The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-02-12


John Rawn Was Right in His Despic,
able Reasoning.
waves, seemed In amiable mood, and
purred gently along the sea-wall, be
low the green and curving terrace
which ran down from the gallery
front. A bird chirped here and there
Little enough the peaceful scene re
lected the feelings OF these, its only
human figures. Virginia Rawn was
pale. Dark rings showed below her
eyes. Her mouth dropped Just a trifie
plaintively, in a way not usual with
her. She was pale, paler han her
usual clean and clear ivory. Yet she
vas coolly beautiful In her morning
gown of light figured lawn, with its
wide, flowing sleeves, showing her
round white arms. Halsey, frowning
ly serious, felt the charm OF her rise
about him, overwhelm him. He knew
that the hour had come for him IN
more ways than one; that hers. fol
ever. was the one face and figure anf
voice and presence for him, hopeless
and unhappy, and doomed for aver so
to remain. She was not his wife. She
was the wife of another man-of his
enemy; the man in all the world least
like himself; the man who, by virtue
of that unlikeness, had won this wom-
an for his own. What hope for him,
Charles Halsey, for whom was no
place in the worldf
Withnu. much comment he placed
before her the morning papers. with
their glaring headlines.
WELL" said he, 1T is the end"
"YesG" said she. smiling; Il sup
pose now we can learn all about our
earlier life and ~career?"
quite SO. Here is the entire his
tory of Mr.. Rawn's carcer-what he
did when he was a young man, where
he came from, how he rose 10 power.
how he failed and fell-it's all here.
Here's the story of the International
Power company-they claim IL was In
tended as a merger of all the traction
companies of the eight leading cities
of the %countryl Bond issue one to
eight billion dollars, capitalization one
to two hundred billion In stocks-you
can take your choice in crazed figures.
Here are biographical histories of all
the known and unknown stockholders.
Here. Mrs. Rawn, Is a picture of your
self, as we'll as one OF Mr.. Rawn and
n more of the house here-a new
view, | think The photographer must
have made a fiashlight of the grounds"
She smiled as he tried to Jest, fol-
lowing his pointing finger along the
blurred, brutal headlines, shrieking
their discordant, impossible and incop-
sistent tales. The first paper, the
Forum, declared the ruin Of John
Rawn's fortune to be now beyond all
hope of repair. Rawn himself-really
at that time often In a helpless stupor
In a New York hotel room-was re-
ported to have fled the country. Hal
sey, his son-in-law, and Halsey's wife.
who really had only denied them
selves to visitors and reporters-were
declared to be in hiding In some Sc
cret apartments of the great castle on
the North shore, a place actually but
little known to any member OF the Sc
lect North side society In which Rawn
had been, more or less on su~fferance,
received. Rawn's wife was also To-
Gated here. in a condition verging on
insanity, according to the imagination
OF the writer's. which, after all, was
fatefully near to the truth.
Virginia Rawn smiled, and turned
the pages. The next journal had little
else but detailed discussion Of the
Rawn collapse. 1t also asserted the
scheme Of the International Power
company was the most bold and ra-
pacious fraud Of the day. With Jour-
nalistic vaticination II i~nsouciantly de-
clared that the intention OF the COM
pany was to establish central distribut-
ing points for power stolen from the
public's great water powers, and the
retail of what the journal in the argot
OF the day called canned power, In
cheap and portable small motors ap-
plicable to countless semi-mechanical
uses, all with an end of abolishing the
need for horse power and for man
power alike. The result. it pointed
out, would be the throwing out of
work OF countless thousands of labor
ing men by the use of electricity
stolen from the people themselves.
The gigantic combination already was
covering the main water powers. The
peoples present openly had been dis
regarded, the peoples future openly
and patiently had been put In the
gravest of peril. The entire system
OF government had been laid by tbs
heels. The name OF the republic had
been made a mockery. Above all. It
was asserted, the most intimate in
tent of the International Power com
pany had been the throttling OF the
labor unions--against which John
Rawn was known to be personally bit
terly -opposed-the very essence and
soul of the conspiracy having been
this device whose aim was to wipe ont
the need OF unskilled labor. and to
make useless and unpaid the power OF
human Drawn.
Following these asscrtions--which
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