The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-10-12
Lachesis
@1
BY r. RAY X
Copyright. 1915. by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate.)

0aN oOtS $50 NNAoNA 8@k
pen by accident? Not while Lachesis
is holding down that destiny job on
Mount Olympus.
Lachesis, you know, Is one of the
three Moerae who NEEDLE in the af-
fairs of mortals from the time they
are born until they pass into other
realms. Three MOerae, or Fates, have
a room all to themselves in the big Of
flee building of the gods, and they run
things with a high hand.
One would think that, in these days
of progress, Clotho would get some
thing to take the place of that old
spinning wheel on which she spins
the thread of life, and that Atropos
could find an instrument less unwieldy
than that long pair of dull shears
h has been using to cut the thread
when she decides it's long enough.
However, they seem to have got along
so far without modern improvements
and they ought to know their business
by this time.
Anyhow, this story concerns Lach-
esis, who works without instruments.
She simply stands near the spinning
wheel and dabs veal and woe on hat
thread and twists it about her fingers
and ties knots in it, to suit her own
pleasure. 1t has been said that Clotho
and Lachesis and AtrOpos are old and
ugly. OF course, as mortals reckon,
these fates are old; but years don't
count on Olympus. n as to ugliness
well, I'm willing to allow that
Atropos has a hideous face, and it's
possible ClothO is not beautiful, be-
cause her back must be lame and her
eyes faded and her forehead wrinkled
from bending oven the spinning wheel !;
but Lachesis-there's no reason why
she should be ugly, because her job
furnishes lots of variety. Moreover,
she's one of the herOines in this story,
so she has just got to be beautiful.
The hero is Jack Watson, Il mere
mortal who defied LGcheSis. She mad
decided, soon after ClOtho began to
spin the thread, that he should be mar
ried before he became twenty-eight
years old, and she had picked for his
bride a girl named Esther Richards.
They were born in the same little town
III OllO anu ldu Olc VI lllOSt SCllDOl
kid" romances; and then, when Jack
was only eleven and Esther eight, it
ended.
Jack moved with his parents to Co.
iumbus, where they resided three years.
Jack and Esther wrote occasionally, as
children sometimes carry IN a CORE
spondence, but they We're too young to
understand about afIinities and such
things, and gradually they forgot about
each other.
When Jack was fifteen his mother
died and he moved with his father to
New York. The boy obtained a job as
Office boy with a broker and held it
two years. Then he was promoted,
and about that time pneumonia claimed
Mr.. Watson.
When Esther was ter she went with
her parents to Vancouver, British Co
lumbia, and there they remained until
she was twenty-five.
Lachesis stood in the wOrkroom of
the Moerae one day, holding Jack Wat.
sons thread of life in one hand and
Esther Richards in the other. MY
how far apart they have drifted," she
murmured. "This will never do. ]
have decided differently"
Jack was leaning back in his swivel
chair with his feet On his desk, in his
own real estate Office in Melbourne
Australia. Was he thinking about
Esther? Decidedly not. His mind was
full of business, of how to travel still
farther on the path of prosperity
which he already had found.
Esther was reclining on a lounge il
her home in Vancouver, reading a Rec
Cross magazine. Did Jack hold any
place in her thoughts? No, not ever 6
small corner They had forgotten about
each other, as 1 have said.
That evening Jack went to the Mel
bourne Business club for dinner witt
three other prosperous young bushes:
men, all of them married. When the
meal was finished the conversation
turned to matrimony.
allow comes 1t you never got mar
ried, Jack?" asked George Clifford a
he passed cigars. you're old enough
and nave enough coin to make som,
girl comfortable and happy"
Jack laughed as he lighted the weed
mot me-" he said as he pulled plac
idly. 'IT never get married. I'm go
ing to be a hermit. Do you know, fel
lows, it's a fact that I've never beef
interested a bit in the fair sex? In
all for business. I'm sincerely opposei
to marriage-fOr myself, at least"
Clifford, who was five years older
looked over the rims of his glasse
with a slight grimace and inquired {:
"Don't you believe in love? Don
you believe that every one was mad
for some onef"
Another laugh. this time louder an
longer, from Jack.