Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-12-28

| at its end, from Tie I'SnI.SlVanl slaI
ton morose and hopeless man.
At the club, to which habit had car
ried me, encountered the doctor,
who was dallying over a cup of coffee
and morning paper He glanced up
and for moment his eyes fingered.
Hello" he said; "how long have
you been gone?"t 5
| Little less than year."
"You went away a youngish sort OF
man and you return with distinguish
ed white temples" he summarized
"There must be a story locked up in
you"
l glanced impatiently at the card
and called for eggs.
II haven't been nibbling at life this
time,' I retorted, with some touch Of
asperity.
II didn't instruct to gluttonize." he
reminded me.
l gave him partial history, but he
eyed me sharply and finally fell into
his old habit of diagnosis.
Something is weighing on your
! mind" he declared; "and it isn't the
memory of cannibals."
The end was that he decided
must get my mind active, and, after
vainly trying to bully me back into lit
erary effort, he took new tack.
"Are you too surely and apathtic to
combine a small service to friends
with the augmenting OF your own for
tuner" he demanded; and before ]
could reply he fell into the discussion
Of matter which Just now lay at the
front of his interests. There was
Kentuckian in town, with glowing pro,
tects of a fortune to be made along
the ridges of the Cumberlands.
He was not mere promoter, but
man of large means and ability who
was also much the gentleman. His
present scheme Of things required the
enlistment of additional capital, and
he had come to men who had interest
ed the doctor as we'll as themselves.
The Kentuckian had suggested, how
ever, that before committing them
selves in the matter they send one OF
their own number with him to look
over the options.
None Of the others, as it happened,
could go. Here, declared the doctor,
was my opportunity to try the novelty
of useful occupation.
The man, whose name was Weigh
borne, was to lunch with him. Would
I meet him and talk. it over, and, II
was favorably impressed, accompany
him to the Kentucky mountains?
We were sitting by a Fifth Avenue
window. The sky was deary with the
ash-gray of autumn. Buses, motor, and
takes were trailing along in the same
old hopeless monotony. At the thought
OF remaining here sickened. Until
letter could arrive, from Keller, ]
could do little here, and this trip
would take only ten days G1' or 's' two
weeks. ta ~.
Yes, said, would meet Mr.. Weigh
borne. Why not?
Having promised to be on hand at
two o'clock, finished a hurried meal
and began strange quest that came
to nothing. In Times square and Park
Row spent several dusty hours run.
ming through newspaper files and go
ing back to dates five and six years
old, / was hunting for q pictorial
section of the same general style as
that which bore the portrait.
/ found one or two printed on SINH.
lar paper, but not even of the exact
size, and although I followed these
through the Sundays of several years,
/ came in the end only to the conclu-
sion that the paper had been printed
outside of New York. g
Weighborne impressed me. In ply,
sique and mind and energy he was
big and virile. One could glance at
him in his carelessly correct clothes
and know that he would be equally at
home in drawing room or camp.
agreed to meet him in Lexington
three days hence and accompany him
to the properties which he hoped TO
develop.
There was minor element of per
sonal risk, he warned me. We should,
perhaps, encounter the dislike Of GER
tain men who were Of the feudisr
type. He spoke lightly of this feature,
but as matter concerning which 1t
was only fairness to inform me.
Later in the day, while glancing
over the papers, came upon the an
nouncement that new play was to
have it's first performance that even
ing at a Broadway house, and in the
name Of the author found my inter-
est piqued. -
Bob Maxwell was an old friend. He
had fought long fight for success
| and had found the goddess cold and
Outstanding. We had been fellows i'll
literary aspiration, and he had been,
when I last saw him, still floundering
for support in the unstable waters Of
newspaperdom. II his play succeed.
ed, he was made.
/ tried vainly to reach him by phone,
and went that evening to the theater
to lend my applause.
From the implanted side Of the
stage-sets / listened to the salvos OF
hand claiming tbaf ciUpa1nd hic Silc.