Monroe City Democrat. (Monroe City, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1907-07-18

creasing it. The world won't know it
until tomorrow. Then they will know
1t, then they will know It.. They will
read it in the headlines of the papers
"a few suicides, few defaulters.
few new convicts, an unclaimed corpse
or two at the morgue; a few innocent
girls, whose fathers fortunes have
gone to swell Camemeyer's and Stand
ard OILS already uncountable gold.
turned into street-walkers; a few new
palaces on Fifth avenue, and a few
new libraries given to communities
that formerly took pride In building
them from their honestly earned saw
ings. A report or two of record-break-
ing diamond sales by Tiffany to the
kings and czars of dollar royalty, then
front-page news stories of clawing,
mauling, and hair-pulling wrangles
among the stage harlots for the pos
session of these diamonds. They were
not quite sure that the dividend cut
alone would do the trick, and they
were taking no chances, these mighty
warriors of the System so their hire
ling senate committee held a session
to put sugar on the free list. The peo-
pie will read that in the morning, and
probably the day after they'll be told
that the committee held another ses-
sion tonight and unanimously report
ed to take it off the free list. BY that
time these honorable statesmen will
have loaded up with the stock that
you and / and Beulah Sands sold, and
that other poor devils will slaughter
tomorrow after reading their morning
papers,"
Bob's bitterness was terrible. My
heart was torn as l listened. He
stalked through the Office and into that
of Beulah Sands. l followed. She was
at her desk, and when she looked up,
her great eyes opened in wonderment
as they took in Bob, his grim, set
face, the defiant sullen desperation of
the big brown eyes, the disheveled
hair and clothes. For an instant she
stood as one who had seen an appari-
ton.
Look me over, Beulah Sands" he
said, look me over to your hearts
content, for you may never again see
the fool of fools in all the world, the
fool who thought himself competent to
cope with men of brains, with men
who really know how to play the game
of dollars as it is played in this Chris
tian age. Don't ask me not to call you
Beulah; that what tried to do was for
you is the one streak of light in all
this black hell. Beulah Beulah, we
are ruined, you, your father, and 1,
ruined, and I'm the fool who did it."
She rose from her desk with all the
quiet, calm dignity that we had been
admiring for three months, and stood
facing Bob. She did not seem to see
me; she saw nothing but the man who
had gone out that morning the person.
iacatiOn of hope, who now stood be-
fore her the picture of black despair,
and she must have thought, 1T was all
for me-" Suddenly she took the lapels
of his torn coat in either hand. She
had to reach up to do 1t, this winsome
little Virginia lady. With her big,
calm blue eyes looking straight into
his, she said:
Bob"
That was all, but the word seemed
to change the very atmosphere in the
room. The look of desperation faded
from Bob's face, and as though the
words had sprung the hidden catch to
the doors of the storehouse Of pent-up
misery, his eyes filled with hot, blind
ing tears His great chest was con-
vulsed with sobs. Again-clear, calm,
fearless, and tender, came the one
syllable, Bob" And at that Bob's
self-control slipped the leash. With a
hOarse cry, he threw his arms around
her and crushed her to his breast.
The sacredness OF the scene made me
feel like an intruder, and l started to
leave the room. But in a moment
Beulah Sands was her usual self and,
turning to me, she said: "Mr. Ran
dolph, please forget what you have
seen. For an instant, as l saw Mr..
Brownley's awful misery, thought OF
nothing but what he had done for me,
what he had tried to do for my father,
what a penalty he has paid. From
what you said when you left and the
fact that got no word from either OF
you, 1 feared the worst and did not
dare look at the tape; simply waited
and hoped and-prayed. Yes, prayed
as my mother taught me l should pray
whenever l was helpless and could do
nothing myself. And felt that God
would not let the noble work of two
such men be overthrow by those you