The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-04-28
Whnt has happened before.

minEham's future.
 At years old, .tObert LandOn be- gins his awakening to young man. hood by .oining the Boy Scouts. The son of a poor woman, le leads any thing but an enviabfe existence, but citizenship and what 1t means has begun to stir in his soul. One day, seeing cornerstOnc being laid and hearing the nttehCant eulOgy to n citizen, Bob vows he will be great man.
 A red-haird girl hears him, and much to BOb's embarrassment, speaks up and encourages the idea. He loses her after bOyish promise that he will make good just for her sake. An automobile drives up and whiskS her away shortly after she bids ki, n Rood-by. He realized he made n mis- take in locating the house where he thought she lived. Getting home. Bob Is scoIded by his mOther-but pacifies her when he tells her he wirhes to do something really fine for her when he grows up. But he Is worried because he does not know how to find the red-headed girl. He Is eager to talk over his bOyish fu- ture with her.
 After a lengthy search he is un- able to find he
 He decides to become mn architect and gets job with the best and most successful firm in Birmingham.
 CHAPTER "
 While these days the architect be- gan to turn whole jobs over to Bob, and Bob was away from the office a great deal seeing that the carpenters and builders were doing their work according to specification, he was . not making a living wage.
 He must have more money. This money was needed in order that he aI.1 his aged mother might live with ease. She still was taking in wash ing-but nowadays they lived where the backyard afforded a hydrant of city water.
 As month after month, anC then three years had passed, Bob writhed under the necessity of such menial la bcr for his mother and decided he must take on second profession in order to realize his dream of ease for her. She was growing old very rapidly.
 Hadn't Considered Money
 Up to this time, all thought of busi- ness from the standpoint of mere money making had been resolutely put out of his mind, with his absorp- tion in the business of being an ar chitect.
 What would he be?
 How he wished he had the red headed girl to talk to! She would not advise him wrong. Besides, she must be getting to be a big girl now, and would have lots more sense even than when he knew her.
 But if she lived in Birmingham the very earth must have swallowed her up. She had so completely vanished that sometimes Bob feared she might have died. Oft when he would be looking through the death notices and saw where children had died he would question:
 Could that have been, wonder, the little kid I saw?"
 The older he became the more he began to sort of patronize her-to feel much more grown up than she ito refer to her as the kid"
 In his mind, she refused to grow up. He kept her forever in his memory standing there, in the mid dle of the street, her great eyes upon him, her lips assuring him that she knew he could make his mark
 Put Her Aside
 Finally, after many more vain ef- forts to locate her, Bob mentally transplanted her into the yard of the unfinished Ghost House, which ex- isted only in his fancy, and put her there knee deep in poppies. Now that was something like! The mag nificent setting suited.
 Then he relegated her to the past altogether.
 Bob finally made up his mind that he would become a lawyer. He was gifted with a good voice, pleasing ad- dress and a powerful persuasiveness, and there is no doubt but that he could have been successful
 But the little Gods ofs Fate who pursue most mortals had Cecreed his career otherwise and spoke in no un- certain terms when the crisis came. Bob keyed himself up |. the situ- ation.
 'I'll just take it up with Mir. Val don this afternoon, he decided Might as we'll quit my job now and get down to real business.
 He felt he could get with some firm, somehow.
 This Was Business
 Bob had become an architect,' he felt, mostly just on excitement This time his decision would be on the flat-footed basis of getting down to one profession on which the energies of his whole life would be spent It was not true, but nowadays Bob felt sometimes that, in being an architect, he was dallying. The trouble was that he had never decided that archi- lecture was his profession.
 So with his decision in the back of his brain, Bob faced his employer when he came in. He opened his subject without quibbling.
 M Valdon, you've certainly been a prince to me-but I am going to leave you.''
 The architect was so surprised that he opened his mouth to gay something but. no phrases coming. he shut it again.
 "I've decided to become lawyer, sir"
 The architects speech came quickly enough at that.
 "what?" he fairly screamed at Bob, "Yes sir-and if it suits, I'll be leaving at once"
 "Where-where do you expect to hook on-alingn yourself, l might say, stuttered the astonished gen tieman.
 Could Find Job
 Well, to tell you the truth, don't know, sir but I'll get on.'
 You mean to tell me you are go- ing to quit a salaried job with noth- ing in sight; that you are going to quit job you understand something about for something visionary, and
 AUDAcIOUS ARCHIE