The Topeka state journal., 1911-08-22
TIE EVENING STORY
An Ambitious Mother.
(By Donald Allen.l


childish diversions and her piaymates,
and if she also had, her disappoint-
ments they were not bitter ones. Her
widowed mother belonged to the mid
dle-class. and she had Just a fair in
come.
Then things changed almost in
day 1t was legacy to the mother
that did 1t. 1t disclosed 8 side of her
character that no one lad suspected
Miss Irene was at once forbidden to /
associate with this one and that one,
and when the list had been culled out
she found herself standing almost
alone. She must hereafter act SO and
so, and she must hereafter not act so I
and so. Where she had chummed with |
a girl she must now give hel ouly a |
| distant bow Where sL-e had walked /
home from school with this or that /
| boy, she must row pass him as If un- /
aware of his existence. That money /
was to make all the difference in the |
world. The daughter understood that |
money was good thing to have, but |
she could not understand why it should |
almost outlaw her. In forming friend !
ships she had never considered the /
money side of the question. She had
judged by character instead of wealth. |
None of the Widow N;xons friends |
had ever considered her ambitious in a
social way. Perhaps that feature was
lying dormant At any rate, she had
scarcely counted the money left her by
a rich sister when social ambition
came to the surface to work great
| changes.
She decided almost at once that the
daughter could not be exclusive enough
at home to finish her education, and
the girl was sent to a boarding school
where exclusion was the motto. Then
came the family tree Mrs. Nixon had
never been greatly worried as to
whether the Nixon family dated back
to a king or pirate. Her husband
and her husbands father had been
business men of good character, and
that had sufficed her. Now Il was diff
ferent. She had the money and she
sighed for a lineage
There are so-caned ger ealogists who
make 1t their business to keep in touch
with the newly rich and furnish them
with pedigrees to match tnesr cash. 1t
I had scarcely become known to the
widows circle that she had received
legacy when a genealogist called. He
: had the look of a professor even to the
dandruff on his coat collar. He had
= been in the profession thirty years. He
had traced the ancestors o1 2,000 fami-
: lies and hauled them into the light of
day. He had never made a mistake.
His terms were the lowest of any re-
spectacle party. For the sum of $500
he would trace the Nixons back to the
cave dwellers of England
The Widow Nixon agreed 10 the bar
gain so promptly that the fellow never
| forgave himself for not asking a thou
Isand. Yes, he was comm 'Ssioned to
hunt, and hunt he diu and in the
course of ninety days he mad turned in
his report and received his cash.
And from whom had the Nixons de-
scended and Jacob Nixon never sus-
Ipecting it through all his life? 1t did
/ not go back to the cave jewellers, but
started at Harry. King the Morse
men. Right there was the beginning,
land it came down to the widsw as
straight and easy as a streak of mo-
{ lasSeS skating across q kitchen floor
2 Not single break in the whole chain.
1 The genealogist begged leave to doubt
. if there was another family in the state
D that could go back within a hundred
\ lyears of Harry, and he was graciously
permitted to do SO.
/ Two years elapsed after the discov-
= cry of this fact when the proud widow
Informed her daughter OF Il need to
be still more exclusive. With their
wealth and lineage the girl could be-
come a Duchess. Still another auto
must be purchased, and so on. and SO
! on.
Meanwhile, Miss Irene. even though
l. lalmOst a prisoner at the school, and
: lhaving "exc1usiveness" dinged into her
, ears every hour in the day, had fallen
in love. The young mar was the son
OF a lawyer who couldn't trace his an
cestry back over two hundred years,
and
. couldn't.
young Bennett in time came to un-
: derstand the ambitions cf the mother
If he had been the son of m merchant,
things might have turned out different
= Ily, but being the son of a lawyer he
+ Iwent at it to prepare his case for a
! Jury When 1t came tiT1e to go into
! court as one might say, there was no
weak joint to be tinkered up. What
q does a girl of eighteen in love with
|, lyoung man of twenty-one care for an
: cestry? What does she care for Dukes
a she has never met? Wnat does she
/. care for the spectacled old maid who
G runs the boarding school,? The elope-
r ment would only add to the romance
] And there was an elopement and
= marriage. When the widowed mother
s was telegraphed to she tainted away
: The Duke of Hartford had left her
!. lhouse that very afternoon. For the
a first time since King Harry went slosh-
G ing around, a Nixon girl had eloped to
1 bring obloquy on the name. II was
e lust aWful--terrible!
h The widow Nixon first resolved that
3 she could never forgive her daughter,
d and that the law should be appealed
= to to annul the marriage. Before steps
q were taken. however. Mr. and Mrs
0 Rennett appeared before her. In her
|. righteous anger and mor-Ification she
n ordered them out of the house. They
Ididn't 60. The late Miss Irene sat with
e a smile on her lace, ara tne neINy
5 lyoung Bennett arose ana said he hao
8 few remarks to make before going.
o I'VE will first take up the case of the
1 family tree" he began. 1.-THE genealo-
: eist YOU employed is now in prison as a
q swindler You are not his only victim
5 bv hundreds. I have Looked into the
T matter myself. There IVES no Morse
: imam named King Harry. Even II
IL there had been he would have been a
2 lbloody old pirate and narauder."
: "But-but he assured me" replied
: the widow
7 Certainly. He also assured the
= court but he got three years just the