The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-03-19

THE STORY ;
OF A%%A
DEPUTY
PROPHET
By HOWARD FIELDING
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COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY
CHARLES W. HOOKE
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I'm certain New Jersey city Of the
second rank there was a very
lively and aggressive newspaper
called The Tribune. 1t was po-
ntical power in that region and
had high reputation for sincerity and
accuracy.
1t employed a shrewd and active
young man named Walter Rowland as
its chief political news gatherer, and
his work became known even beyond
the limits of his own proper bailiwick.
There was also in that city a rising
young politician named Jack Mortimer
whom fate placed in singular opposi-
ton to Rowland. He was on the other
side of all questions, both national and
local, and many hard rap did he get
from Rowland in The Tribune.
The two men hated each other with
deep and fervent intensity, but this
sentiment was carefully covered with a
thin veneer Of polite good fellowship.
To make matters worse, the journal
list and the politician were in love with
the same girl. This may have account
ed for their exaggerated courtesy to-
ward each other, for such a situation
among civilized men exerts a refining
influence. There can be no quarrel in
the presence of lady, and this one
was ever present in the minds of How
land and Mortimer.
Her name was Celia Thayer, and sh
was editress of the woman'S page OF
The Tribune. She had been in journal
ism four years-ever since she was
nineteen-and she regarded herself as a
veteran. AS to her two suitors, she dis
tinctly preferred Rowland, though she
was totally blind to the realities of the
affair. Indeed she was one of the few
persons in the city who did not know
that Rowland and Mortimer hated each
other.
There had been time when Morti-
mer had somewhat annoyed her with
his attentions, and she had been
obliged to treat him with considerable
severity, but this was secret history;
nobody knew anything about it except
herself and her victim. Their relations
in public were so cordial that every
body supposed Mortimer to be still in
the race, even including Rowland, who
had moments of panic and cold perspir-
ing terror on account of it.
If Mortimer had not been phenome
nally shrewd fellow, he, too, might
have fancied that the campaign of love
was yet on; but, being what he was, he
knew that the election was over. 1t is
the best policy for the defeated to wear
a cheerful smile on the countenance
and a sharpened knife in the sleeve.
Rowland was local correspondent of
the New York Free Press, and his eyes
were ever open for a place upon its
staff. He saw a wide field for himself
as a political writer in the metropolis
When he thought upon this prospect,
bright pictures fitted before his imagi.
nation, and it Is needless to say that
Celia was in the foreground Of them
all. He even dared to discuss some OF
these pictures with her. She was to
make a career in the big city at the
same time that he made his. Nothing
definite was said about uniting these
careers in the holy bonds of matrimo
ny, anu every SUCH conversation Haue
clearer to Rowland the distressing fact
that Celia had strong preference fol
state of freedom.
She acknowledged that he had helped
her very much in her work, but there
was no longer any such need. She was
indeed. returning this favor by advis
ing him. Though vaguely conscious
that politics was the enc subject of HUI
man interest about which she was con