 believed, warranted the warm interest
! she felt IN him; it pleased her to hear
+ OF his success, and in all the struggles
and trials of his life she deeply sym
/ pathized- But love had never been
named between them, and Mary, at
least, was not enlightened in regard
I to her own feelings
Albert Dmand's studies as an artist
/ had several years before taken him to
Europe. Mr. and Mrs. Cranshaw. who
knew of him only as the son of form
er acquaintance. reduced in circum-
i stances much about the same time
that they began to rise in theirs, took
little or no interest in him. They had
been aware Of Mary's earlier CORE