Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-26
Mt MARRIAGE
III PROBLEMS
Adele Garrison'S
New Phase o..
REVELATIONS
OF WIFE
WHY MADGE WAS ABLE TO AS
TONISH ALLEN DRAKE

With fingers that l could not keep
steady. l picked up the third pile of
papers which Allen Drake had left,
ran them through, then returning to
the topmost one, studied it intently.
With the scrutiny, time and local
ity vanished, and l was back in the
days when, first as a student of anci-
emit history, and then as a teacher,
l had been intensely, almost uncannily
interested in those wonderful records
on fragments of hone and rock, which
tell of the history of races vanished
before counted time began.
l could not explain even to myself
joy in studying about those inscrip-
tiOns, some of them in characters that
resolved themselves into primitive Ian
guage, others simply rude pictures
such as very young children might
draw, but it had been explained to me
-once-in dramatic fashion.
Years Roll Backward
At Mrs. Stewards boarding house.
where I had lived for 30 many years
with my mother, there had also lived
a very old man, a retired professor of
philology-indeed, he was more than
a philologist, if ever any one deserved
the rare title of linguister it was he
who. in addition to his other acquire
ments. had delved deep into the begin
nings of language. He was a singular
" lonely old man, and when by an acct
dent. he found out my interest. un-
and amateurish as it was. in
bis pursuits, his pleasure was pathetic.
From him / learned many things.
grated upon a very ordinary trunk of
lingual achievement, some branches of
unusual and creditable knowledge of his
And it was he, a devout be-
in reincarnation-when once I
ing Of an inscription. who had exclaim-
ed dramatically:
MY child, it is because you have
many lives that this comes to
you so readily! You once drew these
when you had no other way
of recording things"
Even the amusement, hidden from
him. with which I had received his
had been tinged with an eerie
which l could not understand.
which had returned to me whenever ]
thought of that years-past study. and
my old friend. long since gone to study
the eternal beginnings of things.
"cuneiform. of Counsel"
That eerie feeling returned to me
now as ! scanned the odd markings on
he third pile of papers. which Allen
Drake had copied-with absolute fidel-
ity, I was sure-from the originals con-
,ealed in Smiths ostensible eyeglass
,ase. For the markings. while l could
not recognize them, yet had q charac-
.er which linked them in my mind with
he notebooks Of my own. and some of
he rare technical volumes which my
I'D friend had bequeathed to me.
They had been packed in a trunk
,ver since my marriage. and it was
,nly at long intervals hat l INDUCED
secret liking for their perusal.
in my acquaintanceship with
Oicky ] had realized that he would
lave only good-humored ridicule for so
i'd a pursuit. and so I had kept from
everything but a cursory knowl-
'dge of it. Even that gave him the
opportunity for jocular references to
ne as a history shark" and a high
,row"-references which in my early
married life caused much discomfort
nut which troubled me little now. espe-
since the years have atught me
hat though Dicky scoffed, yet he was