Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-03-05
CHAPTER II.-continued.

climbs in and chloroforms her.
CHAPTER ll.-Continueo.
So he remembered Clara van
Camps advice, wrote the whole story
20 Aleck, and cast about for the one
successful business chance In the FOUR
thousand nine hundred and ninety
nine bad ones-as the STATISTICS
have it.
He actually found it in shoes. FOOT
ball muscle and grit went into the JoO
OF putting superior shoe on INFERIOR
foot. if necessary-at least on some
foot. He got a chance to try MS pow
ers In the home branch OF a 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 lot Tue
acknowledgements, he made scientlnc
study of heels. and he invented an
aristocratic arch and put 1t on the
market
The family joked about his doings
as the harmless experiments or hVe'
Nv boy. but presently they began 10
enjoy his income Through It all they
were affectionate and kind, with the
matter-of-course fondness wnlcn
family gives to the members Lna'
takes the part of useful drudge. John
the pet of the parents, married, ano
had his own eyes opened, 1t Is &c
be supposed. Donald, the genius, mao
fust arrived, after dozen years OF
40. 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 Jim's appren'
ticeship to life, there came over him
a fit of soul-sickness that nearly
proved his ruin.
IT can't stand this" he wrote to
Aleck Van Camp; its too hard and
drv and sordid for any man that's
got a 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
ANYTHING to be had without money
and without price He can't help 1t.
II 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 the farm. I'm not a snob, but l
recognize now that there was some
reason for all our old Hambleton an
cestors being so finicky about trade.
DO you remember how we used to
talk. when we we're kiddies, about
Exeeping our ideals? Well, / believe
T'm bankrupt, Aleck, in my account
with ideals. / don't want to howl, and
these remarks don't go with anybody
else, but l can say to you, l want them
back again"
/ AIeck did as a kiddie should do,
writing much advice on long sheets OF
saaper. and illustrating his points
richly. like a good Scotchman, with
scientific instances. A month or two
later he contrived to have work to
do I'm Boston. so that he could go out
10 Lynn and look up Jimmy's case.
Rs even devised cure by creating,
In his mind. an office IN the biological
world which was to be offered to
James on the ground that science
needed Just his abilities and training.
But when Aleck arrived in Lynn he
found that Jim. in some fashion or
Other had found a cure for himself.
He vas deeper than ever in the bust
mesa. and yet, in some spiritual sense.
ne rad found himself. He had cap
tured his ideal again and yoked IT to
.duty-which is a great feat.
After twelve years of ferocious Ia
Dor. with no vacations to speak of,
lanes mind took turn for the worse,
Physically he was as sound as q bell
though OF lath-like thinness; but an
eTervescing in his blood lured his
Sniad away from the study of lasts and
accounts and Partisan models and
sent It careering, like Satan, up and
down the earth. Romance, which had
been drugged during the transition
from youth to manhood, awoke and
coaxed for its rights, and whispered
temptingly in an ear not yet dulled to
cts voice. Freedom, open spaces
laughter the fresh sweep OF the wind
the high buccaneering piracy OF life
and ioy-these things begIamoured
his senses.
So one day he locked his desk with
. fnal click. The business was In