The Press., 1914-09-02
What Fate
 Did A Story of the Ideal and the Practical
By EDITH V. ROSS


 Barton KenwOOd was great disap.
 pointment to his father. He was an
 only son. His father had built up good
 business and was extremely desirous
 of training the boy to take his place as
 its manager. But BartOn's tastes were
 not for business. In the first place, he
 was too tender hearted for the man. agement of a concern wherein many
 disagreeable things must be done for
 which the manager must take the re sponsibility. A customer whose credit
 is tottering is near failure; he must be
 jumped on and his ruin completed
 Dull times come on, and persons de
 pendent upon the concern for a living
 must be laid off. It is the managers
 business to speak the word that de
 prives them of their daily necessaries and comforts.
 Barton as boy heard of some of these hardships-hardsh for his father as well as the others concerned and conceived great dislike for what he understood business to be. But this did not satisfy his father, who cOnsid- cred it the part of a man to do neces- sarily disagreeable things when they came in tue line of duty. When his son came to be eighteen years of age the father proposed to put him in his fac tory at the bottom of the ladder and elevate him as rapidly as he showed himself capable of being advanced. Barton demurred, declaring that he wished to go to college.
 Here was q breach between father and son that was never healed. Barton went to college, and his father put in the place he had intended for him a nephew. Evan Swift. who gave evi- dence of possessing those qualifications which Barton lacked. Evan was a busi- ness man from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet He could say "No" when "No'' was necessary. He could detect expenses that were un- necessary and cut them off. no matter who was hurt by doing so. He could figure profit and loss. and. no matter how hard the times. there was always some profit. By those who understood the requirements of the concern he was respected: by those whose minds were intent simply on their own interest he was hated.
 Barton at college developed tastes that his father considered a waste of time to pursue. The bones of dino saurs, the skulls of cave men. of cliff dwellers. of extinct lake men who sev eral thousand years ago lived in houses built over the surface of tranquil wa ters, absorbed his attention. He also had fancy for digging in the dirt to exhume ancient buried cities. He was as much delighted at discovering an earthen pitcher made 5000 years ago as his father was at hitting upon a new article of commerce that could be manufactured at profit.
 When Barton was graduated from college he desired to go with an expe- ditiOn to Asia to look for the lost site of a city that fiourished a thousand years before the Christian era. His father, who considered the object use less if attained, refused to furnish him the necessary funds. But so impor- tant was Barton to the party that his alma mater supplied them. It was through Barton KenwOOd's researches that the site was found.
 There was girl who had been a schoolmate of Barton of whom he had from the first made confidant. Her name was Grace Bingham. Even as child she showed evidence of both in. telligence and practical common sense. in that respect resembling the elder and the younger Kenwood. At first she ad- vised Barton to accede to his fathers wishes, but before the break between them came about she realized that the two looked upon values from opposite StandpOints and that Barton never could be made business man. She therefore reluctantly advised him to follow that for which he was best fitted
 After Bartcn went away Evan Swift. who had entered his uncle's employ with view to reaping the emoluments that his cousin had turned aside, be- gan to pay attention to Grace Bing- ham. Grace from little girl was pre- disposed to Barton. but after he went to the university she saw little of him Whether during that period of rapid change between fourteen and twenty he passed out of her mind or lay there dormant is not to the point. What Is pertinent is that at twenty years of age she found 1t time and a necessity that she should take a husband.
 Swift WAS in all respects desirable person. He had already been made sec ond to his uncle in the management of the KenwOOd Manufacturing company, and it was expected that he would soon assume full control MT. Ken woods fortune was all in the business was necessary to the business. and 1t as SllrmiSed that he would leave it to { ie man to whom he proposed to take lis place instead of his son. who was considered to have sold his birthright for old honeS
 Be these things as they may. Grace Ikin"ham did not throw so favorable iln opportunity for settling herself for Tiff" over her shoulder. But Swift was some time gaining her consent. and there were those who said that the req. son was that the man she desired, for alone, was Barton KenwOod But, given practical girl, fine busi- ness man with a prospective fortune md pennilesS lelver for stone jugs, he result must necessarily be union between the practical girl and the pros OerouS man.
 Evan Swift was as mutl h absorbed i'm | he Kenwood Manufacturing company IS his cousin Was in old pots and ket- les. Unfortunately. Evan was not very 'trong physically. and about the time le became engaged to be m;lrried his | Incle'S health showed signs of giving | Fay. and he relintIuiShtN all control of | he business to his successor. This | hrew load of detail on Swift. and | 'efore he could reorgnniZe the various apartments ~f the business he broke |