The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1917-04-28

bears were engineers, his grandfather
noted and his father world-famous. He
fairly idolized his father. The affec-
ton between them was delightful. The
king could do no wrong. Meade was
uuick-tempered and not very receptive
TO criticism, but he would take the Sc
verest structure from the old man with
out a murmur."
"Here we have" said the woman,
who had listened with strained atten-
ton, ian early devotion to q person
and an unbounded respect for his at
tainments. Go on"
'The next point u.s. Meade was in
ordinately proud of his family reputa-
ton, especially in the engineering
field. OF the two of the line who were
not engineers, one was a soldier and
distinguished one, but his career had
little interest for Meade. l have heard
him say that there had been steady,
upward movement in his family, that
had reached it's elimination in his ia
Their. He hoped to be good, useful
engineer, but he never dreamed OF go
ing any higher or even approaching
the altitude of the other man."
"It was a sort of fetish with him,
then, wasn't it?" asked the woman as
Rodney stopped again.
"You bave hit it exactly. His love
for the man, his admiration for the
engineer, which sometimes blinded
him, and his pride in his fathers career
as typifying his family, was I'M
bounded"
"You have established motive for
any sacrifice; love, respect, pride!"
| THAT'S the way it presents itself to
me, Miss Illingworth. ! know thor
oughly the quixotic, impulsive, self
sacrificing nature of the man. l know
that he would have done anything on
earth to save his father, even at the
sacrifice of his own career, and since
have seen you 1 can realize how pow
erful these motives must have been"
Rodney said this quite simply, as If
it were a matter of course, rather than
compliment, and bluntly as he might
have said it to a friend and comrade
and Helen Illingworth understood and
was grateful.
SIT has been q grief to me that
weighed so little in comparison" she
said simply.
81 shouldn't put it that way exact
ly," observed Rodney carefully. YOU
see even if it could be shown that II
was the old mans fault entirely the
young one would still have to share
some of the blame"
"You mean he should have foreseer
it and pointed it Out~
81 think he did, But If he did fore
see 1t and point<lt out, he should mo-
have allowed the older man to overawt
him or force him to accept what he be
lieved to be structurally unsound.
don't know whether he reasoned it out
I don't think he had time to argue thu
case. the shock was so swift and sud
den. but as soon as he did see the stu
alton he discovered that you were los
anyway, except of the charity Of you
, affection, which he could not accept
and that he could save his father. Thi
, may all be the widest speculation, Blu
/ this is the way it presents itself tt
, me-"
"And to me-" said Helen, 'but befor
we go any further, let me say / shoul'
rather be his wife than enjoy any othe
fortune"
!, "That is the kind of affection hi
l
. the mind of discerning woman"
"Thank you. VIII you go on, now?
"Of course you know that what W
have said is not evidence. 1t is all as
I, sumption, perhaps presumption"
'Irs as true as gospel" said the cir
earnestly.
. 'To you and to me, yes. Well" h
continued, II remember that Mead
: and were talking just before he wen
.. to Burma three years ago about nev
l book by a German named Schmidt
Chemnitz, In which certain methods O
calculations were proposed for the dc
sign of lacings. You know it was tn
lacings Of one of the compressio
= members of the cantilever that CAV
:. way"
swell Meade and got into hot dis
cussion over some of Schmidt Chen
g nitz's formulas. maintained that the
were wrong. He took the opposit
view. He was right. He was so il
. terested in the matter that after W
separated he wrote me letter abou
it, adding some new arguments to r.
l. enforce his contention. The other da
L I made a careful search among my pf
pers and by happy chance found tn
letter. I was half-convinced by hi
'' reasoning then, although the matte
was dropped. / am altogether col
vinced now. His argument is yer
clear. have examined since then til
plan and sketches for that bridge. TIL
calculations did not agree with thos
Of Schmidt ChemnitZ. His method
were not used. Meade could not hav
forgotten the matter. ! am moral
certain that he made protest to hi
father, probably in writing, then a
g lowed himself to be persuaded by hi
fathers reasoning. AS a matter Q
= fact, I suppose that Bertram Meade
:. Sr.. was a greater authority on stet
bridge designing than even Schmidt