The Washington herald., 1913-09-21

choose, and his love was the crux of
it all, sign-post at the parting of
the ways. He might fight to win her,
try to bear her from the vulgar and
common mode, but his social sense
told him exactly what that would
mean TO his people, the best people
who, with Nietzschean ruthlessness,
must set their faces against the
trampling onward marching forces
that would level or destroy.
Even now his mother touched on
the heart of it. Il see that Mr.. Cur
rams News is insisting that the coun-
ty, or the benefited landholders, should
pay those squatters in the Pocket
whose patches will be flooded by the
new dam. He insists they have a
moral title to that no-man's land"
And acting on that anarchistic
theory" went on the judge amiably,
"Lindstrom drove away the worllmen
whom the contractor sent there. l
call that an excellent example-Cur-
ran does not hesitate to put the law
aside in his cryings for what he terms
justice. To announce outlawry'
IF Lindstrom is an outlaw, father"
Harlan said quietly, 'the law made
him one"
The judge looked up. He Redeemed.
Nothing in his kindly life, his right
eous world, hurt as, did the gossip
that he had crushed LindStrom's man
hood. And his son spoke as one who
had brushed aside glib phrases and
easy precedents and had stared at the
soul of the man crushed. The judge
frowned, TO forbid discussion. "The
law cannot take account of a mans
degeneration under punishment. But
you, my son? You are going into
office as a public prosecutor-where
did you get these ideas?
Thinking. A fellow can't help II.
of inquiry, fearless, reasoning, weigh
ing values"
The judge had shaken his head. 1t
always annoyed him to have to con-
slider that it was not enough to be
virtuous. 1t was comfortable to be-
lieve that everything was honest, de-
cent. wholesome, God-fearing, and
conformable to the Constitution
everything except the men who passed
before him at the bench. They were
another order of beings; he depre-
Gated their existence. and sent them
to jail. When Harlan had gone up
town the father sighed. 1t was we'll
enough 10 sit behind the impersonal-
ity of the law, but the one-armed
quarryman standing guard over his
wretched patch against all society,
mute, imbruted, hostilel Men had
talked of it: Judge Van Hart
sent him to jail two years ago and
he's hardly spoken 10 a soul since
just kept to his shanty. took his chill
dren out of school, and become a
sort of religious fanatic and anarch-
list"
The judge spoke to his wife at bed
time. My dear. do you suppose that
extraordinary affair he had with that
with it?'
With it," She looked up in SURF
prise. "Lindstrom?"
Yes. The girl has been back. you
know, and is-l'm told-extraordinari-
ly pretty"
The lady shifted. 4 told you how
she nearly upset my trap
But Harlan"
Harlan did not glance at her-her
scandalous behavior around the square
The dust of that machine was thrown
in every ones facel And that affair
a mere boys infatuation-for al
month. And her career since-the
impossible stories they tell of her
As if it were possible with Harlan! !"
She had a Roman matron's pride in |
this square-jawed serious son. A
century of American democracy was
needed for him, the sober sturdy sort
of which they had sprung
The judge sighed again. Some
how, he has never been quite the same