The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-15
JOHN vANDYKE.
(By M. Quad.)


John Vandyke had reached the age
} 81 years without having had a ro-
nance in his life. From boyhood up
re had been a hard worker For the
rst 80 years of his life he had been
compelled to practice economy, and
when bachelorhood came he had seen
Little of society and found himself a
sort of machine. His days were spent
IN his warehouse and his nights in his
den. His office was a dreary old land
mark. He arrived at such an hour
and departed at such an hour. Old
Roberts. his assistant. did the same.
His half dozen workmen did the same.
Time may go on and on, but some
ay the routine of things takes a
change 1t is so even with the mead
ows and the mountains. The change
came to John vandyke. He entered
/ is office one morning to find old
Roberts dead on the floor 1t was a
case of heart disease. For three or
&c ur days Vandyke was bewildered.
Then business friend of long stand
ng dared to talk with him as he had
..ever been talked to before.
"Get a young man for your book
keeper. and get young woman Tor
itenography and typewriting, was the
advice of the friend.
The words fairly frightened the old
man at first. What an Innovation! He
had always written his own letters.
He had not spoken to female for
years. young man III the OIIlco
would whistle and talk and move
around. He might be late mornings;
he might want half days off; he might
talk about baseball to callers. Some
unseen force, however, impeled John
Yandyke to make the change, and af-
Ter three or four days he almost con-
graduated himself. The young man
hookkeeper was not SO very noisy. and
the presence of the young woman did
not brighten him after the first day.
One day, when a month had passed
away, the master sat at his desk and
fell into serious train of thought.
He was not given to reviewing his life,
hut on this day he saw more plainly
than ever before that he had missed
about all the things that make
No wife-no home-no children
TO amusement-no sentiment. He
couldn't remember when he had
laughed; he couldn't remember when
he had shed a tear. He had simply
lived in a shell. He had let the world
lone and the world had no interest in
i'm.
Was this to continue? No. He had
paved the way for more changes.
hey frightened him. but yet he was
determined That very evening he at
tended theater for the first time in
his life. The next evening he dined
q, a restaurant and missed for the
.irst time in twenty years a meal at
his boarding house. In the next two
weeks there were such changes in his
habits and daily attire that the bust
ress friend responsible for the first
change dropped in to congratulate him
and to say:
Zine, fine. Now, If you'll only get
married and set Up home you'll be
Ike other men Don't waste the rest
If your life"
Married! He get married? To
whom? He was 81 years old. Women
would sneer and laugh at him. He
had come part way out of the shell,
and he was glad he had, but marriage!
No, no. He dismissed the subject from
ris mind, but it returned. 1t annoyed
him; it provoked him; it would not
down. Well. why not, he asked him
self after a week. He was 81, but
every day he read in the papers of
older men than that entering into the
ronds of matrimony But where was
the woman? He thought over that for
a day, and then the answer came
his stenographer. She was a young
woman of about %: she was of re-
spectacle family; her demeanor was
1uiet. He could give her good home
and leave her money, and his money