Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-02-04
DAILY. STORY,
ROMANCE OR ELLIS ISLAND.
[Originai.1

tOflSlnalI
Why should story tellers rack their
brains for themes when romances are
happening every day under their noses!
Here, like a flower peeping from I'M
der heap of rubbish, is romance
extracted from the most unromantlc
thing in the world, an emigrant ship.
1t only remains for the stOfy teller to
put it in form. 1t is not a tale OF
Young lovers In the conventional
story romance ends with marriage.
Nature knows no such division. Con
ceive an old fruit tree bearing shortly
before it is cut down a single bit of
fruit into which the trees vitality has
been concentrated and you have the
kind of romance you are about TO get.
Forty years ago Herman Gurlich,
Prussian, came to America. purchased
farm, married, raised u family and
prospered. His wife died, and one by
one his children left him to marry and
raise children of their own. For ten
years lee worked his farm alone, and
then it occurred to him to relieve his
solitude by revisiting his former home
in Prussia. He did so, but failed to
find the diversion he had expected
The place he had left as village had
grown to be city, and the friends Of
his youth who had not gone elsewhere
| We're in the churchyard. Disappoint-
ed, he turned his face again toward his
| desolate home in America.
Martha Leoser, widow living i'll
Berlin with her daughters, had son
| in America. Her daughters had been
with her since their birth, but her one
son had left her when he was Il boy,
and she pined to spend the few Years
| that remained to her where she might
occasionally see him. At last she could
| resist the temptation to go to America
| no longer.
| Now it happened. This is short
| sentence, an incomplete sentence. yet
| how much there is in it. What would
| all the story tellers do if the two words
| We're blotted out from the worlds on
| going? 1t happened that Heinrich Cur
| lich and Martha Leoser We're pasSen-
| gers on the same ship. One day they
| sat side by side and fell to talking.
| Gurlich rejOiced with the mother in
| her expectations at meeting her boy,
and Mrs. LeoSer grieved with the old
| man when he spoke of his return to
his lonely farm. They met frequently
| on the voyage and on reaching port
parted with mutual regret
| In New York harbor, where they
landed. is Ellis island, danger point
| fn, irrr.a 1,tS 10 no lrnnlal ~,
a submerged rock of the ocean. Here
they must satisfy the officials that they
! will not be Il burden upon the United
| States. Gurlich had no trouble in do
ing so and took his departure. Mrs.
| IeOser sent for her son, who lived in
one of the environs of New York. He
came, and for brief period the moth
er and her boy enjoyed their meeting
| and the prospect of at least living on
the same continent But the young
man failed to satisfy the authorities
that he could support his mother. He
| had n large family of his own and was
at the time out Of employment His
mother. too old to support herself, had
no one else on whom to depend. The
decree went forth that Martha LeOser
must be deported to her native land.
Herman Gurlich, in the turmoil of
the metropolis, was alOne-as much or
more alone than he would be when he
returned to his farm. In years he had
met but one person of his own genera
ton to give him one spark of sym
pathy-the woman he had met on the
steamer She had shown him Il paper
bearing her sons address to ask how
she might find him. This address Cur
Itch remembered.
One evening there was rap at the
door Of young LeOSer, and upon its
being opened there stood Gurlich.
rs Martha here?' he asked. He re-
membered only the widows first name
mo and she will not be here. She
is to be deported."
Gurlch went into the house, and his
host told him that there was no hope
of his mother remaining. since there
was no one to support her.
Yes, there is one" said the old maj
after a long pause.
Who"
81. If your mother will marry me-
/ and go to live with me on my farm she
need not go back to Germany"
In half an hour the two men We're OF
a boat speeding for Ellis island. They
found the poor woman bemoaning hel
fate. Her eyes lighted as she saw hel
companion of the voyage.
And here the effort of the story telleI
TO put this humble romance in story
form breaks down. Never was offer o.
marriage made in form more widely
diverse from the conventional proposal
laid down in printed romances. Tht
son took his mother aside and told he
Of Gurlich's proposition. While mothe
and son conferred the would be groom
stood making pretense of looking at ,
family of Russian Jews eating sau
sages. In a few minutes Leoser return
+. ed and said his mother accepted tn
offer. In vain the romance constructo