Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-15

Is what happened with Jack Selkirk: Jack
owed some money on his machinery there
to the Express office. He could have Dor
rowed money of us to meet the mortgage
when 1t come due, but he didn't. God
knows why he didn't! He was maxim good
money out of the paper, but he growed
just little bit too fast for the business;
that is, he spent money too fast on new
machinery and such truck. Well, the pay
ments come due, he couldn't make 'em. He
wasn't wholly to be blamed, for what he
did then, maybe, for Jake Musser, he Slip
ped down to Philadelphia, and he bought
the claims, that Jack woke up day or
two ago and found that he owed the money
to him instead of to the other fellers. 1t
was a dirty trick, and it must have ratified
Selkirk. Musser went to his office and told
him that he wouldn't press the claims If
Selkirk would swing over to him. l knew
all about that the next day. Selkirk didn't
intend to do it at first, l know. l don't
know what changed him; but, finally, he
did as Musser asked him to, and sold out
his politics to him to keep him from seizin'
of his paper"
There was the beginning of an angry cry.
Bull slenced it,
II amt tellin' this for certain fact he
continued. But 1t amt far wrong. We
don't know, quite yet, jest what did hap
pen. All we know, though, makes us think
that that was it. There's more to the story
to them claims against the paper than m
goin' to tell you here; but the way 1t looks
now, is that Jack Selkirk, when he found
money, Jest give in to him, bein' willin' to
let Cooper go rather than to let his paper
go.''
There were many angry cries now, and
they We're all against Selklrk
1t was about this time that small boy,
well bandaged began to implore his mother
in an upstairs room to take him down so
that he could see the show Billy Sucker
had been much hurt and was still weak
from loss of blood and shock; but he was
quite out of danger. and his pleadings be-
came so earnest that Mrs. Stickler left him
and went to consult Aunt Betsey.
The little dressmaker instantly sympa-
thzed with the boy, and sought out the
doctor to ask If Billy might not be
brought down. The doctor looked him
over and decided that it would do him less
harm to crafty his longing than it would
to leave him fretting there in bed, and said
So
The result OF all this was that when
Henry Hubbard was approaching the far
ing glow that lit up the night about the
Cooper house, and at just about the time
when the train (which brought Jack Selkirk
on from Philadelphia was stopping at the
station, Billy Sucker was wrapped up in
blankets to be taken down stairs to the
lawn where the band was playing after the
finish of Bulls Speech.
There were no loungers on the platform
when Selkirk swung himself down from the
platform of the car as it stopped before
the station. The young men and boys who
generally congregated there In the evenings
were around the tavern or at the Cooper
house where the returns were being re-
ceived from the most sensational election
Toms River had ever known. Selkirk
glanced hastily into the empty waiting
room and then into the operators room,
| thinking that Bernard might be there; but
| there was a penciled notice on the glass
| door of his usual post saying that tele-
graphic business would be attended to by
| the operator the lawn of the Cooper
| house, where Bernard would be ,aking cleo
4 fl,. ,N.f1 Af ,f- th,t,.
| of other things Selkirk had for the moment
! forgotten that he had himself arranged with
| the telegraph company to run temporary
wire up there for the night He hurried
out of the station and began to climb up
the hilly side street, along which Betsey
had raced the night before.
This side street was almost deserted, but
| he could see that there were unusual
| throngs on the street at its top, and he
could hear the footing of the brass and the
| booming OF drums in the distance. At
| the very corner, as he came into the main
street of the town, he met group of men
whom he knew well. They had started from
Dennison's for the Cooper's place, and had
stopped to speak to an acquaintance. Sell
| kirk hailed them. They had helped him in
| for news.
| "Hello. he said How are things GO
| ing?"
| They turned to look at him and seemed
] startled by his appearance and his greet
1 ing One of them, evidently taken so COM
| petely by surprise that he was about to
| yield to the habit of treating him as usual,
| began to answer him, but another, with a
! black look at the young editor, grabbed the