Rock Island Argus., 1916-03-31

1t Is said that "a9PS fa1r In love ana
war" Whether or not the adage is
true, this story is an illustration Of 1t.
Imogene Blair, a comely lassie Of
eighteen and the idol of her parents,
must needs be debating whether she
should accept Frank Shackelford as
a husband. The only reason why she
hesitated was because Frank was
worthless except for one purpose-that
was to lead cotillions. When Imogene
saw him marshaling the dancers, his
breast covered with favors and look
ing for all the world like much dec
grated generalissimo, she admired him
immensely, and when he stood in the
middle Of the ballroom and gave his
orders by clapping his hands she
thought him a god.
Imogene, notwithstand1n her par
ents' serious objections, accepted Mr..
Shackelford, and there was before her
the honor Of being the wife of prom
inent society man and cotillion leader.
Her father, a hard headed man, who
had made a fortune by practical at
tention to business, was much disgrun-
tied by his daughters choice. His
chief clerk, John Stebbins, had been
attentive to Imogene, and Mr.. Blair
had hoped she would marry him. John
was Mr.. Blair's financial man and as
steady as a church. But it was not to
be expected that man who did not
even dance could compete with terp-
sichorean captain-gen with his
breast plastered over with decorations.
John knew that he was the favorite
of the parents of the girl he loved, but
disdained to avail himself Of this ad-
vantage. One day Mrs. Blair came to
| him after her daughters engagement
and showed him a piece Of paper on
which was written 20. L. 6. r. 9. l..
| It." and asked him his opinion as to
what it all meant. John suspected what
it was, but he was considerable Of a
wag, a great favorite, with the lady
who showed it to him, and, withal,
quite apt at invention. After studying
it awhile he said:
II think it's love message. The
| first two letters, O. L., probably stand
for 0, Laura. l. is the ninth letter In
the alphabet. So we have o, Laura, l.
The meaning of the next letter, R.,
We must fill in after we have finished.
U. is the twenty-first letter Of the al
phabet, or you. The whole may
read, %, Laura, I - you Quite
likely the letter R. is the initial letter
for the word love in some other Ian
guage than English"
Just what l thought" said Mrs.
Blair, and without stopping to give the
young man a chance to confess that
he was chatting her she whisked out
of the room.
Now, when Shackelford had visited
Imogene one evening he had taken q
bunch Of letters from his pocket in or
der to read one Of them to her and a
bit Of paper had slipped from among
them and fallen on the floor. slantine
as it fell, so that it lay under the sofa
on which the couple were sitting. A
maid had picked it up the next morn
ing and handed it to the young lady.
i The most easily excited emotion In
the breast Of young lover is jealousy
lmogene felt sure that her fiance had
dropped the paper on which were the
letters and figures given above, anC
these she feared was a cipher message
to a rival. She showed them TO hel
mother, who found 1t convenient t
agree with her. Mrs. Blair promised
to decipher the cryptogram and called
in John Stebbns to help her. Whether
or no she believed his flimsy interpre
tation to be correct. she certainly pre-
ferred TO consider it so. Taking tn,