Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-03-16
"THE FRAUD
OF MEN"
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE

Copyright, 1922. BY the Macmillan Co.

UT WAS in the reception room of a
club house in an inland city,
Il where the two young men had
met by chance hat evening. There
was a stuffy prOfusion of leather fur
niture in the room that gave it a
heavy cast. Men were talking in
knots of two or three, apparently
on business, and when an outsider
entered a group, conversation was dis
tinctly and painfully suspended, or
Jagged in cold formalities until he had
drifted away. The men there We're
clearly business men, and were there
by business appointment, and h ele-
ment of sociability was manifested
only in the click of the billiard balls
that echoed in from some invisible
rear room, where the younger men,
too tired TO go to the theater, or to
the evening gathering with their wives
or sweethearts, were walking un-
counted miles after the ivory balls.
1t was a brisk autumn evening, and
the clock on the mantel was striking
eight when two young men pulled
lliCt LAT CAldliO W lAC MAAAhOAs NAlCAO
they could see the theater-gOers hur-
rying by under the arc light, and where
they might not be interrupted.
well, old man, what d'you think
of the East" asked the shorter of the
two, a very stubby little mar with a
red face, red lips and a bristling,
close-cropped mustache. His compan-
H.. n 4,JI raon NTH clrinnu fon-
lures, square shoulders, a head poised
too far back at times, but capable of
bending, and he had a habit of picking
at his mustache.
"Oh, d-n the East" said the tall
young man. "Jim, I'll tell you what's
a Gods truth, they are the worst lot
of jays back there-absolutely the
worst that grow on earth. They don't
know any more about this country,
and what's in it, than a satrap of
Persia. When l told them about our
scheme, showed them the map of all
this land that is to be foreclosed, and
how the whole thing can be watered
by d central ditch, and all-you re
member how it is out there-one old
rooster who hasn't been out of his
barnyard in all his life, he up and
said: Yes, all very good, very good,
indeed, but supposing there is an In
dian outbreak-then where's all our
money for your improvements gomez
Say, Jim, I just fell right over dead.
1 met old man Wilson there-say, hold
on here, what's this l hear? There
goes Martin and his kids, taking them
to Ali Baba; see what you're coming
to. So you finally got your nerve with
you, did you? Go-o-od!"
With this outburst the bubbles of
the promoters enthusiasm subsidized.
His companion Redeemed slightly at
the raillery and put one side of his
under lip over his stubby mustache in
an embarrassed silence that ended in
a smirk.
"Well. Harris" he responded adj
dressing the taller friend, you've
guessed it the first time, l suppose.
But we must all settle down sooner or
later, and anyway a man don't find
that kind of a girl every day in the
year." He paused a moment and Har-
ris broke in:
"Oh, yes, if it comes to that, /
suppose he must. 1 amt a-kicking
any,, am 1? Now, Jimmy, that's a good
boy. come and tell Ownest own all
about He was interrupted in his
mock coddling by n of the drifters
who had been knocked from half a
dozen groups, and had floated around
in front of the formidable chairs. He
was a pretty old man, who had been a
country banker in his day, n had
come up and put new life into a wob-
bling institution after a local panic.
He cut in with "Well, what are you
kids casing about? Hello, there, Har-
ris, did you make your irrigation
scheme go?"
Harris looked up with annoyance
written Enthusiastically on his face as
he said, hardly civilly, yep" and
lapsed into silence.
There was a pause, In which Jim
addressed a remark to Harris about
the big crowd that was going to the
theater. A street car had just IN
loaded at the corner. The Kansas mar
took the remark as general, and re-
piled:
"Say, amt they though; been that
way, too, every night this week"
"Lookie quick! !" exclaimed Harris
to his companion. Moths side
there goes Cameron; who's that with
her? Got a new 'mash'?"
"Why, you don't mean to say that
you haven't heard" replied Jim, as
he shifted his position in his chair.
"She's going to get married, too. All
the old birds going home to nest"
why, do you boys know Mrs.
Cameron" asked the banker with
some surprise. 81 didn't know h was
in your set"
'Ho! Ho! And so you know the
widow, too? l.. No. 3S4 of the Cameron
series, eh, Jimmy?' said Harris.
The woman, holding to a rather
slender young fellow, perhaps thirty