Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1919-06-26
The Man in the
Photo
Copyright. 1919, by the Mcclure News
paper Syndicate.)
By R. RAY BAKER

paper cynolCdlc.J
Hope Sheldon was not a heather;
yet she worshiped an idol. The idol
was the Photographic likeness of a
man. She had the picture, but so far
as she knew she never had seen the
original; he might be dead for all of
her knowledge. Yet to her he embod-
led all that a nan ought to be.
This idol, or ideal, worshiped in Sc
cret, prevented Hope from saying the
one-syllabled word that would have
made Henry Wadsworth walk on air,
save money, pay an installment on fur
niture and hunt a fiat.
Hope was fond of Henry. She would
have uttered that I~onged-for word if it
had not been for the photograph. She
admitted this to herself, but to him she
said:
II can't do it. Please don't ask me
again. / have a secret that prevents
my accepting you."
That was all the satisfaction he
could obtain. Every time he proposed,
which was once a week regularly, he
got the same story in different words,
but with the same meaning. Only once
did he fail to get in his weekly propo-
sal, and that al because a railroad
wreck delayed his special delivery let
ter while he was out of the city on
business. :
But Henry was persistence itself.
Nothing daunted him, not even the ref
erence to the secret" At first he con
ceived wild thoughts concerning it, and
lost many hours of sleep on account of
It, but it failed to vanquish him. In
stead, he came back stronger, with a
determination to override her mysteri-
Gus objections, whatever they might
be.
Hope was a sentimentalist. When
she was a little girl she got decided no
tons about princes, and resolved to
marry n when she grew up. In her
mature years she still had ambitions
to wed a prince. Not the kind they
had In Europe before the war; oh, no
they were not for Hope. She wanted
an American husband, but he must be
a prince of a fellow" and the picture
showed her ideal to be the one that
filled the bill. She would wait fol
this prince to put in IN appearance
come what may, she decided, and il
he vas dead she would never marry.
The picture came into her posses
sion in a somewhat peculiar manner
When Hope arrived in the city tc
"stenog" she was obliged to rent 8
room that was a long ways from be
ing desirable, but which was in a re
spectacle house in an equally respecta
BILE neighborhood. In the top dresser
drawer was the photograph. She
pounced upon it with deep satisfac
ton, for she recognized the face look
ing up at her as belonging to the
prince of her dreams.
The man in the picture was middle
aged, but that did not deter Hope. He
had a heavy mustache, but that was
no barrier. 1t was the kindly eyes
and the benevolent forehead thai
caught her fancy. Just what kind Of
forehead Is of the benevolent variety
/ cannot tell you; but Hope could. She
had read up on such things.
Every night that photograph went
under her pillow after she had wor
SHIPPED it with her eyes and perhaps
talked to it a little. Yes, she was @
foolish little girl, was Hope-foolisf
along those lines, but otherwise very
sensible. She did not consider thai
a man Of middle-age, with kindly
eyes and a benevolent forehead might
be married already. He simply
couldn't be, according to her mind, be
cause he was made just for her.
AS time passed and the ideal per
sisted in refusing to present himself
In flesh and blood her determination
did not wane; instead, it became
stronger. Then a better job permitted
her to move into a more comfortable
room in a less poverty-stricken part
Of the city, and that is where the trou.
BILE began. That is where she began
to fight with herself to avoid ~faithless
ness to her ideal. For across the hal
from her in the new place lived Henry
Wadsworth, who held some kind of q
job at a theater. He at once fell
in love with Hope and launched him
self on q program of persistent WOO.
ing. She occasionally accepted an in.
vitation to a dance or dinner, but in
the main she declined his social atten-
tons, which was the only proper course
In line with her refusal Of his matri.
monial offers.
But Hope wavered several times in
private, Of course. The urge was very
strong and she had to fight to keep
from yielding to Henry's p~ersuasions
He never knew this, though. All the
battle took place in the privacy of her
room, where she would stand the pic.
ture against the wash bowl and stare
at 1t Is minutes at a time, assert.
ing time and time again that she
was "true." We are all deranged more
or less on some subject ESQ the ex.
perts say) and that ideal notion was
Hopes.
M 49, - NAs LI