The daily Alaskan., 1915-04-06
Alter Half
 A Century
By JOHN TURNLEE.

Chicago awoke and looked out through
 his front window he noticed some men
 digging in a vacant lot opposite. He
 was seized with trepidatiOn lest some objectionable building was to be erect
 ed on the lot and, dressing himself,
 went out to make inquiries. He learn ed that the lot had been sold and the owner was about to erect on it soap factory.
 MT. Merton at once sought the man and secured an option on the lot at substantial profit to the latter. Then he visited several of his neighbors, proposing that they should club to- gether and protect the locality by buy ing the lot. Only one person, man named Gawtry, was willing or per l haps able to make such an investment, and he and Merton became the owners. By agreement they put the property i'll the hands of q trust company, to be divided among the heirs of the third generation, or the grandchildren of the two owners. The Mertons were to have the north half and the Gawtrys the south half.
 Twenty years later, both Merton and Gawtry being dead and the part of the city in which the lot lay having be- come used for business, the trustees leased the lot for thirty years, and q store building was erected upon It. By the terms of the lease at ifs eXpira' ton the building was to belong 10 the owner of the lot.
 Meanwhile the descendants of the Joint owners had become scattered. the trust cOmpauys directors aud officers had been changed, and there was no descendant of either Merton or Cav | try who knew about the lot. for which but $500 had been paid by the two pur. chaSers.
 One day an advertisement appeared for grandchildren of the late John | Merton and Samuel Gawtry. It elicit ed no response and was repeated from ] time to time for year, when it met the eyes of young bank clerk named i Spencer in a western city, His tn. | tber and mother were dead, but he knew that his mothers maiden name was Merton. He wrote 10 the advcr' tiscr and received a printed statement ! setting forth the facts in the ease of the Merton Gawtry lot Spencer. con vinced that the John Merton named was his grandfather, investigated the case and, after long hunt, found that he was the only living grandchiId of | the said Merton and consequently heir to the north half of the property. No response to the advertisement whatever came from the Gawtry side, and no division could be made of the lot and building until the heirs in this family were found. John Spencer, de, sirous of coming into what was for tune. at once made it his business to hunt up these heirs. He began at the fountainhead, making inquiries as to | the first and second generations of | Gawtrys, and learned that son of Samuel Gawtry had settled in Detroit
 Spencer went to Detroit, where he learned that the widow of Samuel Gawtry of the second generation was living in straitened circumstances | Not wishing to excite false hopes in this person, he made inquiries in roundabout way and learned that the original Gawtry had had several chil. dren, but the only living grandchiId was Marian Gawtry, daughter of the widow he had found. Having pro ceeded thus far, Spencer returned to Chicago and reported his find to the trust company and left its officers to satisfy themselves that he (Spenccri and Marian Gawtry were the heirs to the property In question and, this done, to give each heir half.
 One morning Miss Marian Gawtry, when about to go to her school duties, | took a letter from the pOstmHn inform Ing her that the - Trust company ot Chicago was ready to convey to her | one-half of certain lot and building in | that city bequeathed to her by her grandfather Samuel Gawtry. Shc re | ferred the matter to her mother. who | said she had never heard of her father owning such property. He had left Chicago forty years before, a poor man. Miss Gawtry put the matter down as mistake and, proceeding to school. thought no more about it.
 One evening she received call from a young man named Spencer. He was about to mention the fact that she was an heiress when 1t occurred to him that , since there was a building on the prop erty there might be difficulty in divid' 1 ing 1t and 1t would be better that they should own 1t together. But he was an honorable fellow and scOrned to win her knowing that she was an heireSs.
 Miss Gawtry," he said, "I have come to Detroit to inform you that you are Joint owner with me of lot and build ing In Chicago worth in all half mil lion dollars"
 The young lady, remembering the former information she had received on i this subject, coolly remarked:
 ! "That's a mistake. My mother says