The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-10-04

8ssl0cln Observation-Disclosures

Upon the door was a sign con
veying the information: This
i Office closes at 5 p. 10. on
Saturdays"
This stipulation did not cover Mary
fMacklen, however, for here it was af-
ter 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon, and
alone locked in the office, she had just
completed copying score or more OF
letters dictated to her shortly before
closing time, by her employer
AS the result of discouraging inter-
course with a lot of aches and pains
in her shoulders and back Mary had
taken a position at an open window
and being ten floors above the street
level, she looked out upon far reach
ing area of the city's upper plateau.
what a grimy, angular, hard sur
face it is" she thought as she studied
the hills and valleys, the promonto-
ries and ravines of the aerial geog-
raphy fecked here and there with
clouds of smoke and swift rushing
flights of silver white stream. Truly,
tired as l am, feel it is good thing
1 am privileged to eat and sleep next
to the surface of the earth. Down
there is an abundance of ugliness, of
course, but the people are there, the
show windows, street cars and noises
are there, there it is companionable,
while away up here the loneliness is
appalling; even the flies and the dust
decline to associate with us and"
Then Miss Macklen started sudden
1y, and, giving a vigorous scream,
seized the telephone receiver at her
side and rang up the central office.
"Give me police headquarters, please"
she asked, and after a brief wait:
"Police headquarters? 1t is? Well,
send officers Immediately to the top
floor, rear, of the Security Trust build
ing. Man there trying to commit sui
eide! For Gods sake, hurry, or you'll
be too late"'
And then, so strangely potent is the
power of the horrible, Miss Macklen
again turned and was looking out of
the window. She saw, nearly square
away, and standing in the top balcony
of the Security Trust buildings rear
fire escape, young man who, bare
headed and in shirt sleeves, looked
carefully up and down the narrow
alley so far below him; then he moved
to the rail of the balcony, and, plac-
ing both hands upon the rail, seemed
about to leap over to an awful death.
Again Miss Macklen voiced an appeal
ing shrek, but this time it was not
only deliberate and intentional, but it
carried quality of humanity that was
heart-rending. so eager was she to
attract the attention Of the would-be
suicide.
But he was too far away, or, per-
haps, he purposely avoided needing
her. IF he would but look!" she cried
as, Selling a chair, she stepped upon
1t and raised the window to its full
height, perhaps a realization of the
fact that l am witness of his desper-
alton would cause him to pause"
Her effort, or something, she knew
not what, caused him to step across
the balcony and disappear through an
open window, and for an instant she
felt relieved. The relaxation was only
for an instant however, for almost
Immediately he reappeared and this
time he carried a rope. Mary, certain
y that she would faint, steadied herself
by placing her hand on top of the let
ter cabinet at one side of the win
dow. She saw the young man as he
tied one end of his rope securely to
the balcony post; she say him place
the other end of the rope around his
neck, a look of desperation covering
his face. and then she realized that
under her hand on the cabinet was
small mirror, her own property.
Instantly she seized the mirror, and,
holding it so that she concentrated
thereon the long, slanting rays of the
declining sun, she threw binding re-
Election full III the face of the man she
was trying to save.
He started violently rubbed his eyes
and, looking straight at Mary, gave
fiendish smile, and. shaking his poor
head negatively, again resumed his
horribly deliberate preparations.
Again she threw a shaft of over
whelming light full in his eyes, and
when the self-destroyer looked at her
in reply, she was violently gesticulat-
ing, begging him in pantomime to
come to her. But again that fiendish
smile and again refusal.
At this juncture Mary saw n man in
blue Uniform step out upon the plat
form, and, as she had received five
hears of thorough business training,
Mary fell to the floor in swoon.
How long she remained unconscious
Mary did not know; but when-filled
with vague impressions of repeated
calls on the telephone and of impa-
tient knockings upon the Office door
she revived sufficiently to support her
body on one elbow, she heard voices in
the hallway.