River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-01-09
cHApTER ll.-continued.

CHAPTER Il.-Continued.
50 he remembered Clara Van
CAMPS advice, wrote the whole story
to Aleck, and cast about for the one
successful business chance in the four
thousand nine hundred and ninety
nine bad ones-as the statlstlcs
have it,
He actually found it in shoes. Foot
ball muscle and grit went into the JoD
of putting superior shoe on inferior
foot. If necessary-at least on some
foot. He got chance to try MS pow
ers in the home branch of manu-
featuring house, and made goou'
When he came to fill position where
there was opportunity to try new
ideas he tried them He Inspected
tanneries and stockyards. He got com
Dosite measurements of all the feet
fin all the women's colleges IN the
year ninety-seven, he drilled statesmen
and opened a night school lot tne
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS he made scientinc
studv OF heels. and he invented an
aristocratic arch and put it on the
market.
The family joked about his dolngs
az the harmless experiments or 1Ve-
IL boy, but presently they began 10
eNfov his income. Through it all they
were affectfonate and kind, with the
nafter-of-course fondness which a
family gives to the members that
takes the part of useful drudge. John,
the net OF the parents, married, ana
had his own eyes opened, 1t Is 10
be supposed. Donald, the genius, mao
lust arrived, after a dozen years OF
so. at the stage where he was men
toned 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 MIN
a fit Of soul-sickness that nearly
proved his ruin.
At can't stand this" he wrote to
,Aleck Van Camp; cts too hard and
dry and sordid for any man that
got a soul. 1t isn't the grind l mind
though that is bar enough; 1t is the
@A90mnlGTCldi
mans fnnards. 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.
If he is thinking of trade nine-tenths
of the time, his mind gets set that
way. I'm ready any minute to jump
pnfh Ar1u nj
on the farm. I'm not snob, but
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 were Riddles, about
keeping our ideals? Well / believe
Tn bankrupt, Aleck, in my account
with ideals. don't want to howl, and
these remarks don't go with anybody
else, but / can say to you, want them
back again.
Aleck did as a kiddie should do,
writing much advice on long sheets of
paper, and illustrating his points
richly, like a good Scotchman, with
scientific instances. A month or two
later he contrived to have work to
do in Boston, so that he could go out
to Lynn and look up Jimmy's case.
He even devised a 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 cure for himself
He was deeper than ever In the bust
ness. and yet, in some spiritual sense
he had found himself. He had cap
tured his ideal again and yoked it to
duty-which is a great feat.
After twelve years of ferocious la
Dor, with no vacations to speak Of
James mind took turn for the worse
Physically he was as sound as bell
though Of lath-like thinness; but an
effervescing in his blood lured his
mind 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
its voice. Freedom. open spaces,
s~~~O~~~~~~~~-~~~~ ~~~-~~~~~-~~~~~~---~-