Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-07-08


against me, or signed that general re-
lease. You're well out of it. III send
you up to South Dakota after the CAM
paign's all over and let you get di-
vorce on the quiet. No one around
here'u ever know you was married,
and in the long run the experience
won't hurt you. You've acted pretty
decent lately, Jerry, and I'm not half
sorry I changed my mind on that
'heayy-father' stunt and didn't kick
you out. After all, one marriage more
or less is more of an accident than a
falling. SC long as folks don't let it
get to be a habit You acted like an
idiot. BIT bygones are bygones, SO
cut out the sulks. Cheap chorus girls
weren't made for grown men to mar
ry."
'I'll thank you to say nothing
against her." interviewed Gerald stiff
ly, with the first faint show of in
terest his father had observed in him
for weeks.
"Just as you like assented Caleb,
in high, good humor, glad to have
broken even SO slightly into the 9TH
er's armor of apathy. "In her case,
maybe, least said the better. So
you're still homesicking for her-and
for New York, eh?"
t'Yes."
'.Still feel your own city amt good
enough for you?"
What place is for a man who has
lived in New York;"
"Rot! What place is?' About ten
thousand places! And some seventy
million Americans living in those
places are as good and as happy and
stand pretty near as good a chance
of the pearly gates as If they had the
heaven-sent blessing of living between
the North and East rivers"
''Yes?"
There was no interest and only alb
sent-minded query in Gerald's mono
syllable. Listlessness had again set
tied over him. Word and mental atti-
tude Jared on the Railroader.
f:New York." reiterated Conover.
sI've took some slight pains to learn
a few things about that place these
last couple of months. Before that l
took your word for it that it was
hectic, electric-lit whirlpool where
nothing ever was quiet ,or sane, and
where a young cub who could get ar
rested for smashing up hotel lobby
was looked up to as pillar OF gilded
society. Since then I've bothered to
find out on my own account. New
York's a city with about two millions
of people living on Manhattan Island
alone. We out-of-town jays are told
these two millions are a gay, aban-
doned, fashionable lot that spend their
days in the congenial stunt Of piling
up fortunes and their nights in every
sort of high jinks that can cost money
and keep 'em up till dawn. 'All-night
fun all-day fortune-grabbing. Great
placed Come see it, Well I have
seen it. Along around FIVE or six p.
m. about ,ninety-eight per cent. of
those two million people stop work
They've been fortune-grabbing all
right, since early morning. Only
they've been grabbing it usually for
some one else. They pile onto the
subway or the elevated or the big
bridge and-and where do they go?
To a merry old all-night revel on the
Great White Way? To an orgy Of On
with-the dance, -joy-be-unrefined'
hey? Not them. It's home they go.
quiet and without exhibiting to the
neighbors any season passes for all
night dissipation They are as re-
spectacle decent, orderly, earlyto-
bed a crowd as if they lived on farm
'Tain't their fault if homes usually
built on the folding-bed plan and more
condensed than a can of patent milk
Apart from that, they live just as
everybody else in this country lives
no better, no worse, no gayer. no
auieter. There's not penny's differ.
ence between that decent ninety-eight
per cent. and the business and work
ing folks right here in Granite"
Gerald did not answer. He had not
heard.
That's the typical New Yorker !"
went on Caleb. "The typical New
Yorker'-ninety-eig per cent. of him
lis the typical everyday man or wo.
man of any city. He does his work,
supports his family. and goes to bed
before eleven. Those are the folks /
guess v, i didn't see much Of when
you was ,lere Nor of the real So
ciety push or even the climbers. The
society headliners are too few any,
how to count in the general percent
age. Besides, they're out of town
half the year. You was mostly en-
gagged in PLAYING Easy Mark for the