Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-01-30

teal mold regarding the production
and accumulation Of wealth. the chief
end of man. Having made fortune.
this ambition was succeeded by a SINH
lar object. He would bring up his son
10 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 so to college, entering instead into
business at that age when young men
enter upon a 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
a community which was a preparation
for the larger world which be was
later to enter.
But before Louis was prepared to
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 it. 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
sauclly 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 a mercenary way of
the future she did not enter into her
mothers plans. But by not doing so
she unintentionally helped the matter,
for her stepfather saw through her
mothers plan from the first, and it was
plain to him that Edith was disturbed
by it. Moreover, he took naturally to
the child. who was of lovely DISPOSE
ton, and when Louis went away to
boarding school she. in a measure.
dropped into his place with her father.
Then came that which tended to
bring about Mrs. Robson's schemes.
Louis developed tastes antagouistc to
business. Instead OF being interested
in the mechanic arts he must needs be-
come infatuated with those people who
lived a 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 Latin itera-
ture was the talk of the students and
the surprise of the professors.
/ All this was disappointing to Mr..
Robson. He regarded the Greeks and
Romans as absolutely dead and unpro-
ductive. The Roman forum was to
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 it was being used
for further excavations. He regretted
that the barbariRns who had demol-
ishcd Rome had not made a wilderness
of it so that It's site might have been
lost forever. Constantinople he thought
might have become valuable on &C
count OF its location had not the Turks
gone III and spoiled it for a center Of
trade. Had it not been for this the
BospOTus might have become as i'm
poTtant as the Chicago river
But, papa" Edith would say, lust
think-the ancients called the Bospo-
rus the Hellespont, and Leander swan
It to visit Hero"
spoken like the dear little girl you
are" was the reply to this. You are
at an age when girls are much better
fitted TO discern a romance than a site
for a real estate speculation"
A crisis came in the family when
Louis was graduated. An expedition
was to he sent out by his alma mater
to dig for the site of an ancient city,
and he was invited to be a member of
the party. His father, who had been
waiting for four years to begin to pre-
pare his son to take his place in his
business. was furious. Edith placated
him as best she could. holding out the
bpl't Alldl Asphio N'hli NllC VI >
for old bones. flint arrowheads. pot
terry and trinkets buried fifty feet IN
herground. but Mr. Robson knew that
such tastes instead of improving the
Investigator only tended to ruin him.
"Such persons" he averred, ARE born
with their heels in the air instead OF
their heads and branch out toward the
Tenter Of the earth"
Louis insisted on going with the ex
petition, his expenses being paid from
the college fund appropriated for the
purpose. His father offered to give
: him an enormous ss,ary If instead he
would enter his factory and az Eoon al
he had learned how to manage it hC
should have full control
Father" said Louis. 81 always con
sidered yOu a practiea man"
so am. but YOU are dreamer"
AT any rate, ! Aave sense enough t
know that tie Robson company unde
my management would be buried deep
or than Herculaneum."
VERY well; 90 on your hunt for Of
pots and kettles and don't come bac
here any more"