Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-11-27

yachts and their stables. Few OF his
friends had really gone smash" and
OF these all but one had taken them.
selves speedily and decently off. He
thought Of Rod Creighton. the one
failure who had chung to the old life,
achieving for a transient period the
brilliant success OF living on his
friends. When this ended he had como
on the road for some champagne or
other. Everybody had ordered from
him at the start. But this, too, had
failed. He had dropped out OF the
clubs and there had at last befallen an
evil time when he had come to haunt
the avenue. as keen for stay quarters
as any panhandler. Where was
Creighton now. he wondered?
Across the avenue was Larry Tread
wells brokerage Office. Larry had
brain for business; as a youthful scamp
in knickerbockers he had been al
sharp as a steel-trap. But what did
he, John Valiant. know Of business1
Less than Of law! Why. he was NOT
fit to smirk behind counter and mea.
sure lace insertion for the petticoata
Of the women he waltzed with! All
he was really fit for was to work with
his hands! #ra
He thought Of gang of laborers he
had seen that afternoon breaking the
asphalt with crowbars. What must
1t be to toll through the clammy cold
OF winter and the smothering fur.heat
Iof summer, In some revolving routine
lof filth and unredeemable ugliness?
He looked down at his supple white
fingers and shivered
He rose grimly and dragged his
chair facing the window. The night
was balmy and he looked down across
the darker sea OF reefs, barred like a
lgigantic checker-board by the shining
lines Of streets, to where the flashing
lelectric signs of the theater district
laid their wide swath OF colored
radiance. The manifold calls of the
street and the buzz Of trolleys made
dull tonaf background, subdued and
far-away.
To be outside! All that light and
color and comfort and pleasure would
hum and sparkle on just the same.
Though he was no longer within the
circle Of it's misunderstanding per-
Ihaps. he thought with twisted smile.
at some tawdry occupation that
|called for no experience, to pay for
meal in some second.rate restaurant
and a pallet in some shabby-genteel,
hall bedroom. till his clothes were
replaced by Hitting "hand-me-downs"
till by wretched graduations he ar
rived finally at the status Of the dime
seat In the gallery and hve-cent
cigars!
There was one way back. It lay
through the hackneyed gateway Of
marriage. Youth, comeliness and fine
linen, In the world he knew, were
fair exchange for wealth any day.
l"Cutlet for cutlet"-the satiric phrase
ran through his mind. Why not?
Others did so. And as for himself. it
perhaps need be no question of plain
and spinstered millions-there was
Katherine Fargo!
He had known her since a time
when she bestrode small fuzzy pony
in the park, cool as grapefruit and
with critical eye, even In her ten
years, for social forms and observ-
? ances. In the intervals OF fashionable
neutrality-suspicious. he had seen her
J develop. beautiful. cold. stately and
! correct. The Fargo fortune-thanks
to modern journalism. which was fond
Of stating that II the steel rails OF
; the Fargo railways we're set end to
; end, the chain would reach from the
earth to the planet Saturn or there-
abouts-was as familiar to the public
imagination as Caruso or the Hope
diamond And the daughter Kathar-
inc had not lacked admirers; shop
girls knew the scalps that dangled
} from her girdle But in his heart John
Valiant was aware, by those subtle
? signs which men and women alike dis
tinguish, that while Katharine Fargo
loved first and foremost only her own
wonderful person, he had been an easy
second in her regard
, He remembered the last Christmas
house-party at the Fargos' place on the
st. Lawrence It's habitutes irrever-
emily dubbed this 1.-THE Shack" but it
was the nursing of folk who took their
camping luxuriously, In palatial
structure which, though built as to
, it's exterior, Of logs, was equipped
within with Turkish bath, billiard.
west Of st. Petersburg. The evening
!, hooted him Off to the station. as its
wide hall exhaled the bouquet Of after.
dinner cigars, he had looked at her
standing in the wide doorway. a rare
exquisite creature-her face fore
shortened and touched to a borrowed
tenderness by the Pickering glow OF
the burning logs in the room behind
the perfect flower, he had thought Of
, the civilization in which he, lived.
John Valiant looked down at the
bulldog squatted on the floor, his eyes
shining in the dimness A little hot
ripple had run over him. mot on
your life, Chum!" he said. mo shame.
, less barter! There must be, other
things besides money and social posi-
: ton in this doddering old world. after
: ALL" ..
The dog whined with delight at the
voice and jumped up to lick the strong
tense hand held down to him. do you
know, old chap" his master continued.
"I've been handing myself a collection
of cold marble truths In the last
weeks? I've been the prize dolt Of the
whole show, and you ought to have
thrown me over long ago. You've
probably realized it all along, but 1t
thoe pover dawnod m ma unfit lately