Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-03-17
/ ACdSo CT American Push
LOriginal.l


cts no use, Pete; father is immov-
able. He wants me to marry some dig
tinguished parsonage. He has always
teen sensitive about our family name
and would Ike me to change it for a
better one"
! Brown is better than Skrable."
'He doesn't think So Mrs. Peter
Brown would be but little improvement
on Miss Alice Skrable."
The lover went away sorrowful.
One day Browns eye fell on a para
graph in q newspaper that set him
thinking. He thought all day and
most of the night When he awoke in
the morning his thoughts went right
on Ike an automobile in which the
stopping apparatus has become uHman-
ageable He thought a whole week. at
the end Of which he brought his fist
down on a table and exclaimed:
"I'll do it!'
From that time Browns law partner
noticed that he was paying very little
attention to business. He seemed. to
be spending all his time searching for
something. 1t was not legal matter.
for no legally drawn papers appeared
to be passing through his hands He
received a great many letters. but new
er spoke of the contents Of any one Of
| them. Indeed, whatever was his pur-
| pose he kept it a profound secret.
Then suddenly Brown announced
that he was going abroad. His part
ner, astonished and dissatisfied, threat
ened to dissolve the firm, complaining
that Brown would leave him to do all
| the wOrk-it was not onerous-and was
| keeping important matters from him.
! Brown told him just enough to satisfy
him, then suddenly disappeared.
Six months passed. The Skrable
family, Alice excepted, had forgotten
Mr.. Brown and were greatly pleased
to have an opportunity to forget him.
His intimate friends wondered where
he was and how he obtained the means
to spend so much time away from
home. Some one said that an uncle. his
mothers brother, was furnishing him
with money. This was true. The uncle
supplied him with barely enough for
| his purpose. Browns partner sat in
his Office waiting for clients who did
not come and wished for Brown, who
was a pushing fellow and had many
ingenious methods of securing bust
hon
everybody asked of everybody, and
everybody replied: mo. Have your"
"NO. l wonder where he is and what
he's up to-" ooh, he's got some wild
scheme on hand. But, no matter how
wild Browns schemes, he has way
Of carrying them out. He's probably
getting a contract for replacing the
street cars in some foreign city with
American Eying machines. But he'll
do it. You bet, he'll work it through"
There was a good deal of such talk,
and the uncle who was grub stalking
Brown looked very knowing whenever
approached on the subject, but said
nothing. All this increased the curl
osity of Browns friends and acquaint-
ances.
One day steamer arrived, and in
the passenger list published was the
name of Sir Peter Brown. The name,
in the minds of Browns friends, had
no connection with him whatever.
Some of them saw it, but went on with
their daily avocations just the same.
| 1t occasioned not the slightest ruff1e
among them, but the next morning a
paragraph in a newspaper let out the
secret of Browns absence, and none of
his friends did anything during the
day except visit one another and gos-
sip with mouth and eyes wide open
upon this exploit. This was the para
graph referred to:
Our fellow citizen, Peter Brown, has
just returned from a trip to England,
where he has established his right to the
baronetcy granted in 1862 to Hugh Brown,
after the restoration of Charles H., for
loyalty to the house of Stuart, dormant
since 17S3
These few lines were quite enough to
stir every one who had ever heard of
| Peter Brown. For a week nothing else
was talked of, and every one wondered
that Brown had never been heard to
claim any relationship whatever with
any baronet. Meanwhile invitations
j were showered upon Sir Peter, and
cards came from the Skrable family
! for musicale. Sir Peter accepted, and
during the evening he and the smiling
Alice vanished into corner by them
i selves.
"Come, tell me all about it," she ask
ed. "How did you ever Go it?'
Zone morning 1 read a paragraph in
a newspaper stating that as the law of
/ England now stands any man can as
sumo with impunity some presumably
extinct or dormant baronetcy prior to
1888. A recent work, called Extinct
and Dormant Baronetcies,' says that a
thousand OF these titles have lapsed be
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