Omaha daily bee., 1921-07-31

to Rosa apparently, the deed was something
already dim in antiquity. 1t was battling, be-
wildering. Allayne did not know. could not
know that the criminal mind-and Rosa pos
sessed it's the mind of a child. And moth
ing is Of more than passing Importance to
child. Students of criminality know that
what we call callousness is merely lack Of
understanding; for only a mental cripple is
q professional criminal
Rosa's walk had resumed its springy, cat
like quality as she moved away. Her troubles
were over. But Allayne's troubles-and
vaguely, although she felt that she was
secure, she seemed to sense this-were only
Just beginning.
Hillstown was thriving little city. 1t had
two daily papers, one morning and one eve
ming, five banks country club. and re-
form administration. 1t this last that
proved that it had definitely emerged from
the village chrysalis and had spread its
wings as city butterfly.
Much has been written on the difference
between the rural and the urban community.
Growing towns Shrek blatanty about the
number of moving picture theaters. the guam
tty of business done each fiscal year, and
the demand for building lots castor south
or west or north--of what was the town hail.
but is now the municipal building.
And the dweller in the community that
has been acknowledged for some years as a
city smiles patronizingy. To him these
things prove nothing. But when COM
munity has progressed so far away from
rurality and toward cosmopolitanism that it
boasts civic administration that has been
elected on a promise of municipal reform,
then 1t is admitted, unquestioningly, into the
brotherhood of the cities. 1t belongs.
The present administration Of Hillstown
had been swept into Office on platform that
differed in nowise from thousand other re-
form administrations. 1t promised that the
city affairs would be administered econom-
ically and honestly, and that moral purif-
cation would begin when the new administra-
ton took Office. 1t had kept the latter pledge
as well as such pledges can be kept, Hills
town, due to the sudden Industrial expansion
brought on by the war activities, had within
its borders, during the present industrial
slump an element-largey foreign-to whom
the law meant something inimical, something
to be frustrated and challenged Now that
work was less easily obtainable this element
had inaugurated a regime Of eEne that was
not always petty.
That regime three months after the in
stalation of the new administration, still en-
dured, but it's rule was not so bold as it had
been. Little by little the professional crooks
had been rounded up and the amateurs had
become frightened by the determination Of
the authorities to enforce the law.
And it was due almost entirely to the abili-
ties of the new chief of police that the moral
pledge was being so well observed. His
name was Jenkins; he had inherited wealth,
consisting of half interest in leather
goods factory not very far from the Hills
town Chemical company.
His bent, however, had not been toward
business He had adopted the law and, to
the amazement Of his legal and social friends,
had chosen the criminal branch of the law
as his specially. 1t interested him. There
was eternal drama in the conflict between
the forces of righteousness and those of evil.
He made mo- money from his practice. AS
a matter Of fact, he refused to take any case
in which he was not convinced of the inno-
cence of his prospective client. Little by
little his reputation grew. Those friends of
his who had been wont to sneer at his career
began to discover that Randolph Jenkins
Ranne" " to his intimates-was force for
civic decency.
For, from beginning by aiding the unfor-
tunate he ended by attacking conditions that
created misfortune. The saloon the brothel,
the gaming house; without being a bit of a
prig, Rannie jenkins fought them. And the
result was that the reform mayor offered
him the command Of the police force.
lawyer politically ambitious or legally
ambitious would have preferred the district
attorneyshp, but jenkins had no personal
ambition. He knew how easily police force
becomes an instrument for evil; how
crooked politicians. once they get a police
department in their clutches, can bend it 20
uses diametrically opposed to the enforce.
ment of the law.
Rannie Jenkins did away with all that sort
of thing. Hillstown's force consisted Of only
forty men, but he organized it on big city
lines. He even had a detective bureau
And this was his especial pride and JOY His
criminal law experience had given him a
certain knowledge of the principles of de-
lection, and several vicious assailants of
society were learning that Hillstown's plain
clothes men were as efficient as any in the
country.
Needless to say, Jenkins, along with the
q. ssas ssYMXs&yx 49,