The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-05-10
Chapter 81
WITH THE SPRING

Looking back over her life, Ruth de-
cided that its crisis was reached that
winter. Never before had she been so
miserable, never had she been so much
alone. During the previous year she
had been through a winter of doubt,
and summer of sad conviction-over
the loss Of Tins love. But with his
marriage to Myra, something snapped
in her, she could not tell what. Later
she knew it was the nervous tension
she was under, and, that from the
moment he was finally married, finally
and absolutely separated from her, she
teean to feel better
This next winter she worked, harder
than ever before, harder even than
when she tried to run a large rooming
house without any help. Her young
face grew more serious and more ma
ture, she was a little taller and little
simmer, her chin that had somehow
been gently indefinite, seemed to form
determined little point that made her
face even more attractively shaped.
Ruth was developing into a beauti-
full woman-but it was not so much
the beauty of face and skin and figure,
as the beauty of fine intelligence.
all her work and her loneliness began
to materialize. Looking back, she
traced it to the letter Langley sent in
answer to her idea-the Big Idea, as
she sometimes called it.
Your plan seems excellent to me,
he wrote of course I'd like to come
back and go over that ground again.
You'll need a lot of capital behind you,
it will take millions to finance such an
idea And. to be frank, there are hun
dreds OF small towns in the country
where your idea would apply as well.
It's all a matter of getting your money
for it in Marketown."
A few weeks later she had another
letter in which he said he was coming
back to Marfetown on his way through
to New YORK. and would see her then.
So it happened that one Spring af-
tornoon Ruth took Langley out over
the fat fields beyond the river-unpro-
ductive land that yielded nothing but
weeds and rocks and mosquitoes.
You see," she began. I'D like to
get our Civic Committee to buy up
some of this land, or get a grant of it
from the toWn-which would have to
buy it from the two men who now
own 1t. 1t could be bought very cheap
Just now.
Then 7 want the committee, or the
town, to offer it free as factory sites.
That will bring us factories, perhaps
not large ones, but even few small
ones would help. If we wanted to de-
velop any one industry here, we could
offer special inducements in the way
OF water and power and such things.
The factories once here, the labor
ers must follow. In that way we build
up our town. of course. The mer
chants will back us since more people
means more trade.
"Of course. I suppose you've been
reading OF the developments along
these lines Of the other cities. In New
England, for instance
They talked it over for an hour
Then Ruth went on with the rest o!
her idea.
Meantime, We must build homes for
The workers. And that's the thing I'm
interested in. I don't want rows of
brick or wood houses, as we have in
cur present factory district. I want
70 take a square of ground, and build
a solid block of house all around it,
varying the style so each will be
pretty, and all CT them go we'll together