Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-02-13
The Argus Daily Story
An Old Tree-By Martin Goldthwaite.
Copyrighted. 1911 by Associates Literary Bureau

Then why do you refuse to trust
mer''
Because it Is the system under
which all men work. We cannot do
business under different conditions
from other concerns"
May 1 consider your offer over
night?"
Yes, If you like" with some sur
prise.
Carleton had been born of Christian
parents, who had taught him to be
scrupulous in the matter OF mine and
thine" never to tell lie and to con-
slider himself required to deal honor
ably by all men. This otter Of q posi-
ton with an insurance policy on his
honor was a bitter pill for him to
swallow, but he must make a living,
and the next morning he went to Mr.
Gregory and told him that he was
ready to go to work.
Very well; go upstairs and have
your photograph taken"
Photograph! What's that forT
"a custom of these times All our
employees are photographed II they
run away with our funds and we have
a likeness their capture is easier"
do you mean. Mr.. Gregory. that you
keep a rogues' gallery OF your clerksT
Not at all. We keep the gallery,
and 1t is for the individual to make a
rogue Of himself"
Carleton stood looking at the gentle
man with eyes wide open. Finally he
said:
81 was brought up by a father and a
mother who would have considered 1t
dangerous to me not TO give me their
implicit confidence. You are treating
your fellow men as they dared not
treat me. and by doing so If you are
not encouraging dishonesty you are
surely paving the way for 1t. II &C
ceded to your terms I should consider
that so far as you are concerned had
right to beat you IL l could. This
would be the first step to my own deg
radiation. The next would be to beat
the rest of the world If could do so
without risk to myself. am much
obliged for your offer, but 1 cannot ac-
cept 1t. I was born at a time when all
men were trusted till they proved IN
worthy. came to my youth at time
| when my countrymen were acting upon
the highest principle of honor In Civ
ing their lives for their fellow men.
Suppose that vast army who died ON
| the battlefield and In the hospital
should rise from their graves and con-
front you. Would they not shudder at
the standard of honor which has re-
placed the one under which they gave
up their livesT"
Mr.. Gregory listened to these words,
spoken by one who had really but just
renewed his existence from that period
when the youth OF the country had
lived under higher standard of honor.
standard of truest manhood, and
when he had finished said:
1.-THE years, the centuries, are rolling
on. The standard of one age IL not the
standard of another. But while we
must preserve our individual honor we
! must submit to that which exists about
us.
"You have passed with but a single
step over forty years. You find that
the system, or, rather, the lack Of sys-
TEN, of that time has been replaced by
another The youth of 81 would
have scorned to accept a position
wherein provisions were taken to avoid
loss by their dishonesty and to facili-
tate their capture If they betrayed a
trust. We have not now the youth OF
81. We have the youth of the TWEEN
tieth century. Nevertheless they are
the same beings, and the latter may
maintain their self respect as well as
the former, for. after all, 1t is in the
man and not the system"
Doubtless you are right, Mr.. Greg
ory," after some thought. but to
transplant the youth of 81 into 1901
is a failure. You might as wen try
to grow oranges in the northern states
/ thank you for the position offered
me, but l shall decline It, not that
would demean myself by accepting II,
for you have shown me that after all
it is the man rather than the system,
but that / cannot bear transplanting
from the soil of 'G1 to that Of 1901"
That night Carleton slept on a
, bench in a park, or, rather. he lay
awake thinking Of those who had been
fighting with him in the hornets nest"
, Of Shiloh. Who Of the company had
fallen? Who had lived and grown to
old age with the unexpired portion Of
the century? Doubtless those who
D We're now alone had ceased to be a
part of the systems in vogue during
their youth and had glided uncon-
] sciously into the systems of their old
: age.
One morning body was found float
= ing in river and dragged ashore.
: The clothing was shabby, the only
adornment being an army badge made
of gun metal. 1t was the corpse OF
d Edward Carleton. He had spoken
:. truly when he said that he would moi
bear transplanting from the middle OF
: the nineteenth century to the begin
e ming of the twentieth. He had tried
several Jobs. but the sense that he was
; not trusted SO worked upon his feel
e ings that he at last gave up every one
z of them. Having been taken from ar
q atmosphere where he breathed freely
he decided to GO where breathing wa
Re not necessary to existence