Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-01-21
No. 36,3l9
By JOHN F.. WuKE.
Chief Of the Secret Service.

lshed. the crowd broke up into groups,
and there was general rush for lunch
baskets and dinner pals.
Tom Sladen's wife, a gentle-facedI
woman, whose prematurely gray hair
suggested tragedy Of earlier days,
listened to his story of the MONDAY
episode as he told it at the supper ta-
BILE that night, and at its conclusion
threw her arms about his neck and
wept hysterically-somethi that
Dorothy. their slender, sympatheticI
daughter, was quite at loss to under
sand. Later, when Dorothy had re-
tired, andsthe husband andswifessat to-
gether before the blazing open fire. Sla-
den drew from his breast pocket q !
packet, which he carefully opened. One
OF the letters which it contained he
unfolded and regarded for a time in
| silence. When he spoke his voice vi
brated with an infinite tenderness:
"What a fight it has been, dear old
girl! How long the years have seemed.
| To-day when the men were cheering 1
thought I should choke, and when /
tried to speak to them had to struggle
to keep from telling them my story
half wondering If they would feel the
same toward we if they knew. But I
held it back and they shall never know.
Think of the wasted years and the
pain Of it, but with Gods help and
your plucky arms about me I have
been able to keep in the right way.
) want to read this letter to you, dearest.
n"~r KeDr1r-aI Tqese years. It was
): the one that turned me into the rlEH.
road. It's words haunted me from the
, day I got it, and when pictured your
: despair and the future OF our little
). girl prayed that might be kept
steadfast in my determination
S Don't read it, Tom. remember II
!, think" protested Mrs. Sladen. gQinl
5, around behind her husband and slip
u ming her fingers over his eyes. Don
J. read it"
a. He moved her hands aside gently. g
&c must, Nell, must
It, And then he read:
le TO No. 36.319, National PenitentiarS
at Dear Tom-Another New Year ha
q come around-the fifth since you wel
W taken away. I often wonder l. in II
it old days when you were scheming an
on working to make what you called "eas
m money! you ever dreamed what dlsa
IN ter was to follow your plotting.
wv was silenced by my love for 30
cyl and while knew it was wrong al
in that you were taking fearful chance
US hoped it might all end rs we thoug
to it would. You remember. did pie
an with you, Tom, dear. didn't /:
Ice. know how I got down Oh my kne
ays that night in October and beggeu y
for for Gods sake not to go on with
our crooked work. And you remember III
out Won caressed me and called me ye
tier little girl and said that it would be
up right: that Uncle Sam was weal'
for and could easily spare the few IN
/ to sands that you and your friends
t a pected to clean up-and my fears W
who | lu1led for the time. Then when II
his 'were 'coming your way as you ST
or and I was the best dressed woman
ap- the place, I suppose l ought to
th a been happy. But always l saw Ia
lens ing over us the shadow OF mena(
from hand. That threatening thing CT
t of between me and the footlights at
d as theatre, and I used to bite my lips
as a they bled to keep from screaming.
Sla- You recall the night in New }
II be when we went to see "Jim the
with man." and how depressed we
Mrs. were when the curtain finally fell!
" we as we were coming out You nrol
I'd to- your glove aud the usher who pl
X we Il ilp touched you on the shouI
n the Your face grew ashen, and tho
ward, you would fall. Poor chap. you
cov- beginning to feel the strain, we
larble YOU? And then that never-to-be-1o
bench ten day in December, when they
owner to the house and took me to you
never loosed those dreadful, slender
hiking bands that bound you to your wre
lad to companion-I know I must nave
at It's like a demented woman, Wnlie
mind YOUR face was that Of q corpse
e sud- your voice was thin and wiry.
yether, # were but dream!
re CIV these things came back to me
the 81 day. Tom, when I met the otne
ted to men of our church at the noun. II.
reply. sion Of our little Helping hanu
,eak at You know I am doing everything
, make +o tighten the burdens OF thos
y much fortunate than I-"fortunate!' ;
t of al almost funny. doesn't it? God.
of az onlv knew! Well. Mrs. Lamt
There rho had been visiting the Colon
,sd en- GA the North Side. had q req