The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-08-12
The Magnet
@<1
BY r. RAY BAKER
$500 ss&$sSS@SS !

For three years Leah Wellington and
Grover Gary were true to each other,
which might be considered remark
able record.
BY this it is not meant that the pres
ent generation of men and women is
/ so ruled by fickleness that three years
OF being true is out of the ordinary al
J though you will find soured-on-the-
world cynics who will assert that such
| is the case.
! one of the extraordinary things
/ about the fealty of Leah and Grover
was that during the three-year period
| In question they were in different cities
and yet did not exchange q letter or a
| postcard. But the feature that really
1ustifies the use of the world remark
able" is the fact that the young lady
and young man concerned never had
formed an acquaintanceship-d not,
In fact. know each others names.
Leah was clerk in the magazine.
cigar, popcorn, candy. postcard counter
at the Union station in city of some
100000 souls in Illinois Grover was
one Of those hustling young men who
can convince you that not to take out
Insurance on your life Is rank treason
against the human race.
Grover arrived at the station one
evening, weary from slow, humping
ride on a local train that appeared to
scorn the rails and Insist on traversing
the ties between them. He had a
crouch which he directed against the
railroad, the insurance business and
the world in general-until he spied
Leah
Leah was not In joyful mood. She
was obliged to work overtime because
the night clerk at the stand was sick
and she had to miss a theater party
with four girl friends She scowled as
she sold a fat man package Of gum,
but when she looked up from the cash
register and saw Grover wreaths of
smiles adorned her countenance.
There he is at last" breathed Leah !;
the handsome man I've dreamed about
so often. I always knew I'd meet him
some dayi"
by Georgel That's the girl I've
been waiting all these years for"
Grover told himself Isn't she the
pretty thing7"
AS matter Of fact, neither Of them
was beautiful or handsome, although
each possessed the normal amount of
attractiveness.
Grover at once approached the stand.
She smiled welcome at him, somewhat
timidly, for her experience with men
had been limited, as had his with girls.
He was far from being at ease and
somehow he could not decide on what
to purchase from her. Naturally, when
stranger approaches place where
things are sold and stares at a clerk,
the clerk expects to sell something he
argued, and still he could not think Of
thing he needed.
He looked over the magazines finally
selecting one, but when he thrust a
hand into his pocked he found that his
purse had vanished. She was rolling
up the magazine.
mo, l don't want that after ALL" he
faltered. Il have read 1t, come to think
Of it."
She laid 1t back. He ransacked his
brain for the name Of some magazine
that he did not see on the stand. It
was useless. The supply laid out be-
fore him apparently included every
publication in the world.
She was waiting and he was being
tossed helplessly on stormy sea of
distress. He idgeted and perspired. At
last, desperately. he blurted out:
'"The magazine want is The Mag
net Have you the last issuef
The smile left her face and disap-
pointment crept into her eyes. She
wanted to please this stranger, to fur
nish him with the article he desired to
purchase. She had failed.
mo, SIR" she answered, 1--WE don't
keep that magazine. In fact, l never
heard Of it, and thought was an au-
thority on periodicals."
He thanked her and trudged home
ward with a curtain of gloom settled
over him. He had made a mess Of 1t,
he ragged, and he went to sleep to
dream that he had met the girl that
was meant for him, and that, just as he
was about to lead her to the altar to
make her his bride, witch descended
from the clouds and transformed him
into donkey.
However, on thinking it over Grover
saw that his laundering had opened the
gate of opportunity for further con-
versations with the girl that fate had
selected to become HIS partner on the
highway of life. So at least three times
a week he appeared at the station and
asked If the Magnet Magazine" had
appeared. Every time Leah was obliged
to confess that she had been unable to
get track of 1t. II 1t had been possible
she would have obtained it for him, for
she had made search which included
all the agencies in town.
If Grover had used the same tactics
in love that he used in selling insur-
ance 1t would have been comparatively
easy to win his hearts desire. Leah
was ready and waiting, for she was a
firm believer in the doctrine that every
woman born into the world is intended
to wed a certain, particular, pre-
selected man.
Leah had been told, and she believed,
that If a woman failed to marry the
man that fate had selected for her I'M
happiness would be certain to result.
1t was the reason for many failures In
fri he
ple didn't wait for the right one to
come along. Somehow Leah always felt
that she would know when her right
one appeared, and now she was sure
that Grover Gary was he. So she
merely waited for him to get down to
business and make himself acquainted
and ask her to be his wife.
But Grover didn't get down to bust
ness. He found himself tonguetied
whenever he tried to talk anything that
bordered on the personal. He could not
even bring himself to the point Of in
Producing himself. Lovemaking, in its
initial stages and in all others, is so
different from selling Insurance, par
ticularly when one has to fight back
bashfulness in the presence of the
other sex.
One morning Grover got out of bed
with the determination to do two
things. First, he had made up his mind
to write up" a very wealthy but OBJ
stinate prospect" Next he was going
down to the Union station, introduce
himself and propose to the girl that
was rightfully his.
He did neither. When he got to the
Office he found a telegram summoning
him to the head office in Chicago on the
first train that went. The train left be-