The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-24
ABLEsslNG IN DISGUISE.
SRy Heber Fountain.

ny ExBBef EUUUt31U-
 tCopyrieht 1ao3. by Daily Story Pub. Co.)
 The blow had come so late in life that it was almdst impossible for Homer War fiald to etand under it. Then. too, the whole life of the man, had been such an unbrphan series of successes and hls character so dominant. withai, that if was Ike pnliing up the very roots to bow down in defeat and. humiliation. Then, too. there was purely the physical side Even rthe great sums 1t had cost him in the later years figured so trivially as a matter of percentage of the vast sums hs handled and the immense profits he accrued, that they appealed to his mind In much the same relation to his general affairs that office rents. messenger serv- Ice or other incidentals did.
 But 1t was. all over now. He had been securely caught in the mighty nachinery In which he so long had been. q controll- ing factor and had been mangled to a pnip-al1 in q flnancial way. of course. Personally he was a rugged, white-hair- ed gentleman of 67, or thereabouts. still in full possession of his faculties, mental and physical He had aged more in the foar weekm after the collapse of the HrUkerg National Bank than he had in any twenty years of his life.
 A ves natural his wife, although shocked no less. recovered her balance first in accordance with that law of na- ttare watch gives women the greatest power of resistance and the greatest ca- pacity to endure pain. She had taken q commanding position in society. quite naturally in view of her husbands s wealth and her own charming person. ality, and had held her head high in that position. That Homer could be wiped off the map financially seemed so utterly in- credible to her tfret 1t had taken some weeks to bring it to her serious atten- ton. That he had lost heavily was easy to believe. but that he was hopeless bankrupt without power to recover-that was hard to understand. When the knowledge came. however. she faced it Nike Spartan mother.
 Homer" she said, after it had been made clear to her, i've must face this thing together as we faced the world forty-five years ago. We have done our best. The children-excepting Archie-are all well married and provided for, thank God. We must give up this expensive house at once and plan some way for the future. I will show you that I can live cheerfully in three-room flat and do the work and be contented. It was for worse as well as for better. dear.''
 The old man grpaned in anguish.
 "It is not what you dessrves Helen," Ho SAUL F OOip HULL WucA I uhBnt nave made settlements on you at any time, I simply laughed at fate and gioried in my own strength. All there is. Is the life and a triumphant gleam canse into hie eye.
 "Tush. dear" she said steadily. q can stand all things but that. You must promise to be a man and face 1t out"
 And he promised.
 After all. the hardest blow was the way the sons and daughters took it-two sons and two daughters. not counting Archie (Archie never counted anyway, because of his infirmity.) All of the four were married and very we'll to do. ow- ing largely to the wise and liberal pro- visions made by their father. As soon as the full meaning of the blow became evi- dent and they realized that the catas- trophe would involve every dollar of their fathers estate and leave him a bankrupt, the affection of these four sons and daughters and their consorts. for their father and their interest in his affairs as well. cooled so percepibiy as to make the white-haired unfortunate wince, as even the aloofness of some of the men 'on the street" whom he had befriend- ed, had not. But when they approached him and ex- plained individually why they could not,