The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1913-11-06

ne Was Il Solemn niGH III uiS uOLio,
or at least for the most part silent
He ate all the beefsteak there was on
the table when there was but enough
for one, which latter often was the
case, Tor his wife bad need to be fru-
gal. At times he would purchase a
solitary ticket to the theater and go
alone. Yet he was generous. and al
ways after his return home he would
with fine feeling tell his wife what he
had seen.
After the birth of Grace Rawn, their
daughter, which occurred within the
first year of their welded life, Laura
Rawn had something to interest her
for the remainder of their days. Her
horizon widened now immeasurably;
indeed to the extent of giving her a
world Of her own wherein she could
dwell apart quite comfortably; one
in which her husband had no part.
Simple and just in her way of thought,
she accepted the truth that without
married life, without her husband,
this new world could not have been
her own.
AS to the child herself, she grew
steadily and normally into young girl
hood, in time into young womanhood.
not given to much display. reserved
of judgment as well as Of speech, Oft
times sullen in mood, yet withal a step
or SO higher than her mother on the
ladder of feminine charm. She had a
clean, good family rearing, and a good
grammar school education. At about
the time her father came to be a man
of middle age, Grace fell into her place
in the clerical machine of the railway
office where he worked; for very natu-
rally, being an American girl of small
means, she took up shorthand. and
was licensed to do violence.
The head Of this family, as he at
tanned additional solidity Of figure.
grew even heavier of brow, trod with
even more stateliness about his ap-
pointed duties. At f~orty-seven years
Of age his salary was but n hundred
and twenty-five dollars a month. That
showed only the lack of wisdom OF
others, not unfitness in himself.
And yet all this time success was
lying in ambush, as it sometimes does.
ready to spring forth at the appointed
hour.
1t was this, focused suddenly and
Unexpectedly by the lens of accident
into a burning point Of certainty,
which marked the air and attitude Of
John Rawn m evening on his return
to his home at the conclusion Of his
days work.
Laura" said he, Laura, it's come!
I've got the idea. It's going to win.
We're going to be rich. I've believed
it all along, and l know it now! Laura,
look at needn't l always tell you
so-didn't know?"
For some time Mrs. Rawn said moth.
ing in answer to her husbands dec.
laration. She had known such things
before.
But today there was something so
sincere in his air as to take her be-
yond her own forced insincerity with
herself.
What is 1t, John?" she demanded.
You can't understand it. Laura;
but listen. Give the people something
they haven't had; get them so they
have to have 1t. We can't go fast
enough. But we're going faster. Well
go twice as fast.
That's my business. That's my
invention. That's how I'm going to
get rich.
Laura, I'm going to make it pos.
sible to gear up our national life. to
double it's present speed" he vent on
~savagely.
She leaned back in her chair, sigh.
ing. do you think | could have a
silk dress. john" she said at length,
her mind overlapping vast intermedi.
ate details.
My God, woman!"
She sat, trying to rise to the pitch
of such ambition. but succeeded only
in remaining commonplace. How
did you come across it, john" she
asked after a little.
THE truth is, l picked it up from
a word or so l heard in a chance con.
versation-two young fellows from the
engineering department were talking
something yer That young chap
named Halsey, just out of some col
lege, full of fads, you know"
Il thought you said this was your
own idea?"
1T is my own. What is thrown
away deliberately, and picked up, is
mine. If | see the value of 1t. Young
Halsey didn't know. He's just a Wis
ionary."
"Halsey-Charley Halsey of the of.
fees? He's been here-I think Grace
you see, the Personal Injury office.
where she works, is just across the
hall from the Engineering"
well it's no difference. I'm going
to take care of the affair myself"
To BE CoNTINUED.)