The Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1918-1919, 1919-05-08

|
and civilized peace the European war
backed in from nowhere.
| A young man from Serbia shot a
grand duke Of Austria, and the world
heard Of Sarajevo for the first time,
but not the last. The bullet that slew
the Austrian heir multiplied itself as
| BY magic into billions Of missiles, A
young shoemaker from Bavaria, to his
great surprise. killed an old Belgian
schoolteacher he had never heard of.
The schoolteacher fell into a ditch
still clasping his umbrella. The shoe
maker moved on with a strange ap-
petite for shooting.
Refugees In hordes filled the roads
with new Pharaonic exodus. So
many children plodded along in hum
cry flight that Herod might have been
hnnting down the innocents again.
With the moral cataclysm went a
| financial earthquake. The European
| exchanges flung their doors shut. The
American exchanges tried to keep
their shop windows open, but had to
close them down.
Bayard Kip was among the first cas-
| ualties. Before he could put in q stop
| order his margins were gone. He had
said that prices, having struck bot
tom, could go no lower. Now the bot
tom itself was knocked out.
Prices stopped falling at last be-
cause of the closing of the markets.
Europe established general morato-
Am c%oh
sentiment. Everybody owed somebody
else. and everybody gave tolerance be-
cause everybody needed it.
Night fell on the commercial world,
a night illumined by horrors unknown
before. Bayard's factory could not
meet even Its diminished pay roll. The
president of the concern could not
borrow penny at the bank of which
he was director. The factory shut
down, sending all its workmen into
the hordes of the unemployed. The
office forces were reduced to a mini
mum and the salaries Of the minimum
further reduced. Clay was thrown
out of even his half-job and Bayard
was put on half-pay.
Bayard's sober thoughts concerned
themselves with extricating himself
from the wreckage. 1t was not DOS
sible to debarrass himself Of every.
thing. He could not give up his ex-
pensive apartment. It was leased for
year and half more. He could not
dismiss his expensive wife; she was
leased for ninety-nine years. He
could not give up his character, his
costly tastes, his zeal for front, the
maintenance of n good facade.
The instinct Of lovable bluff was
seen In his telegram to Leila. He
wanted her at home to comfort him,
now that he had no business for her
to hamper. Besides, he could not at
ford to keep her at Newport. Out of
his Ominously small funds he tele-
graphed her liberal sum to pay her
bills and her railroad fare and parlor
car fare. He met her and found her
astonishingly beautiful in her million
aire uniform.
He felt like the pauper who received
a white elephant for a present. But
she was gorgeous In her trappings.
They embraced with mutual approval,
He laughed:
II was going to begin economy by
cutting out the taxi business, but |
couldn't carry Cleopatra like you in
the subway. You look like all the
money in the world. And you're worth |
it." In the taxicab he crushed her to
him again in a dismal ecstasy and !
sighed gayly: "You're too grand for
me. honey. I'm busted higher than a
kite. You didn't bring home any
change, of course"
II did better than that" she beamed,
and. being married to him, made no
bones about bending and disclosing
one entire silk stocking most ele-
gantly repleted. It was transparent
translucent, indeed, like gossamer |
over marble, aud of saphng SYM
metry except for one unsightly knob
which she deity removed and placed |
In the hand Of Bayard.
He did not need to glance at his
palm to tell that it was full of bank
notes.
sUhotss oil Ait. -, ~ .~sS