Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1913-03-01
Obe
Archaeological
He Preferred Digging In the
Ground to Money
Making
BY r. A. mitchell

end OF man. Having made fortune.
this ambition was succeeded by SINH
lar object. He would bring up his son
TO take his place at the head of the
great manufacturing concern OF which
he was the principal owner and man
ager. He preferred that Louis should
not go to college. entering instead into
business at that age when young men
enter upon university career. but he
did not insist upon this. arguing that
while what a boy learned at college
was mostly worthless he lived there in
community which was preparation
for the larger world which he was
later TO enter.
But before Louis was prepared 10
enter college his father married again.
His second wife was a widow with a
daughter eleven years old or three
years younger than her stepbrother. No
sooner had the marriage taken place
than the wife began to study how she
could divert her husbands fortune
from Louis to her daughter. She could
only think of 1t. however. for her hus-
band was bent on his fortune passing
from his hands to those of his son.
She worried her daughter with her
schemes till the poor child was quite
worn out with them. 1t was Edith.
why did you go to bed last night with
out kissing your father good night?''
or You naughty child. TO speak as
saucily TO your father as you did to-
day. You deserve that he should leave
you nothing in his will.
The girl knew well that this refer
ence TO the will was the upshot Of the
whole matter. and since she was too
young to think in mercenary way Of
the future she did not enter into her
mothers plans But by not doing so
she Internationally helped the matter,
for her stepfather saw through her
mothers plan from the first. and IL was
plain to him that Edith was disturbed
by II. Moreover. he took naturally to
the child. who was of lovely DISPOSE
ton. and when Louis went away 20
boarding school she. In measure.
dropped into his place with her father
Then came that which tended 10
bring about Mrs. Robson's schemes
Louis developed tastes antagonistic to
business Instead of being interested
in the mechanic arts he must needs be
come infatuated with those people who
lived couple OF thousand years ago
the Greeks and Romans whom most
children wish had never lived at all.
Louis tastes ran also to languages. and
In the Latin and the Greek he read
about Roman conquests and Athenian
intellectual triumphs The boy had
not been long in college when his
knowledge of Greek and Lntin litera-
ture was the talk of the students and
the surprise of the professors
All this was disappointing 10 Mr..
Robson. He regarded the Greeks and
Romans as absolutely dead and unpro-
ductive. The Roman forum was 10
him simply a show for Americans and
only valuable for the liras taken in as
gate money. But even this he consid-
cred wasted because IL was being used
for further excavations He regretted
that the barbarians who had demol-
ished Rome had not made a wilderness
OF II so that its site might have been
lost forever Constantinople he thought
might have become valuable on ac-
count of its location had not the Turks
gone In ana spoiled IL for center Of
trade. Had IL not been for this the
Bosporus might have become as i'm
portant as the Chicago river
But. papa" Edith would say. jus,
think-the ancicnts called the Bospo'
rus the Iicllespont. and Leander swan
It 10 visit Hero"
spoken like the dear little girl YOU
are" was the reply 10 this. You are
at an age when girls are much better
fitted 10 discern romance than site
for n real estate speculation.
A crisis came In the family when
Louis was graduated. An expedition
was 10 be sent out by his alma mater
20 die for the site of an ancient city.
and he was invited to he member OF
the party. His father. who had been
waiting for four years to begin 10 pre-
pare his son TO take his place in his
business. was furious Edith placated
him rs best she could. holding out the
hope that Louis would tire Of hunting
for old bones. flint arrowheads. pot
terry aud trlnkcts buried fifty feet IN
derground. but Mr.. Robson knew that
such tastes instead Of improving the
investigator only tended 10 ruin him
such persons he averred. are horn
with their heels In the mir instead Of
their heads aud branch out toward the
center Of the earth"
Louis insisted on going with the tx
petition. his expenses heing paid from
the college fund appropriated for the
purpose His father offered Ia give
him an enormous salary II instead he
would enter his factory and ms soon as
he had learned how 10 manage II he
should have full control
Father" said Louis. II always con
sidcrcd You a practical man"
$50 ! am. but you are dreamer"
0 4 l.,. o..