New-York tribune., 1918-06-09

be benefit to the widows and the
fatherless children left by Harry Re
gensburg and Sam.
Rather than bad boy, Paul Chap
man has been an unfortunate boy. He
is the son of trebly unfortunate
mother, a woman SO schooled to ca
tastrophe that the situation Of Paul IN
the shadow of the chair is but an added
chapter in book already written full
Of troubles.
The Story of
His Mother Life
About all that Paul Chapman ever
got without working for it was an en-
dowment of good health. He was born
with that. The strength that had been
denied to his father and the sturdiness
that his older brother Harold lacked
seemed to have reverted to him when
finally he came into the world. AS
baby he was perilous climber. AS
a growing child in knicker bockers he
was precocious and hardy. He was the
kind of boy who must be active to keep
himself amused Men of deeds de-
velop from that type of boy.
But Paul had started life on the
wrong foot-which brings to bear the
story of his mothers life.
AS a girl Mrs. Chapman (she has
married a second time, but no need of
using the new name) was Louise Long,
and she lived in a'country town in Illi-
nois Her father died when she was
only few months old. When she was
sixteen her mother died. Until she
was eighteen she lived with an uncle
in Springfield, III. Then, with a small
estate left by her grandfather to back
her, she went to Chicago. For short
time she went to business college,"
Before she was nineteen she had met
Charles Chapman, railroad clerk, and
had accepted his offer of marriage.
Chapman was many years older than
his bride and was father to her as
we'll as husband. For years things ran
smoothly. A son was born and then
another, five years later. The second
, son was Paul.
In the railroad Office Chapman shared
a double desk with q clerk who was
! consumptive. The two used the same
telephone and through it the germs
passed from one to the other. Never
robust, Chapman fell an easy victim.
For year he was a dependant on his
wife. Part of the year the family
| spent in Arizona; the rest in Canada.
In its course what was left of Mrs.
Chapman's inheritance was spent. At
its end Chapman died.
One of Mrs. Chapman's four brothers,
foor-walker in a New York depart
ment store, travelled to Canada to at
tend the funeral. He proposed that
his sister return with him to New York
and furnish a fiat, volunteering to live
with her and maintain the home.
Mrs. Chapman came to New York
The fiat was rented and furnished out
of her small stock of insurance money
This was six years ago, when Paul
was ten and Harold, his brother, was
| - tCSii' VI IllAC dSdl.i IUlilSS
went we'll. The brother kept his end
of the bargain. Then, one day, he
told Mrs. Chapman he had found the
right girl and was going to marry her.
The next day Mrs. Chapman found work
in department store. From that time
on, she suspected, it would De up to
her to keep the family together.
The first job paid SIS a week, and
it was about as good job as Mrs.
Chapman has ever found since. In the
year before her brother married the
woman of his choice she contrived to
save little money.
That money wasn't to stay long in
the bank Harold Chapman, always
sickly, was stricken with the disease
that had carried off his father. He
had been employed for a couple of
years as runner in brokers' office.
and for period the firm continued his
pay. Eventually, with the boy in a
sanatorium at Liberty, N. Y, the bur-
den fell on the mother.
Then He Was
Left to Himself
Harold died, and was buried at Lib
erty What spare time Mrs. Chapman
, mad she had spent with him, and Paul.
perforce, had been permitted to run
wild. He didn't become wicked-just
wild. He conceived dislike for school
and study. There were pleasanter
things to do with his time, he discov-
cred, than to sit in a classroom.
MRS. Chapman has called herself
"half-time mother" That is an over
estimate. She didn't have time enough
to herself for half-time motherhood.