Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1911-08-25
THE SILVER
....JAW..
nv BERN A RD III EER
Copyright, 1910 by Joseph B. Bowles

was 1OhAy Al ~ w do OfSI dlICduy. I1S
had been dreaming that he was one
of the heroes in the battle of Bunker
Hill fighting with black giraffe who
was reciting Lincoln's speech about
government for Of and by the people
to the audience at the high school
commencement exercises in the old
smoke house at home.
BY no means had it been a Fourth
of July celebration-at least of the
sane kind-and he was glad 1t was
over. And yet he imagined he would
do 1t again, SO jolly and kind were all
the good people at the hospital in the
days that followed while he was rap
idly recovering from the operation
and from the shock.
Bill went home and in due course
of time they supplied him with sill
yer jaw which took the place of the
one that Cringer had taken out-a
silver jaw so neatly and artfully made
and fitted that Bill himself-to say
nothing of his mother-would never
have known the difference.
Now, I will not be sure that it was
the possession of this perfect silver
jaw that caused Bill to feel that he
was little better than the other
young fellows in the neighborhood;
nor is it possible in the present un-
certain state of human knowledge to
assert with positiveness that the mere
possession of silver jaw, however
perfect, is an extraordinary warrant
for prefiguring ourselves the favor
ties Of capricious chance.
But apart from the merits of such
question, 1t will be desirable to note
that Bill was soon busy preparing
himself for the practise Of law, with
the ultimate object of becoming pres
ident of the United States, or in any
event a United States senator-the
particular state he purposed to repre-
sent not being specified in the con-
tract
To be perfectly fair to Bill and to
ourselves, I must admit that he was
trif1e crude; crude, mean, in his
notions about the ultimate constitution
of human society; which means in the
concrete the peculiar opinion of
their own Importance entertained, as
a general rule, by the rich. Likewise
he was preternaturally slow-so slow
as to be virtually motionless-in his
ability to distinguish, by surface indi-
cations, the essential difference be-
tween the very best people-the blue
points and cherry stones of the human
race-and the oysters that come to
us in bulk by the barrel. And If you
supply this broad conception of Bill
with a rank tendency to speak out
his mind-but you will see how he
carried it with Angelique Van Loo.
Now although Bill had managed to
push himself through Yale, and to
squeeze himself through the law
school, and to edge himself into the
privilege of practising law at the bar
of New York, he was poorer at the
end of it than he had been at the be-
ginning. His silver jaw did not COM
pensate him for the want of golden
mouth, and he was beginning his jour
ney to the White House in the capac-
ity Of a grub-staked hanger-on in the
office of a lawyer who needed for his
own use the clients that sifted down
to him from the upper world or that
1oated up to him from the under.
Bill was about to make up his mind
one day that he would return to his
fathers house in Connecticut when
the mystic and magic spell that lay in
the silver jaw flung him up at the feet
OF Angelique Van Loo, as she stood
on the edge of the sidewalk, her hands
clasped upon her breast, her face
TRANSPORTED with terror, and her eyes
fixed on some indeterminate point in
space.
AS Bill approached her she turned
and seized him by the lapels Of his
coat. He felt with strange emo
ton the force Of her neatly gloved
little hands drawing him toward her,
and he was astounded by the look OF
distress and horror in her eyes, and
by her frantic appeal.
ooh save her! Save her. won't you?
Please save her! ! know I shall die
il you dont!"
He gazed around in the general di-
rection of the upper stories OF the
houses and then looked down into
the face of his mysterious beseecher
"You fool" she cried. "Why do you
look around you like that? Will you
save her this minute or will you not?
Do you wish me to go mad?'
Again did Bill take in the circum-
yallate avenue and again look down
upon his petitioner. He was a shrewd
young man with smattering OF the
law, and he therefore refused to be
drawn into a careless expression OF
wish that madness should seize upon
anyone But while he was craftily
thinking of all these things she re-
Taxed her grip upon his coat.
won't you please save herr" she
begged, half coaxingly, half sad
Save WHO?" asked Bill, the en-
tire structure of his four years OF
English collapsing at stroke.
She was looking at him by this time
x,,;+b on iropo+iaDt vat forbAarinp con-