Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1912-11-14

At last the bride came and the sur
pl1ced choir moved slowly and solemn
~ down the aisles through a sea of
eager faces as the great organ pealed
forth the first bars of the wedding
march from "Lohengrin."
Nan was leaning on the arm of a
stranger he had never seer before, an
uncle from the west. She was pale,
deathly pale, and walked with a hest
tating movement as though weak from
illness. Suddenly his heart went out
to her in a flood of pity and tenderness.
He tried to make her feel this, but she
passed without a glance. She had not
seen him.
Stuart listened to the ceremony with
a vague impersonal interest as if it
were something going on in another
world. A single question was burning
itself into his brain-the price of a
woman! Have we all our price?" he
asked. searching deep into his own
soul. Something pathetic in the white
face of the bride had touched the deep
est sources of his being.
"Have l, too, my price, oh, boastful
soul" he cried. would l sell my
honor for q million? No. For ten.
fifty. a hundred millions? No-not in
the market place. no-but would 1 sell
by a compromise of principle in the
secret conclave of my party-at a sale
the world could never know-would l
sell for the presidency Of the republic?
Or would l sell now to win this wom-
an? Would L? If so, I should hold
her blameless. Have all men and all
women a price if we but name it?
Answer! Answer! And then from
the depths Of his being came the burn
ing words:
"No! I swear it. No"
He looked up with a start, wonder
ing vaguely If the crowd had heard
this cry.
No: they were intent on the drama
at the altar. The minister was y
ing:
What God hath Joined together let
not man put asunder."
"'Godr Surely he didn't say Cod"
Stuart brooded. Does God. the au-
gust, mysterious, awful creator Of the
universe, work like this? Did not the
God of heaven and earth give this wo-
man to him beneath the sunny skies
of the south while their souls sang for
Joy" =e~s*s.-seses~=~e
They were moving again down the
aisle. the organ throbbing the recess
sional from Mendelssohn. A wave Of
emotion swept the crowd inside, and
they became a mob of vulgar, chatter
ing, g%ossiping fools. swarming over
the church as If it were the grand
stand Of a ra%cecourse, without hesita-
ton tearing down and stealing it's dec
orations for souvenirs.
BY a curious law of reaction all re-
sentiment and anger were gone, and
only a great pity for Nan began to fill
Stuart's heart.
That night Stuart entered one of the
more dignifed and serious theaters just
off Broadway. The play was a serious
effort by a brilliant young dramatist
of the modern school of realism. In
two minutes from the rising of the cur
LdAA II pay q 6AAppN0 JILL WILL AV-
lentless power. Slowly, remorseless as
fate, he saw the purpose Of the author
unfold itself in a series Of tense and
terrible Genes The comedy over which
the crowd laughed with such conta-
gious merriment was even more sinis-
ter than the serious parts. No matter
what the Standardization set to
laughter, to terror or to tears-beneath
it all throbbed one insistent question:
"Has the woman who sells herself
for money a soul?"
With GREATNESS interest he watched
the cruel carving of her body into tiny
pieces. Without shifting, whining or
apology, with arms barred and gleam-
ing scalpel firmly gripped in a hand
that never quivered once, the author
dissected her. Always he could hear
this white invisible figure bending owe
each scene talking to the audience in
his quiet, terrible way:
"Well, If be she has a soul we shall
find It. Perhaps it's here"
With a firm, strong hand the last
secret Of muscle and nerve and bone
was laid bare, and the white face look
ed into the eyes Of the audience through
q mist Of tears.
"I'm sorry, my friends. But we must
face the truth. It's better to know the
truth, however bitter. than to believe a
lie"
With a soft rush the big curtain came
down in a silence that could be felt.
The dazed crowd walked from the spell
and poured into the aisles, while Stu.
art still sat gripping the arms Of his
seat with %strangling emotion.
At last he said to himself with chok-
ing emphasis:
"He was cruel. inhuman. unjust. I