The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-03-31
Theodosia Burr

frank A. Munsey Co.
Good morning, my. son." said the
other man gently in his invariable adj
dress to his secretary. "And how did
Arcturus perform for you this morn.
mgr
"Grandly, sir. He is a fine animal
I have never ridden BETTER
II envy you. I wish I could find the
time once had for my horses" He
turned a whimsical glance at the piled
desk before him. eff our new multi
graph could write a dozen letters all
at once and on as many different
themes, my son, we might perhaps get
through. vow, If had the money 1
would have a dozen secretaries-if 1
could find themr'
The president rose now and stood, a
tall and striking figure Of man over
six feet in height, of clean cut features,
dark hazel eyes and sandy, almost au-
burn, hair. His long, thin legs were
clad in close fitting knee breaches of
green velveteen, somewhat stained. His
high collared coat, rolling above the
loosely tied stock which girded his neck,
was dingy brown in color and lay in
loose folds. He was one Of the worst
clad men in Washington at that hour.
His waistcoat of red was soiled and
far from new, and his wooden stock
ings were covered with no better foot
wear than carpet slippers, badly down
at the heel.
Yet Thomas Jefferson, even clad thus,
seemed the great man that he was.
STOPPED though his shoulders were, his
frame was so strong, his eye so clear
and keen, though contemplative, that
he did not look his years.
Here was a man, all said who knew
him, of whose large soul so many large
deeds were demanded that he had no
time for little and inconsequent things
indeed, scarce knew that they exist
ed. To think, to feel, to create, to
achieve-these were his absorbing
tasks and so exigent were the demands
on his great intellectual resources that
he seemed never to know the existence
of a personal world.
He stood careless, slipshod, at the
side Of a desk cluttered with mass of
maps, papers, letters in packets or
spread open. There were writing i'm
plements here, scientific Instruments of
all sorts, long sheets of specifications,
Cancelled drafts, pages Of accounts
the manifold impedimenta of a man in
the full swing Of business life. 1t might
have been the desk OF any mediocre
man, yet on that desk lay the future OF
a people and the history Of world.
He stood just trifle stopped, smiling
quizzically at the young man, yet half
lovingly, for to no other being in the
world did he ever give the confidence
that he accorded Meriwether Lewis.
II do not see how I could be presi-
dent without you, Merne, my son. said
he, employing the familiar term that
Meriwether Lewis had not elsewhere
heard used except by his mother. "Look
what we must do today!'
The young secretary turned his own
grave eye upon the cluttered desks But
it was not dread Of the redotbtable
tasks awaiting him that gave his face
all the gravity it bore.
"AIr. Jefferson he began, but paus-
ed, for he could see now standing be-
fore him his friend, the man whom OF
all in the world he loved and the man
who believed in him and loved him.
eyes, my SOM"
"Your burden is grievous hard, and
yeti
Eyes, my son?'
But Meriwether Lewis could not
speak further. He stood now, his jaws
set hard, looking out of the window.
The older man came and gently laid
q hand upon his shoulder.
"Come, come, my son. said he, his
own voice low and of a kindness it
could assume at times. "fOu must not
you must not yield to this, say.
Shake off this melancholy which so OBJ
sesses you. know whence it comes
your father gave it to you, and you are
not to blame. But you have more than
your fathers strength to aid you. And
you have me, your friend, who can IN
Lewis only turned on him an eye so
full of anguish as caused the older man
to knit his brow in deep concern.
"What is 1t, Merne?" he demanded.
"Tell me. Alb, you cannot tell? /
know. TITS the old melancholy and
more, Merne, my boy. Tell
me-ah, yes, it is woman!'
The young man did not speak.
81 have often told ell my young
friends" said Mr. Jefferson slowly
after time, "that they should marry
not later than twenty three>iti is wrong
to cheat the years OF life--and you ap-
proach thirty now, my son. Why lin
ger? Listen to me. No young man
may work at his best and have a wo-
mans face in his desk to haunt him.
That will not do. We all have handi-
cap enough without that
(To be continually
Nearly 2,500,o0O,O0O cigarettes were