The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-06
THE FALL OF LIEUTENANT
 UPTON.
BY PAUL BLAKE.

When Lieutehant Upton was assign ed as chief engineering officer or the great harbor works at Frotning- ham he scarcely seemed to appreciate the high honor paid him by the de- partment and went to his new duties with A lfstIessness of manner quite to the fellows of his own rank who were green with envy. In sooth 1t was marked tribute 10 his ability for 1t is rare indeed that Lieutenant ia given charge of such im- portant works. Besides he succeeded ! a Br1gadier General.
 But it really was not so strange af- l ter all, because Upton had been recog- aized as one of the best equipped men | in the engineering corps eyer since he left the Point. He was one of those unusual fellows who add to pre- | emient natural gifts along certain ! lines, the utility and desire to work | hard. And nowhere was there 3 word l of critisisn when this young omcer was placed in charge of one of the greatest construction works Of the time. be done quickly" was the comment in engineering circles.
 ButmUpton went to his new work 1 tlistiessly. A few years ago he would have burned with joy and enthusiasm at such task and at such hign compliment The years, however, had brought to the Lieutenant heavy dis appointmentes and the inusiohs oi youth had vanished. Slowly but sure ly, year by year, the conviction had l fastened itself upon him that he had 1 made the irretrievable error--had em- l braced the wrong vocation and had thrown away his life.
 j He possessed fairly adequate con ception of fis own capacities and had iL[ LA h Il them for d pittance. Other men with but tithe of his natural talent and with less capacity to work had reaped into high place in the business world and achieved both reputation and fortune.
 Is Fortune, aye. there was the rub. He wanted money and he wanted pien- I ty of it. Heavens knows he never Ihad been r1ercenary but 1t is no joke to Iiye on the pay of Lieutenant fin th@ [ ted States army and live up to the traditions of the service. I The littIe endorsements which came to him had humilated him sorely. But thev were nothing to the great blow | that came to him when he awakened to the fact that he was in love with Marie Vandereombe.
 The hurt of it was chat he was morally certain that the girl favored him and that the prize was his for the asking. But how could he ask a dainty creature like Marie to share the pittance which did not suffice for him alone Marie who had been rear ed in the vary lap of luxury and who never had known a want that money | could Rratify. Of course Marie would have the dover of Princess but up- ton was not the man to place him- self under financial dependence to his | wife Well he kew how short-liVed Inx1a fe lsudar SIah niFcumatQnC6E. l And so the wheel turned again to his own humiliating position in not being able to earn money as other men did. He resolved time and again to throw up his commission and start over in civil life. But hs entire life had been spent in the service and he was getting along. He did not know where or how to begin again at his age. The unknown terrors are evor the worst
 So Lieutenant Upton went to Frothingham with bitterness in his soul and listlessness in his heart. It was small consolaton to know his captaincy was almost due, with it's slight increase in pay. He grabbed hold of the work with all his old-time energy. His habit of industry was all that made life indurable.
 The work was being done by pri- yate contracts and Upton's work em- | passing on material and seeing that the work was properly done-a Her culean task when the extent and var fed character of the work is consider ed When Upton arrived most of the contracts were in the hands of two concerns; the East and West Con- struetion company and the Neptune Dredging company, and as luther contracts were advertised he was not 1 surprised when he saw the bids for these two companies were way un- der any others. The active and visi- 7. ble heads of these companies respect lively were AIonzo Weber and Parson Smith. These gentlemen became percentages of importance to Upton be- cause with all his experience this was the first lob he had ever had in charge of such considerable extent and where the work was so considerably by private contract. He had heard much of the devious methods of government contracts and had some small ex- periences himself in forestalling faulty work and material To his great surprse he found tine material used fully up to specifications and the work beyond criticism. Indeed the com panies seemed anxious 10 please him even to the extent of gong beyond the requirements of doing work over freely when the specifications them
 
 more than disarmed
 One day Weber came to him and said earelessly: Smiths got a straight litip from New York that B. 0. D. stock is going flying next week. Want to go into a little pool we're getting up and clean up a few hundred?"
 Upten never had speeulated in his life. He laughed. Then he thought rapidly. He had been saving rigidly | to take care of a certain debt of $500 he had incurred while fiuteering about the society flame in his hopeless love for Marie Vandercombe. With his pay check just arrived he had some thing over $500 on fand-which he could not afford to lose. Weber and smith were reputed to be continually on the inside of good things.
 He -hesitated. Good tipT' he asked.
 Cant lose." replied Weber.
 Upton went in for $500 and within a week pulled out his money with a neat profit of something over $500 It was the only easy money he ever had received. Several other similar op- portunities were given him and with in a few weeks he had made several thousand dollars in this manner Life began to acquire new interest to him.
 One day Smith said to him. i've got great opportunity to get control of a new process for making cement they say beats the P. D. c. brand all hollow and can be made to sell for less and leave a nne profit. Win vou tell me what you think of the