Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-10-17

side gong-striSes, Bob Browulsy Hd
not know he vas In the stock business.
Formerly every clerk knew when Bob
came or went, for it was with o rush,
q shout, a laugh. and a bang OF doors;
and on the floor OF the stock exchange
no man played so many pranks, or
filled his orders with so much jolly
good-nature and hilarious b~oisterous.
ness. But from the day the viFginian
girl crossed his path, Bob BROMLEY
was a map who was thinking, think.
ing, thinking all the time. 1t was only
with an effort that he would keep his
eyes on whomever he was talking with
long enough to take in what was said,
and If the saying occupied much time
it would be apparent to the talker that
Bob was of in the clouds. All his
friends and associates remarked the
change. but l alone, except perhaps
Kate, had any idea of the cause. l
knew that two million dollars and the
coming New Year were hurdling like
kangaroos over Bob's mental rails and
bitches, though did not know 1t from
anything he told me, for after that
talk on the upper deck of the Tribes
man he had shut up like a clam.
He did not exactly shun me, but
showed me in many ways that he
had entered into a new world, in
which he desired to be alone. That
Beulah Sands plight had reused into
intense activity all the latent omance
of my friends nature, did not sur
prise me. 1 foresaw from the first
that Bob would fall head over heels
in love with this beautiful, sorrow
laden girl, and 1t was soon obvious
that the longdelayed shaft had plant
ed it's point III the innern.ost depths
of his being. EIis was mors than love;
a fervid idolatfy now had possession
of his soul, mind and body. Yet its
outward manifestations we're the op-
posite of what one would nave looked
for in this gay and optimistic south
erner. 1t was rather priestlike wor-
ship, a calm imperturbaoility that
nothing seemed to distrac3 or upset,
at least in the presence of the goddess
who was its object. Every morning
he would pass through my Office head
ed straight for the little room she oc-
cupied as if it were his n objective
point Of the day, but once he heard
his own Good morning, Miss Sands"
he seemed to round to, and while In
her presence was the Bob BROMLEY of
old. He would be in and out all
day on any and every pretext, al
ways entering with an u~ndisguised
eagerness, leaving with a slow, dreamy
reluctance. That he never saw her
outside the office, / am sure, for she
said goodnight to him when he or
she left for the day, with the same
don't-come-with-me dignity that she
exhibited to all the rest of US. I
had not attempted to say q word to
Bob about his feeling for Beulah
Sands, nor had he ever brought up
the subject to me. On the contrary,
he studiously avoided it.
Three months Of the six had now
passed, and with each day l thought /
noted an increasing anxiety in Bob.
He had opened a special account for
Miss Sands on the books of the house
in his name as agent, with a credit Of
$780, 00, and we both watched 1t with
a painful %tenseness of scrutiny. 1t
had grown by uneven jerks, until the
balance on OCTOBER was almost
$500, 900, On some of the trades Bob
had consulted me, and on others, two
In particular where he closed up after
a few days operations with nearly
5000, 900 profit, I did not ever know
what the trading was based on until
the stocks had been sold. Then he
said:
"Jim, that little lady from Virginia
a give us a big handicap and play
us to a ~standstill at our own game.
She told me to buy all the Burlington
and Sugar her account, would stand,
and did not ven ask my opinion. In
both cases / thought the operations
were more the result of a wakeful
night, and an Understanding de.
cision than anything else, and l tack:
led both with a shiver; but when she
told me to sell them out at a time !
thought they looked like going high.
er, and the next day they slumped, |
could not help thinking about the des.
tiny that shapes our ends"
On my part l tried to help. On one
occasion, without consulting her, j
put her account in on a sure thing
underwriting, wherein she stood to
make a profit of a quarter Of a mil
lion, but when Bob told her what /