Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1917-11-08

gether.
Alone in his room at the hotel, Speed
threw himself In an easy chair and
picked up Z book. But something
seemed to come between him and the
pages. He could hear the girl say:
"How can anyone do anything big
who doesn't take big view Of life1" !
Was he taking the big view9 He fell
to thinking, and asking himself II he
were.
In his walks alone on the beach, he
found himself looking for a glimpse Of
Ann Taylor. He would have liked to
talk with her again; but he did not
see her. Once he laughingly asked
Mary Follin what had become Of his
adversary"
"oh, 1 told her who you were," an
swered Mary.
Sly humor twinkled in the corners
of Rev. Mr.. Speeds eyes,
'Dld she fall down In her tracks"
he asked.
'sNot she. Her shrek Of laughter
might have been heard up to your ho-
tel. She regarded it as joke, and
said she hoped it had done you some
good. couldn't help telling her what
thought of such talk, and rallied to
your defense in a way she won't forget
very soon. I let her know, too, that
we were engaged"
"I'm rather sorry you told her."
unused Speed.
sSorry / told herr" repeated Mary,
freezingly indignant. "Don't you want
her to know it?''
mo, no, didn't mean that, Of
course. meant sorry you told her ]
was clergyman.
"And why, pray7" asked Mary
blankly.
"Oh, might have heard something
more to my advantage" he laughed.
"Where is she stopping?"
"She went home yesterday"
The acidity Of this answer warned
| the young minister that 1t was time
to change the subject. Ann Taylor
was henceforth taboo between him and
| his fancee.
One stormy evening, as he sat writ
ing his beautiful sermon" in his
"beautiful study" his manservant
came in with the message that a won-
an insisted on seeing him. He went
down to the reception room to find a
wretched, bedraggled creature, who
implored him to come quickly with her
to a dying woman. He hurriedly made
himself ready to go with the woman.
In a poor part Of the city up flights
| Of dark stairs in tenement, she led
him to the dying woman. The physi-
clan he found there told him the man
who had beaten her had been taken by
the police, but there was no use of
4 calling an ambulance, as she would
| probably die on the way, and he left
her with the minister, while the other
woman waited without. Speed, with
much tenderness and feeling, tried to
| comfort the dying woman as best he
| could, but the broken bits of her story
| she tried to tell him haunted him at
/ ter his return home. The, squalid mis-
cry, the warped, stunted lives he
4 found in this hitherto-undi discovered re
gion to him opened up a new channel
Il
the 'big" thing for him to do.
One day after his morning sermon
he spied Ann Taylor in nearby pew.
Later she came up and spoke to him.
SIT was a very good sermon" she
said. every good-as far as it went. :
$50 it didn't go far enough to please
4 you," he smiled. "Well, while there Is
life there is hope-hope Of getting far.
ther on the way"
Something in his tone caught AIMS
attention.
"Yes, If you want to CO." she said.
That night visit to the slums hai
| undoubtedly started Speed on the way
to greater enlightenment. He sought
for experience among all classes
! Sometimes he found among those wht
outwardly kept up some show of pros
perity, the artists and writer's wht
tried to make the creative power o.
their brains bring them bread and {
roof, kind of fine courage and endur
ance not even guessed by the prosper
GUS. Often he tried to find marke
for their work by getting the rich O
those with "pull" interested. Thes
things began to encroach on his dutie
!. at st. Anthony's. The people VIII
poured money into the church Golfers
and paid his salary, complained tina
he neglected his clerical calls on tn
families Of the parish. Rev. Roya
Speed had come to the parting Of tn
ways. He came to decision. 81
felt that the woman who was to be hi
wife must be the first one to know
and he told her he meant to give "
st. Anthony's, to go down and wor
among the poorer classes. He expect
ed her to rejoice with him at hi
wider field of work. She could hel
so much with the wealth at her CON
!, mand.
: But instead she was filled wit
amazement and dismay. She expost,