Middletown transcript., 1920-12-23

M 1ullQeSS, anu II
q y old German h d
lived through youth
and maturity, marriage and parent
hood, SO that the future held nothing
in store for him except what he had
put into it; and of all life's riches he
had held to one thing only after his
wife had died.. ~
That was his chemical researches
Interest had attached itself to him
at first because he was suspected OF
being a counterfeiter. He had, in fact,
been honored with . visit from the
chief Of detectives when he first took
up his abode in the ramshackle old
place five years before But Herr
Mayo had speedily convinced his CALI
er that he was only harmless crank.
engaged on some obstruse and appar-
emily insoluble problem.
But the problem happened to be
one toward whose solution thousand
brains were just then concentrated in
several hundred laboratories. 1t was,
in fact, the manufacture Of synthetic
rubber. To this end, which would
mean fabulous wealth for the disc0v-
erer, Herr Mayo bent all his energies.
A tiny patrimony supported him mean
while. Once. he had been well-to-do,
and had had friends; that was when
he was a lecturer at the Imperial uni
versity of Bonn, and before his reck-
less marriage with a notorious actress
shocked and scandalized the puritani-
cal society-but why should he be
recalling this now, as he bent over
his test tubes and weighed out imper-
from his tiny measuring scales? That
was Herr Mayo's one chivalrous act,
and he had paid in honor and wealth
and friends when he plunged into the
irretrievable because love proved
stronger than prudence. And they
had always been happy until she died.
five years before, though often the
lean hunger wolf howled against the
threshold. But then there was their
child, Ida, and she, too, had become
a memory, and nothing remained ex-
cept the bubbling test tube and the
spreading color beneath the surface
layer Of gold.
The old German shook his memories
away and smiled at the changing
liquid. What was past was past, but
there was always the future. and just
now he felt very sure that he Fas on
the track of his discovery. Then hon
or and wealth would be his.
Once in million times the seeker
Of synthetic compounds may hit upon
his goal by chance. But almost uni
versally it is process Of elimination.
Of endless working round and round
toward an objective point which seems
to recede the more elusively as one
approaches it. Nine hundred and for
ty formulae he had written down In
microscopic figures upon large fold
ed sheet Of paper, and these were COM
pounds Of but a single form Of carbon.
OF these seven and twenty were the
most promising, and he had grouped
them together
"Now why am I thinking Of Minna
tonight?". growled the old man impa-
tiently, rising and pushing back the
damp hair from his furrowed forehead.
But he was not thinking Of Minna,
except indirectly. He was thinking Of
Ida, their daughter. It was five years
since his wife had died, and almost
upon the first anniversary of her death
he had driven his daughter from his
home when in her agony and despair
she confessed to him that she had sui
lied the name she bore She had mar
led secretly worthless fellow who.
1t turned out, had wife living. He
had died since, but he could not forget
The stigma. The Mayos had been Of
the old Junker families, who had held
honorable records in East Prussia. He,
julius, had lost caste when he mar
ried the actress, but that, at least,
was legitimate union. And now, his |
daughters involuntary offense would |
Danish them both forever should he |
return with his discovery, to seek |
social recognition in his native land.
The years of ostracism and loneliness.
to be redeemed at the end by this tri-
umph, had made the old man very Bit |
ter. When Ida left him the last link |
that bound him to humanity seemed to |
have snapped. He often told himself |
that he was glad she was gone. He
had put the very thought Of her away; I
It should not rise up now.
A. tapping sounded ct the door; ana /
he rose up YEARLY to open II Outside /
stood the postman. He was very late.I
becadse it was the holiday season ana /
his mail was large. The old man 8lve \
him . small. weekly sum to bting his |.
letters to his apartment insfeaA of i
leaving them IA tke box beneafh H.
Dorrsspoa1snce Fas TOO prectoua mt /