The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-16

Powell. toil-grimed and deep ir
frowning thought, strobe down the bar
rem street where countless tiny cot
tages, all exactly alike and cheap and
bare and ugly. stretched away IN mo-
notonous perspective. The roadway
was of yellow clay, the sidewalks OF
yellow planking. The scant front
yards" the pitiful vegetation, even the
houses and the two interminable
strings of picket fence were all of the
same dTeary monotone. Injured to the
cherries prospect, Powell gave il
scarcely a passing glance, but automat-
ically turned in at his own gate, swing
ing, with his awkward, stOOp-Shoul-
dcTed stride. around to the kitchen
which frOnted upon a view still more
desolate-a black expanse of railroad
track and dingy tsnements just beyond
the baked and scared back lot which
should have been a garden. 1t was al
the kitchen window, broOding with I'M
seeing gaze over this gloomy outlook
that Powell found his wife. She nodded
10 him with a mOmentary lighting OF
her eyes as he came in, then turned
silently to her supper work as he
Cleansed his blackened face and hands
from a tin wash basin out on the porch
steps This was PoweTs home-com-
ing. He had taken his place at the
kitchen table before either of them
spoke.
Young Tremonts going to build a
stockade around the whole plant" he
observed.
rs he?" she indifferenuy replied
Are you going 10 like him as well as
YOU did his father"
I don't know yet" he said. frown-
ing again. Il don't like this stockade
idea. Nobody does. 1t will make it
seem like a Jail"
i guess it won't make so much diff
ference as long as you get your pay
every first and fifteenth" she COM
mented, and they relapsed again into
silence.
After the meal was over and the ia
BILE had been cleared off, the man took
from the top of the cupboard big roll
of complicated pencil drawings, and Sc
Letting one which was scarcely half
completed, he methodically trued Il To
the table with a T-sqUare and plunged
into his work. The woman finished her
dishes and sat down with some mend
ing. Ii was perhaps half an hour later
when an eager exclamation from Pow
ing reveries into which she had fallen.
I've got it, he exclaimed. Look
here. Bess!
She came over and gaZed down at the
drawing with unwilling eyes.
It's the point that has been bother
ing me for a year" he exulted. and
then began a glowing explanation of
his device, following the course of ma
terial through the huge machine with
his pencil and looking up in triumph
when ne had concluded Her face was
absolutely unrespOnsive, but he quickly
overcame his disc ppointment and
laughed.
"Of course. I couldn't expect you to
>take that all in" he said apologetical-
~. but I just had TO explain it to
somebody. I'm. going to work il out
carefully now. and by next week
think I'll be able To start on the pat
ent drawings"
Patent" she vehemently exclaimed.
awakening to the word as if a lash had
stung her. Don't"
why. Bess. what's the matter?" he
asked. startled by the sudden passion
Of her tone.
Il can't stand it," she cried Two
years you've been working on this
thing, Jim, and il has eaten up every
cent that we could scIape together
drawing lessons, tools, paper and
don't know what all, and now patents.
This viii make the fourth. all on this
enc machine. and you haven't done
anything with it yet. I don't believe
you ever will. We need a new cook
stove. We need a rug for the front
room. We never go anywhere. l
haven't a decent dress. I've made over
that old hat of mine until I'm ashamed
TO show myself anywhere. I've washed
and irOned and cooked and baked and
scrubbed all these years, and what
have l got? Every day I stay alone
here with nothing to look at but the
mud Of the street. Every night you
bend over that table and leave me as
much alone as if you had not come
home at all. I shall die il / have to live
this way much longer. I shall die, It's
killing me nOwi They told me it would
be like thisr
In a torrent this had poured from her
lips. Powell looked at her, shocked
and white faced. IT had come at last,
the reproaeh that he had been dread
ing for so long. They told her il
" oold be Ike this" The whole sore
question of caste, vital from hut TO
mansion, lay in that tOrture-forced
She had been a minor grade
school teacher, struggling herself from
obscurlty, romantic and given TO the
building of air castles, and she had
idealized her love for the ambitious
Young machine hand until the dull ac-
tuality of life must be. Of necessity, a
keen disappointment TO her
why, girl" he said. and put his
arms about her and kissed her Il
didn't know il was so bad as all that.
But just be patient a while longer. dear,
ana see if we don't win. As soon as 1
apply for this patent I'm going TO show
fremont where it will save him thou
sands and thousands of dollars I've
got to hurry, too. fremont is bound TO
do something or other foolish. and