The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-03-04

IVY nat. y SOCIALIST! LOU! Jouu
Gordon! The girl spoke in genuine
astonishment And with gesture Of
real fear she moved away and stood
looking at him as if seeing something
new and strange in him.
"You don't need to be afraid Of me,
Mary" John said with a slight smile.
"I can't explain it all to you. But all
my views have changed within the last
few months. 1t is not possible for me
to continue the business that father
has built up. he has been so deeply
set upon it that know my refusal to
make his plans my own has angered
him beyond forgiveness. You know
father well enough to know that can
not expect anything from him in the
way Of encouragement in the career
I have planned"
"Why, you have not told me at all
what you plan to do!' exclaimed his
sister hopelessly.
"I am going to work for the people!
I am going to-
John Gordon paused as a vision OF
his future, mistlike, but in rugged out
line grew on the screen Of his magma
ton. 'The people!r There it was;
ignorant, some Of it, but hourly rising
into a desperate intelligence, which,
undirected, would prove its own and
the city's destruction.e ''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
tragedy 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 woe 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 fnancier, the man of-"deals'' and
combines and "operations"-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, 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 Oh their part
could ever fill the gulf, nothing but
similar miracle Of regeneration could
ever make him understood by them.
Mary had gone over to the piano and
was humruing the tune she had been
singing when she interrupted the talk
between father and brother. After
moment John Gordon went over and
put his hand on his sisters shoulder.
"Au through she said, turning
about from the piano.
There were tears in John Gordon's
eyes as he looked down at her. When
be spoke, it was very gerty.
ssIt all means, Of course, that am
going away. Do you understand that,
Mary? This will not be my home any
more. It 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
'sWhat 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
think that we are responsible for the
way things so. And it is nonsense to
think you can do anything. Think how
it will look in print! John Gordon, the
reformer! John Gordon, the social
istr"
Don't Mary! It will be hard enough
without your sneer."
II did not mean to sneer." She
seemed honestly grieved, and he 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 be 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.
"I don't knew"
"Will you I've with the people:"
"It Is possible
sit 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 lover Of the peo-
pler'
"Luella!"
"You have forgotten herr
'.Nor' 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, SOD 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