The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1919-04-12
The Grist
~o
Copyright, 1918, by Mcclure Newspaper
S~yndicate.)
By ARCHIE CAMERON NEW

SSSSSSSSSSSSSsSSS
Copyright, 1918, by Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.)
John Gates came out of a trance.
like stupOr and stared in disgust. He
had not been the victim OF Il bad
dream. No, he shivered, would that
life were like that dreaml
Two minutes before there had
danced before his vision a picture of
an old grist mill. He could see the
trees lazily and happily brushing their
leaves with every puff of wind, and
the little dam that laughingly dashed
its spray against its rocky formation.
And his father. with his kindly old
eyes and stopped shoulders, pouring
into the mills grist fine whole wheat.
And then he saw the pure-white
-four, so much in keeping with the Sa-
credly pure precincts about which he
had scampered years before, barefoot.
poor, but happy. And then the sweet
smile of his mother-that dear, kindly
soul, whose happiest mission was min
istration to his boyish whims and an
appreciative fathers ants And then
he woke up!
For q moment he surveyed himself
sadly. Those bare toes of his boy
hood were now encaSed in rich, COM
Portable shoes, showing of In marked
contrast the worn carpet on which
they rested. He fingered %nervously
the well-tailored clothes that long since
had replaced torn, ragged overalls,
and smiled bitterly. Aud then he
looked up
An old man bent over a desk several
feet away seemed to remind him Of
the old miller, his father. with his
sparse gray hairs and stopped shout
ders-until he looked up. A pair of
rascally, cunning eyes met Gates fur
lively, and then darted to a rough
looking individual waiting, MS was
Gates. on one of tn" chairs in Il row
about the wall of the large outer Of
fee. \ huzzer sounded aud the door
Of the inner SnnctuIn opened.
'Its your turn next huskily whis-
pered the Old main to the other. Leave
it to Jerry Bletzmau. Hen fix YOU
up"
The man gruntnd uniu,eligibly and
rose hcSitatiugly to his feet. He, like
most Of his waiting brethren. had
come to be fixed up" And Blet2man,
rhe far-fampd T.. Gerald BIetzman. self
styled counselor nj law" was to do
the fixing or. rather, the "~uniXing."
For Bletzman'S many hired henchmen
proclaimed that no matrimonial knot
a too hard FOR their patron TO IN
tie.
'JeS' leave ii { me" doomed q raul
cOus voice, which, Gates recognized as
BIetzman's as he hurrirdly pushed a
spidery-looking young man out of his
office. IN get somethin' on her. They
man, are they, PeIe:"
Pete. his assistant, acquiesced
speedily with q chuckle. and Bletzman
bent a beady eye on The man who stood
close to Pete's desk.
Come right in he welcomed the
other SUayely, laying a Sweaty palm on
the clients sleeve. pete, bring tn
gentleman : tdGh ln-nbN.
The door slammed and again the
outer Office subsidized into a low muir
muir of voices.
So, unused Gates. his was what he
had come to. A place where the sa-
cred ties of marriage and motherhood
were banded about like packing boxes
and card-indexed like II case Of
measles. Br-r-r.
And across the room, instead of the
sweet smile of his mother, a gray
haired pms in gay clothes smirked
fraternally al him while waiting her
turn.
This drove Gates eyes to his lap,
on which rested a neat package, which
he now united. Dragging forth a vel
lOwish paper, he fell to reading II. and
again it cOniured forth visions from
out of a happy past.
There was Il great hiGh-ceilinged par
Tor. smelling delici0uSly OF fresh.
picked blossoms, and echoing the
sound of many laughing voices and
the crinkle Of many stiff party dresses.
And a roSe-bOwer in the center. under
which an ecstatic couple were receiv.
ing congratulations. And Gates. as he
read his marriage license. heard anew,
as if 1t were yesterday, the little old
pastors solemn warning, Whom God
hath Joined together, let no man put
asunder."
Purity well prepared, amt yuh, mis-
ter?" The voice mt Gates elbow
caused him to thrust the paper back
in the packet, as he looked up to
meet the leer Of the man on his right.
"My old woman swiped mine" cOntin-
ued the other, %enviOusly. "Leastways,
she muster given it t tn guy she
Hoped with. Cost me fifty extra t. get
a new one. Amt women tn Earnest
yegGs?"
Gates stared ut him unseeingly, but
the last remark caused him to SILVER
anew. Lucille, his wife, a yegg? New
err! She was a fine girl, through and
through. They just couldn't get along
that was all. And some one had sug-
gested Bletzman to him, and
"Y1l come outa tn mill sadder an
poorer" vOuchsafed another waiting
me. "Bletzmanll see t. that"