The Monroe journal. [volume] (Monroe, N.C.) 189?-1965, 1915-07-27


rather striking beauty OF type un-
familiar to Wahaska and owing moth.
ing. ii would seem, to the grim, gray.
wolf Jasper.
Since the time was ripe. Wahaska
did presently burst its swaddling,
bands. Commercial enterprise is
sheep-like; where one leads. others
will follow; and the mere following
breeds success. if only by the sheer
impetus of the massed forward move.
ment. Jasper Grierson was the man
of the hour. but the price paid for lead
ership by the led is apt to be high
When Wahaska became a city. with a
charter and a bonded debt, electric
lights, waterworks and trolley sys
TEN. Grierson's interest predominated
in every considerable business venture
in 1t, save and excepting the Raymer
Foundry and Machine works.
He was president of one bank, and
the principal stakeholder in the other
which was practically an allied institu
ton; he was the sole owner of the
grain elevator. the saw and planning
mills, the box factory and a dozen
smaller industries in which his name
did not appear. Also, it was his money
or rather his skill as promoter, which
had transformed the Wahaska & Pine,
boro railroad from a logging switch
built to serve the sawmll, into an i'm,
portant and independent connecting
link in the great lake region system.
In each of these commercial or in.
dustrial chariots the returned native
sat in the drivers seat and those who
remembered him as loutish young
farmland overlooked the educative re,
suits of continued success and mar.
veled at his gifts. wondering how and
where he had acquired them.
While the father was thus gratifying
a purely Gothic lust for conquest, the
daughter figured. in at least one small
circle. as a beautiful young Vandal,
with passion for overturning all the
well-settled traditions. At first her at.
titude toward Wahaska and the Wa.
haskans had been serenely tolerant;
the tolerance of the barbarian who
neither understands, nor sympathizes
with, the homely virtues and the Gus.
toms which have grown out of them.
Then resentment awoke. and with it
a soaring ambition to reconstruct the
social fabric of the countrified town
upon model of her own devising.
in this charitable undertaking she
was aided and abetted by her father
who lndulgently paid the bills. At her
instigation he built an imposing red
brick mansion on the sloping shore of
Lake Minnedaska, named it-or suf.
fered her to name "Meresde," had
an artist of parts up from Chicago to
design the decorations and superintend
the furnishings, had a landscape gar.
dener from Philadelphia to lay out the
grounds and, when all was in readi.
ness, gave housewarming to which
the Invitations were in some sense
mandatory, since by that time he had
a finger in nearly every commercial
and industrial pie in Wahaska
But there were still obstacles to be
surmounted. From the first there had |
been perverse minority refusing
stubbornly to bow the head in the |
house of-Grierson. The Farnhams
were of it. and the Raymers with a |
following of few of the families |
called "old" as age is reckoned in the
middle West. The men of this minor
ity were slow to admit the omnipo-
tence of Jasper Grierson's money. and
the women were still slower to accept
Miss Grierson on terms Of social equal
ity.
AT the housewarming this minority
had been represented only by various.
ly worded regrets. At a reception,
given to mark the closing of Mereside,
socially, on the eve OF Miss Margery's
departure for the winter in Florida,
the regrets were still polite and still
unanimous. Miss Margery laughed de-
family and set her white teeth on
determined resolution to reduce this
inner citadel of conservatism at all
costs. Accordingly, she opened the
on the morning after the re-
ception: began 1t at the breakfast Ia
BILE when she was pouring her fathers
coffee.
You know everybody, and every
body's business. poppa; who is the
treasurer of ST. John's?" she inquired.
How should know" grumbled the
whose familiarity with
church affairs was limited to certain
writings of legal nature concerning
the Presbyterian house of worship
upon which he held mortgage.
"You ought to know" asserted Miss
Margery, with some asperity. Isn't it
Mr.. Edward Raymer?'
Jasper Grierson frowned thoughtful
ly into space. why. yes: come to
think OF 1t. | guess he is the man.
Anyway, he's one of thelr-what do
you call 'em-trustees?
"Wardens." corrected Margery. /
Eyes, that's It; knew It was some
hing connected with a penitentiary.
What do you want OF him?"
Ncth'ag much of him; but want