Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-01-24
The :
Ref0rmer:
by CHARLES n 2ElDGN .
Author of I'm His Steps, robert
Ha1s3y5ass Seven Days" Etc .
COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY Charles N. Sheldon =
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CONTINUED
N CHARLES n SslHDON
CopWi0ht, 1901, BY Charles N. Sheldon

CONTINUED
John Gordon paused as a vision of
his future, mistlike, but in rugged out
hne' grew on the screen Of his magma
ton. 1.-The people".' There it was;
ignorant, some of it, but hourly rising
into desperate intelligence, which,
undirected, would prove it's own and
the city's destruction. The people,"
toiling, sweating, acting figures in the
great human drama that were neither
supernumeraries nor leading parts. but
so vital to the whole movement of the
ira gedy that it all was destined to
sweep on to its final act, with them as
resultant cause, The people," vague,
but certain. full Of unwritten histories.
but making all history possible, and
bearing in face and attitude the veal
or wee of republics! The people,"
driven in herds one day, leading the
masses the next, while all problems Of
life surged up and down the throng-
ing highways, entanglements caused
by murderous greed. by inherited Gus
toms, by the physical passions that
know no education Of refinement due to
civilization, The people, born of the
soil, but nodded by the city, some of
it to starve and riot and drink and
grow Indifferent to the very wrongs
that made it what it was, and he, John
Gordon. the son of Rufus Gordon, the
great financier, the man of deals and
combines and operation" and he,
John Gordon, was going to devote his
young manhood to the people, to
the training and directing of this mis-
directed giant, because Che smiled at
its strange possibility, because he had
grown to love it, a love taught him by
personal religious experience, so real.
so profound that he knew it dug a gulf
as deep as space between his father
and his sister and himself. Nothing
but a similar experience on their part
could ever fill the gulf. nothing but a
similar miracle Of regeneration could
ever make him understood by them.
Mary had gone over to the piano and
was humming the tune she had been
singing when she interrupted the talk
between father and brother. After a
moment John Gordon went over and
put his hand on his sisters shoulder.
"All through?'' she said, turning
about from the piano.
There were tears in John Gordon's
eyes as he looked down at her. When
he spoke, it was very gently.
1T all means, of course, that l am
going away. DO you understand that,
Mary? This will not be my home any
more. 1t will not be possible for me
to live here and do \
It's all very strange to me, John"
said his sister. You have every
chance in the world and you prefer to
throw it away for-for lot Of people
who don't care
They will care"
What good if they do, John?'' His
sister suddenly turned toward him very
much as his father had, and laid her
hand on his arm. John, the people
will not care What can you do?
Surely we are not to blame for all the
wrong in the city. heard what you
said to father. 1t is simply absurd to
W
way things go. And it is nonsense to
think you can do anything. Think how
it will look in print! John Gordon, the
Ieformer. John Gordon, the social
istr''
Don't Mary! 1t will be hard enough
without your sheer"
Il did not mean to sneer'' She
honestly no in
Stantly leaned over and kissed her
cheek. But even as he did so he knew
she had turned away from him a little
and when he raised his head she did
not look up or return his caress. He
still stood by her silently, realizing
each moment more keenly the chasm
that stretched between them owing to
his religious experience.
''Where are you going to live? You
say you cannot live here with US any
more?' his sister finally asked.
Il don't know"
"Will you live with the people?'
''It is possible"
, ''It is absurd. l don't understand"
'You cannot He said it with a
sadness that realized the futility of
explanations.
And of course Luella will go with
you! She is such a lover of the peo-
PIER
"Lue]la!"
"You have forgotten her?'
"No!" And yet he had-at least he
had absorbed all his thought for the
time about his home relations and had
not reckoned on facing this question
of the relation which would exist be-
tween himself and the woman who
had promised to be his wife when he
had asked her as John Gordon, son of
Rufus Gordon. What would she say
now to John Gordon, reformer?
He sat down and put his hands over
his face, while Mary watched him Gu
riously, very much as the father had
done.
& .Luella is very proud. Still. she
might enjoy living in the slums and
studying problems. She is fun of con-
hadictions"
.sThat Is true' John Gordon whis-