The Connecticut labor press., 1919-03-29

with new Pharaonic exodus. So many children plodded along in hun gry flight that Herod might have been hunting down the tnnocents again. With the moral cataclysm went 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 a 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 a general morato- rum. America established one of sentiment. Everybody owed somebody else, and everybody gave tolerance be- cause everybody needed it.
 Night fell on the commercial world, | night illum1ned by horrors unknown before. Bayard's factory could not meet even it's diminished pay roll. The president of the concern could not
 
 he was a director. The factory shut down, sending all its workmen into the hOrdes of the unemployed. The office forces were reduced to mini- mum and the salaries of the minimum further reduced. Clay was thrown out of even his half-job and Bayard l was put on half-pay.
 Bayard's sober thoughts concerned l themselves with extricating himself from the wreckage. It was not pos 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 a 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 af- ford to keep her at Newport. Out of his OminouSly small funds he tele- graphed her a 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 white elephant for q present But she was gorgeous in her trappings They embraced with mutual approval. He laughed:
 ''I was going to begin economy by cutting out the taxi business, but 1 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. Pm busted higher than a kite. You didn't bring home any change, of cOurse."
 ''I 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, and of a sapling sym metry except for one unsightly knob "AItA SAC OcllAy ISlAONGu duu pldcSQ in the hand of Bayard.
 He did not need to glance at his palm to tell that it was full of bank notes
 Whats all this?" he said.
 And she, prim and proper again, chortled. That's the money you tele- graphed me to pay my bills with"
 Put"
 "'This is no time to pay bills"
 "YOu're a genius" he said.
 And she was, in her way.
 When they were at home again he told her of his ruinOus SpeculatiOns. 1 She did not reprOach him. She was gambler enough to thrill at the high chance, and spOrtswOman enough not to blame him for losing his stakes.
 Don't you worry! :" she said. from his lap, as from q dais. Well be | rich yet. You mustn't imagine any thing else. There's everything in | thinking a thing is going to happen | I'm too sensitive to be a Christian Sci enlist about pain, but l am one about l good luck. You must just tell your self that you're going to come out all | right and you will.
 And we must keep up appearances so that other people will believe in us. It's the only way, too, to keep your credit good. I learned that at Newport. People who are people up there never pay their bills. That's why they get trusted everywhere, and have plenty of cash. Their creditors don't dare insult 'em or sue 'em. The