The Washington times., 1922-08-27

girl, almost, that he had mar
John Reisler doubtless does not
understand It all. either. He was
O mere boy when he married Min
ME Katz, and she q slim, dark
eyed, black.haired sirEtust as her
sister, Bertha. seventeen years
younger, was when Reisler later
became 10 strangely interested In
her.
John THE BARBER"
He was a barber then. develop
ing a chain of shops and branching
into sports. Ever since then he
has been known n "John the Bar
ber." an odd type along the So
called Rialto of the city. speculat-
ing in anything from seaside con-
cessions to theatrical productions.
As. he grew prosperous and
mingled with the sporting set Of
Broadway. he turned away from
his ageing wife, who seemed some
what out of his class. in his own
eyes at least. She surely wasn't
the woman he had married-and
then her little sister. Bertha. at
tracted his eye. and in, her he saw
the wife OF his youth again!
AZ iong as he lives, John Reisler
win never know what It was all
about nor why it should happen so.
Yet the thing, in its stark horror.
was inevitable. Everyone outside
the family saw It coming long ago,
but Reisler was SO close to the
machinery of fate that he could
not appreciate its slow, unceasing
operation.
with Bertha dead at his feet;
with his wife, their two sons. and
her brother indicted for the girls
murder. John the Barber said, with
pathetic help'essness:
I'm neutral in this matter. Let
the law take its course"
Mrs. Reislsr. who boasted that
she killed her young sister with
four bullets; Morris, her twenty
four-old son. charged by dying
Bertha with firing the shots;
George. the eighteen-year-old son.
who assisted: Max Katz. brother
of the gloating wife and the slain
girl-they do not understand, even
though they sit in the shadow Of
the electric chair, because they do
not understand John Reisler and
John doesn't understand because
he knows noth1Rg about romance.
WARPED ROMANCE.
Yes. q seed Of romance was at
the root Of It. Look at the pictures
Of John the Barber and look at the
picture Of his wife and smile at the
suggestion Of romance, II you like,
but romance sowed there. twenty
seven years ago, when they first
met. In the fetid atmosphere and
ugly environment, the seeding
grew twisted and warped but It did
not die; better for six lives II It
had. perhaps.
For then when Minnie Reisler
grew broad ana fat and weary with
the bearing and rearing Of children
and household cares, she wouldn't
have cared when her husband
turned to younger and attractive
woman. even II that woman were
her own sister. Yet, II romance
had died in John Reisler's heart,
he wouldn't have bothered about
any other woman, and he was in
love with his wifel TheP's the
answer to II all. Nor the
wife, who leered vensefully over
Bertha's body and promised gIoat-
ingiy to put . lily in her hand be-
fore she was buried. not the wife
who harried him from pillar to
post. but he was IN love with the
slim young girl In her teens whom
he married . quarter century ago
the girl whom he saw living
again in the form Of Bertha Katz.
the sister of tho wife who had
grown old and unioveiy.
THE SECOND BLOOMING.
Bertha at fifteen. when he was
attracted to her. was all that Min
ME had been when Reisler first
met her. She was slim. ciear-eyed,
alert. and on the verge OF matur-
~. when he realized this. eight