Middletown transcript., 1907-12-21
SINGLETON'S CHRISTMAS PRIZE
BY Il B. BAILEY

kJtuSkCloH w. ~
bound for the West. He was
leaving Philadelphia to return
only when he could again call
himself rich. The young man
had only two years before been
left a fortune of half a million
dollars BY his father, and within
the past two months all had been
swept away, except $1,000.
The stock market smash was to
blame. Singleton as a broker
went down with hundreds OF
even careful financiers who had
risked their money in. railroads.
But it was not the loss OF his
fortune that made Singleton q
detected man. His engagement
with the beautiful Edna White
had had been been broken off It was
Singleton who broke it of, after
Henry White, the many times
millionaire financier, had told
him that q man who could not
keep his own fortune could not
be expected to care for that Of a
wife. The parent said he would
have to show fitness in q fnan.
cal way before he could have his
daughter. The hearts OF Lee
and Edna were broken with the
engagement, but it was a true
swassbat that spoke when
Edna said to her lover:
I will wait until you make
millions yourself.
Edna sfather exaeted a promise
from Lee that he would not meet
his daughter without his per-
mission for three years at least,
Should Singleton prosper, the
question of marriage Was to be
taken up at the end of that period.
AIee decided tsSot he could not stay
in Philadelphia and nots see the
one be adored, so he departed
for st. Paul. Immediately mp
on reaching the North western
city he deposited in the North,
western National Bank a Phila-
delphia draft for SIC. 900, his en-
tire capital. He was now ready
to face the world anew with
plans which he and DR.. George
Fairfax, Edna's uncle, had talk
ed over before Singleton left
Philadelphia. The doctor had
promised to keep him posted
about Edna by supplements to
the letters which her father had
given her permission to write
once every month.
Existence dragged along two
anxious years, and Singleton,
still a broker had prospered
little. He received letters from
Edna at the stipulated intervals,
and all were filled with encour-
agement for him. About this
time an apparent trife was abont
to turn the scales in his favor,
although he did not know it.
Upon the advice of one of his
New York correspondents he
had invested in the stock of the
Great Western Bonanza City Pas
senger Railway Company OF
Chicago. The company was not
paying any dividends and could
with difficulty meet the interest
on its bonds. Singleton had
doubts about the wisdom of the
transaction, but slight circnm.
stance persuaded him TO hold the
stock for the present, at least.
In a letter from Fairfax which
arrived a few weeks after Sing.
Teton had come into possession
of the Bonanza stock were these
sentences
Edna is to visit Mrs. Potter
Playfeld in Chicago next week.
I need not tell you, after my last
shapsody and especially since
her letter to you last month, that
she remains constancy itself.
She does not dispair, so don'l
you. She and / and her mother
are co-conspiraters in your in.
terest. / think White himself
would be glad TO hear of you
doing something. Heappears tc
know that some Chicago Great
Western City passenger stock
has fallen into your hands, and
he said to me, and between US
think that he expected to have
the suggestion passed over tc
you, that sooner or later someone
would take up that system and
make q good thing of it.
There were two magnets tlIat
drew Singleton toward Chicago
Edna and lhe railway stock
He knew that a meeting with
Edna was only possible BY Ibt
merest accident, but it would be
happiness to know that he was
I al