Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1902-11-27
sHEpHERDSTOWN w. VA THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27 100!

but nifty trlals proved H. ahu 'na'
night we didn't go to bed.
1.-THE next morning I took it to a
lawyer to have it patented, and then
we juat lived on hope.
"But no matter how hopeful you are,
if nothing comes of it you are bound
to. lose heart after while; and there
is nothing much harder than poverty,
and seeing somebody you love dying
for a few comports.
Zone night they brought her home
from the mill. She had had hem
orrhage, and she never went back
again, but grew worse and worse till
Que day the doctor called me outside,
and said she couldn't live unless l
took her away.
~ went to the lawyer again that
day ('twas probably the fftieth time)
to see if he had heard from my pat
ent. he hadn't, not q word, and
then 1 offered it to him for just enough
to buy Mary's ticket to Colorado.
But he said he had lost faith in the
invention, anyway, and didn't want,
it at any price.
"There were some weeks along
then when l didn't seem to sense any
thing, but just the ache in my heart.
One day, in desperation, l went into
the Atlantic Prints Works, prepared
to sell them my body for the cost Of
Mary's transportation. The first thing
l saw when entered the weave-room
was my stop-motionl Patent Grant
ed, twas marked, and the superln-
tendent told me it had been bought
outright by the Atlantic, and was ad-
iusted to $4,000 looms. / ran all the
way home, and that night Mary and |
began packing.
1.-THE next morning got down to
the lawyers office before he did.
When he came guess | was-cry-
ing. 1t seemed too good to happen to
us, and l told him 80, and how Mary
had made me promise to pay him his
price that very day. And then 1
asked him how much he got for it.
His eyes shifted, and he asked me
what l meant, and l saw the sweat
come out on his forehead in little
round drops, but after minute he
looked me in the eyes and said be
hadn't sold any patent Of mine; the
stop-motion had been patented in his
name: he had risked his money on it
and I had no part in it. Anyway,
twas out of his hands, for he had sold
it six months before to the Atlantic.
II didn't understand him at first,
and asked him to say those words
again. He told me again, and when
he got to the part where l had no part
in my own invention, two pictures
seemed to burn into my brain Mary's
poor worn-out hands, and Tommy cry
ing in basket; then something red
hot shot through me, and II caught
up chair and crushed him to the
floor, and stamped his life out.
"That is all I'm here for life, and
Mary is in the poor-bouse. But they
are good to her. She always thinks
l am coming back, and has had her
bed pulled up to the window, and
there she has sat for nine years, and
shell die sitting there, watching the
road. Ofcourse, sometimes--I dream
-"
The guard motioned him to begin
work, and in an instant he faced the
wall.
Thursday is Thanksgiving" said.
"Your name is William Fernald?"
he bowed his head, and saw white
shock stiffen his face, yet he marched
steadily out, and the barred door
swung into place.
The Friday Morning Journal print
ed the following notice:
"Pardoned, on Thanksgiving morn
ing, by His E1cellency the Governor,
William Fernsld."
"Go by the road that is overlooked
by Marys window" said the letter Of
admonition in the e1-convict's breast
pocket, and pinned to the letter was a
narrow slip of blue paper. Both we're
signed by His E1cellency the Gov
ernor.
II you are bilious and seeking advisers,
Take DeWitt's Little Early Risers,
Just before going 70 bed.