Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-09
Septin1t1s'
By WILLIAM J.LOCKE
Copyright. 1905. BY the Pbillips PublisA.
ing Company
tCopyright. 1907. BY John Lane Company
CHAPTER XIX.

plicf, SSlU SHuttleWOTtn, III ~
duty is to my Wife and family
Glenn Sypher leaned back in his chair
behind his great ONCE desk and looked
at his melancholy manager with the eyes
OF a general whose officers refuse the
madness Of forlorn hope.
"Quite so.' he said. tonelessly. when
do you want to co.
p you engaged me on a three-month no
tice, but
"But you want to go now?'
II have a very brilliant position offered
me II I can take 1t UP in a fortnight"
VERY well,'' said Sypher.
You won't say it's a case OF rats de-
sorting sinking ship, will you. sir? AS
say, my wife and family
THE ships sinking. You're quite right
to leave it. Is the position offered you
In the same line of business?
YES" said Shuttleworth, unable to
meet his chiefs clear. unsmiing eyes
lone of the rival flrms?
Shuttleworth nodded, then broke out
into mournful reservations OF loyalty.
If the Cure had flourished he would have
stayed with Mr.. Sypher till the day OF
his death. He would have refused the
brilliant offer. But in the circum-
"Sauve uui peut,'' said Sypher. AN
other month or two and Sypher's Cure
becomes a thing of the past. Nothing
can pull it through. l was too sanguine.
I wish I had taken your advice oftener'
Shuttleworth.''
Shuttleworth thanked him for the COM
pliment.
Zone learns by experience" said he.
modestly. Il was born and bred In the
patent-medicine business. It's very risky.
You start a thing. 1t catches on for a
while. Then something else more at
tractive comes on the market. There
a war Of advertising. and the bigger cap
ital wins. The wise man gets out OF 1t
just before the rival comes. II you had
taken my advice five years ago, and
turned 1t into company. you'd have
the world. Next time you will
"Therell be no next time," said Sypher.
gravely.
"Why not? There's always money in
patent medicines. For instance, In q new
cure for obesity If properly worked. A
together
Shuttleworth'S dismal face contracted
into the grimace which passed with him
for smile.
ANY old thing will do. so long as it
doesn't poison people"
Uncomfortable Under his chiefs silent
scrutiny, he took off his spectacles,
breathed on them and wiped them with
his handkerchief.
THE public will buy anything. If you
advertise it enough
Il suppose they WILL, said Sypher.
even Jebusa Jones' Cuticle Remedy
Shuttleworth started and put on his
spectacles.
why shouldn't they buy the Remedy.
after all?"
"You ask me that?' said Sypher All
through the interview he had not shifted
his position. He sat fixed, like a florid
ghost.
The manager shuffied, uneasily in his
chair beside the desk and cleared his
throat, nervously.
I'm bound to- said he. Gin self-de-
tense. l know what vow think of the
Cure-but that's q matter of sentiment.
I've been into the thing pretty thorough
ly. and I know that there's scarcely any
difference III the composition of the REM
ing grease that keeps the microbes in the
air out Of the sore place does just as well
sometimes better. There's nothing III
patent ointment that really cures. Now
is there?"
''Are you going to the Jebusa Jones
pepple?" asked Sypher.
Il have my wife and family" the man
ager pleaded. 81 couldn't refuse. They've
offered me the position Of their London
agent. I know it must pain you" he
L
Every man for himself and the devil
take the hindmost. So you will give me
what they used to call my coup de grace.
You'll just stab me dead as-1 lie dying.
Well. III a fortnight's time you can CO."
The other rose. "Thank you very
treated me generously. and I'm more than
sorry to leave you. You bear me no ILL
will?'
For going from one auack remedy to
another? Certainly not
1t was only when the door closed be-
hind the manager that Sypher relaxed
his attitude. He put both hands up to his
face. and then fell forward onto the
desk, his head on his arms.
The end had come. To that which mat
tered in the man, the lingering faith yet
struggling In the throes of dissolution.
de grace. That he had Joined the arch
enemy who in q short time would achieve
his material destruction signified little.
When something spiritual is being done
to death the body and mind are torpid.
Even a month ago, had Shuttleworth ut
tered such blasphemy within those walls
Glen Sypher would have arisen in his
wrath like a mad crusader and have
cloven the blasphemer from skull to
chine. Today he had sat motionless. pet
that the man spoke truth. AS well put
any noxious connection Of drugs on the
market and call it a specific against obes-
ity or gravel or deafness as Sypher
Cure. Between the heaven-sent panacea
which was to cleanse the skin Of the ma
lions and send his name ringing down
the centuries as the Friend of Humanity
and the shiveringly vulgar Jebusa Jones'
Cuticle Remedy there was not an atom
of important difference. One was as USE
full or as useless as the other. The Cure
was pale green: the Remedy rose pink.
Women liked the latter best on account
of its color. Both were quack medical
ments.
He raised a drawn and agonized face
and looked around the familiar room,
where SO many gigantic schemes had been
laid, where SO many hopes had shone
radiant, and saw for the first time its
blatant self-complacency, its piteous vul-
garity. Facing him was the artists origi-
nal cartoon for the great poster which
once had been famous all over the world,
and now, for lack of money, only fingered
in shreds on a forgotten boarding in some
back OF beyond. 1t represented the
Friend Of Humanity. in gesture, white
beard and general appearance resembling
a benevolent minor prophet, distributing
the Cure to a scrofulous universe. In
those glorified days he had striven to
have his own lineaments depicted above
the robe of the central figure, but the
artist had declared them to be unpictorial,
and chung to the majesty of the gentle
man in the white beard. Around the lat
tor'r foot fyafhora,1 p,ntIex- ,ra,x--