Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-06-20
THE DISCOVERY.

Wlllch ne was peculiarly cdpdble' ne
would have declared that he had never
felt very hopeful of gaining her, know
| ing her too well, but he had desired to do
so with an intensity which had often
burnt up his fears for the time, at any
rate, so that he had lived whole days in
| blissful contemplation of the improbable,
had gone whole months with eyes shut
to the inevitable the fast approaching.
| Thus the news of her engagement to his
employer found him almost unprepared,
after all, and for time those who cared
! for him watched him anXiously since it
seemed 50 likely that the blow was
greater than he could bear.
They were friends, Michael Richards
and the man for whom he worked, the
man she married, and they had been
much together in her company There
were those who said she had chosen the
employer rather than the employed just
because he was the richer man-just be
cause an assured position, Il fine house,
appealed to all that was strongest in her
but that her heart, what there was of
| it, would have led her to q different
choice, if she had allowed her heart and
not her head TO dictate to her. She had
the pretty, childish ways that so oftea
drape a nature inherently selfish, and it
was notable that those who knew her
best, as a rule, judged her most severely.
But Michael was not among her de-
! tractors. He made his trust in heaven
! conditional on his wholly trusting the
woman he loved to do no wrong, and,
! by Il sublime disregard of common sense,
he kept his faith in heaven, conformity
with his faith in Mary, in spite of all the
bitterness of spirit he passed through,
Some wondered how he did it, and others
why he thought it necessary thing to
do, for men have loved the faulty ten
derby and well, and heavens seal is set
upon such tolerance. Yet it helped him:
undeniably it strengthened him. For, so
it was said again, in his nature was this
one streak of idealism, needing an outlet
all the more, perhaps because the rest
of the man was sternly set in an iron
mold; because, except that he turned
involuntarily aside, as it were, to love
Mary, love was hardly allowed for in
his plan of life.
Work was his passion, the idol to
which he offered ever willing sacrifice,
and when he at last lost hope of Mary
it became his all. lie worked now I'M
remittingly, to tire himself, to WOO for
getfulness, as well as for sheer love of
hard labor 1T was nothing to him that
his unceasing energy was expended on
his rivals business, that his life was
given to help man to further riches
who had already robbed him of his one
ewe-lamb. He had to work, not with
any definite end in view, but for work 5
sake-and because there was nothing
else left to him to do.
And, quite in the ordinary course of
things, his alert, inventive brain hit ON
n means of supcrseding the business to
which he was deyoting himself SO en-
tmoly.
lie was always striving to do things
or to get them done, in the best possible
manner. incidentally, with the least ex-
pense, the smallest waste of labor, III
the shortest time, but, before and beyond
all things, he had set excellence as his
goal Mary's husband was Il manufac-
turer of the bands used in machinery
Mary's old lover, while giving his
thoughts as undoubtedly as the memory
Of her would let him, and all his time
to the turning out of these bands in the
greatest perfection and number, was
, suddenly arrested by an idea which made
their use no longer necessary.
, 1t was a simple and clever invention
+ so obviously better, cheaper and more
E eXredient than the old-fashioned band,
that il seemed wonderful to its discoyerel
that 10 one had thought of it before
lie tested it in his usual thoroughgoina
! fashion, making absolutely sure he wa,
, not mistaken in his own estimate of the
c Importance of the change he was about
to bring in the making of machinery
and then he set as energetically to work
to turn his invention to account. 1t VA,
d, nothing to him that in doing So he must
, sweep aside Il prosperous business, must
D inevitably ruin Nary's husband. the yer,
! man he had been helping on to wealth,
y He would be giving touch of finish
of completeness, to the method in which
the worlds work Is accomplished. II,
, hoped to do still more for it before ht
. was done, but here was. at least some,
j. thing definite to begin with. Since h,
= might not have Mary-a wife to cherish
1 and protect-he had extended his pro.
G lection over the great. whirling world OF
! machinery lie promised himself the
! pleasure Of setting thousands of ma.
. chimes going IN an easier, more nearly
/, perfect manner Il, a lover promise, him
L self to perfect his ladys charms with
e ropes of pearls
When his employer and former friend
came 10 him, demonstrating. agitating
he found him utterly immovable. Mary.
= husband offered him the largest SUM nj
- his command for the suppression Of the
= discovery; but money was nothing Il
! him, his discovery was everything. and
e he was not 10 he hribed. lie was of
! iered partnership in the business and
its entire management tthat, indeed. h,
had already, except in Acknowledgement
o in return for his silence alone. hut, al
g though he had liked the work wei
Ienough while he believed it served good