The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-09-22
SELECTED STORY.
Behind a Closed Door.

Colonel Harry Ford was the presi-
dent of big bank in a western state
and the colonel and l were at the
chronicling of this tale in New York,
whittier we had gone as chance travel
ing companions on train from the
West. 1t was on Sunday morning, and
as we took it easy in the handsome
apartments he was occupying, mes
senger boy brought him telegram.
The message was from his wife, and
the boy being bright-eyed youngster,
the cheerful colonel chatted with him
pleasantly moment and gave him
quarter as he departed.
doesn't that make telegraphing
come pretty high?" l inquired, with
the true Yankee spirit of thrift.
81 used to be one myself" he said,
in explanation, "and now whenever
see bright-eyed kid like that l warm
up to him and give him something,
though not always a quarter. Being
Sunday, and the telegram being from
my wife, do bit better than usual
and part with all of twenty-five cents"
500 you really mean that you were
once a messenger boy2" asked in
great surprise, as l looked over the
elegant man Of the world. every inch
gentleman born, who sat in the big
chair by the window gracefully posing
cigar on his thumb and finger.
REALLY and truly" he laughed, sand
if you can stand a "reminiscences this
morning, I'll tell you the story Of my
life. Journalists" and he bowed over
the arm Of the chair, 81 believe, are
always on the lookout for interesting
facts in history and fiction, aren't
theyp"
l fastened to assure him that they
were, and after making me swear that
/ would keep awake at whatever sacri-
fee, he began.
"When l was youngster OF ten," he
said, 81 was messenger boy earning
the luxurious salary OF three dollars
week, ell of which l gallantly turned
over TO my mother, who was bankers
daughter, though she had been turned
out of her fathers house because she
had not married to suit him and her
stepmother. Indeed, she had gone
farther and married the man who had
suited her, and after that, while her
heart was never empty, she and her
husband and only son were often so,
and life was not quite as rosy as it
might have been. We were brave peo-
Pile, though, and with my three dollars
q week we managed somehow to get
along. improved after year or two,
and incidentally picked up telegraphy,
so that when was fifteen l got place
at small country station in Missouri
and took my mother there to live with
me on my salary of forty dollars a
month, my father having died year
before.
At sixteen my mother died, leav-
ing me alone in the world, and at my
mothers funeral my grandfather re-
Tented sufficiently to propose that he
educate me, which proposal l accepted
and agreed to take good business edu-
cation. By the time was twenty-one l
had been graduated, and my grand
father gave me position in bank he
owned in very pleasant interior town,
where showed such aptitude that the
old gentleman entirely forgave me for
having been the son Of his disobedient
daughter and told me to go ahead and
] should be a partner some day.
"The next most natural thing in the
world to do was to fall in love, and l
did it for all there was in my throb-
bling heart, and on the evening of the
day was promoted to the cashiership
of the bank asked Kate Vernon to be
my wife. / did it advsedly, too, for
my grandfather had told me when l
married he would give me an eighth in
terest in the bank. Miss Vernon
wasn't the most beautiful girl the eye of
man ever rested on, and even l was
forced to confess that there was too
much pug in her nose for classic beauty,
but she was the brightest young woman
in the county, and the cheeriest, and 1
was heels over head in love with her,
which made up for all discrepancies.
"During all the time of my expert
ence in the bank l had kept up my in
terest in telegraphy, and after Kate
and l had settled upon our future rela.
tionship, i had connected her house
with my room at the bank, and when
ever had the chance / called her up
and talked love to her between meals
by electricity. l don't know how
much of that kind of talk we INDUCED
in, but l do know that Kate became al
most an expert telegraph operator, and
could easily have made her living at it
had there been such necessity.
"One of the other customs of that
charming time of love in the fore.
ground was drive that Kate and /
took two or three times a week in q
trap she owned, leaving the bank just
after closing time, four o'clock, and
driving for couple of hours, to end al
her house, where l took supper with
her. On the days she would telegraph
down that she was coming, l would
lock up the money and valuable papers
in the inside safe and leave the outel
doors of the big vault open, 80 the las
man out of the bank could put the
books away and lock them up agains
fire. The man who did this nearly al
ways was an old fellow, partly deaf
and janitor rather than a clerk. One
day, when l had shut up the inside
safe and gone out TO join Kate in hel
trap al the door, she sent me back tc
ltnnet everv man