Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1913-01-16
CHAPTER lI.-continued.

CHAPTER H.--continued.
So he remembered Clara Van
Camps advice, wrote the whole story
to Aleck, and cast about for the one
successful business chance in the Tour
thousand nine hundred and ninety
nine bad ones-as tae STATISTICS
have 1t.
He actually found it iN shoes Foot
ball muscle and grit vert into the loD
of putting superior shoe on inferior
foot. if necessary-at least on some
foot He got chance to try his pow
ers in the home branch of manu-
featuring house, and made good.
When he came to fill position where
there was opportunity to try ne"
ideas. he tried them. He inspected
tanneries and stockyards. He got com
posite measurements of all the rect
in all the women's colleges IN the
year ninety-seven, he drilled statesmen
and opened a night school for tne
buttonhole-makers he made scientinc
study of heels, and he invented an
aristocratic arch and put it on the
market.
The family joked about his dolngs
as the harmless experiments OF llve-
~ boy, but presently they began TO
enjoy his income. Through it all they
were affectionate and kind, with the
matter-of-course fondness which a
family gives to the members that
takes the part of useful drudge. John
the pet Of the parents, married, and
had his own eyes opened 1T IS TO
BIZ supposed Donald the genihs, mad
list arrived, after a dozen years or
81, at the stage where he was men
tioned now and then in the literary
journals. But Jim stuck to SHOES
and kept the family on fair tide Of
modest prosperity,
Once, in the years of Jims appren-
tieeship to life, there came over him
O fit Of soul-sickness that nearly
proved his ruin.
u can't stand this he wrote to
Aleck Van Camp; 'it's too hard and
dry and sordid for any man that's
got soul 1t isn't the grind ] mind,
though that is bar enough; it is the
Commercial Idea that eats into a
mans innards. He forgets there are
things that money can't buy, and in
his heart he grows contemptuous of
anythfng to be had without money
and without price He can't help it.
If he is thinking of trade nine-tenths
Of the time, his mind gets set that
way. I'm ready any minute to jump
the fence, like fathers old colt up
on me farm. I'm not snob, but I
rechgnize now that there was some
reason for all our old Hambleton an
cestors being so finicky about trade
do you remember how we used 20
talk, when we were kiddies, about
keeping our ideals? Well. l believe
I'm bankrupt, Aleck, in my account
with ideals I don't want to howl, and
these remarks don't go with anybody
else. but can say to you, want them
back again
A1eck did as kiddie should do,
writing much advice on long sheets of
paper. and illustrating his points
richly, like a good Scotchman, with
scientific instances. A month or two
later he contrived to have work to
do in Boston. SO that he could go out
to Lynn and look up Jimmy's case
He even devised a cure by creating
in his rlind an Office in the biological
world which was to be offered to
James on the ground that science
reeded Just his abilities and training.
But when Aleck arrived in Lynn he
found that Jim. in some fashion or
other. haG found a cure for himself
He wac deeper than eyer in the bust
ness. and yet, in some spiritual sense,
he hah found himself He had cap
tnred lis ideal again and yoked it to
duty which is a great feat.
After Twelve years of ferocious la
Dor. with no vacations to speak Of,
lanes MUD took turn for the worse
Physically he was as sound as a bell
though Of lath-hke thinness, but an
effervescipg in his blood lured his
mind awpy from the study Of lasts and
accounts ard Partisan models and
sent it caeeering. like Satan, up and
Gown the e.lrsh. Romance. which had
been drugged during the transition
from youth TO manhood, awoke and
coaxed for its lights, and whispered
iemp5icgly in an ear not yet dulled to
It's voice Freedom. open spaces.
laughter the fresh sweep Of tho wind
tiia high buceaneering piracy Of life
arc ioy-these things bsglamoured
his senses
SO one day he locked his desk with
final click. The business was In