South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-12-24

Alex Fairborn, IN his mothers
Iopinion, was an unnatural child
He refused all props from the fam
| ily fortune and continued TO remain
a bachelor. These testers in Mrs.
Fairborn's regard for her son were
laid TO his four years at college
There he had acquired a taste for
social problems and a distaste for
girls, that is-elisible girls. His
next transgression was to open a
dingy law office and take bachelor
quarters in humble part of the
city There, Mrs. FairbOrn, on in
frequent visits. was apt to encoun-
tiers creatures of the underworld,
embryo and poverty stricken gen
fuses, a street musician, or a home
less "newsie."
IF you would only marry and
lose your taste for-this." she in
IvariabIy began.
Girls like Rosalie stone, who are
about as useful as a feather dust
err" Alex would parry.
But girls are doing things these
days. even our girls"
Alex refused 10 be shown and
went his own happy, impecunious
way undisturbed except for brief
calls at the family mansion uptown
and occasional week-ends at Pine
wood. the Fairborn country home
An impending visit 10 PinewooG
was, on a particularly hot day IN
early summer, clouding Fairborn's
present enjoyment OF his stroll
home by way of River street. His
mother had written that she had a
new and irresistible bait for him
in the person of Alleen Gregory,
whose parents had recently leased
! a neighboring estate.
Alexis premonitions of the future
/ Gin reality he scorned his mother
fatuous desisns) were interrupted
10y a raucuous voice from the depths
of that thorougbfare of picturesque
squalor:
"Oh, Mrs. Kalinski! Been to vote
'yet?"
Alex smiled. He had helped in
the suffrage campaign, the success
full issue of which accounted for the
little groups of earnest bare-headed
women gathered TO discuss their
first visits to the polls. Then he
picked his way among the half-clad
lurchins sprawling and playing
games on the cobbles Following
a sudden impulse, he hailed a crowd
of them and proposed a treat at
one of the dingy general merchan-
disc shops, in whose entrance trail
ed smudgy- faced dark-eyed Italian
cherubs.
First came a choice of candy all
round, from the multi-cOlored glass
trays. into which a trim white
aproned sales-sirl dipped shapely
fingers. ANONYMOUSLY trim, thought
Alex Long lashes. brown eyes.
softly waving hair. clear skin unmo-
Tested by drugstore camOuflage-
what pictures these Italian girls
were. He never saw girls of this
sort at his mothers gatherings. And
what "A contrast! In the background
the rundown. untidy shop-busi-
ness was evidently poor, for the
stocks were Iowa glimpse Of un-
lkempt living quarters in the rear
and in the foreground the girl in
lcompatibly spruce and trim.
Like gleam OF gold in q hand
full of silt" ne reflected mentally
but asked Are these bambini
yours ." pointing TO the queue Of
lchildren on the doorstep. He knew
run well the impossibility OF such a
thing.
The girl laughed merrily. NO
not all Of them. she said with ar
Iomphatic shake of her head. Just
then came a childish scream from
the street. the girl darted by him
Iout through the door before Fair
born had sensCd the cause. Without
IAN instant of hesitation she had
iplucked one Of the bambini of TN,
doorstep. detachedly examining q
shining bit OF glass mid-channel OF
River street, from the very whee
lof "a ponderous moving truck. ana
with flushed cheeks bore the fright
ened child back TO the shop Alex
Icomprehending the situation too
late 10 be OF any assistance. trieC
with masculine inehectiveness q
lsOothe the unhurt child and lookel
lat the trem bling girl with open ad
lmiration.
That was wonderful" he said