The Holly chieftain., 1924-05-22
JOSEPH GREER AND
HIS DAUGHTER

sure and come back first thing to-
morrow morning and tell me about It,"
II won't forget" she promised. but
she went away with sadly divided
mind. He had made it plain that the
hundred and fifty dollars he had asked
her to get him was not going to he
mentioned to Doctor Bennett.
There has not been, and of course
there never will he, "next time" for
Joe Greer, II one means by the phrase
return match with John Williamson
and his allies This story, which be-
Eun-lr a story can be sulu TO, pegm-
on the April day in 1919 when they
organized the company, ended on the
Friday in the fall when Jennie went
to WllliaInsons office and signed, un-
der Joe's power of attorney, the con-
tract the tinanciers offered her. They
were completely and finally the vic
tors. The spoi!s of .JOes process for
making linen from the straw that had
once been burned in the fields be-
longed to them; not to Joe, whose
Imagination had conceived the proc
ess; nor to the small, careful, mod
estly prosperous folk who built the
mills; nor to the farmers who grew
the fax.
Reluctantly one comedies the i'm
probability of any other outcome, even
If Joe had never summoned his dis
turbing daughter from California to
live with him, nor sustained con-
cussion of the brain and resorted to
alcohol as cure nor fallen in love
with his antagonists wife. Unimagi-
native, soft, irresolute, kindly, as these
stall-fed folk seemed to him to be,
their qualities are more than he can
cope with. They are truly gregarious;
they are, by tradition and temper, col
ectors, harvesters, stowers-away: and
a man like Joe, who had no real in
terest In property beyond the dynamic
use Of it as part Of the processes of
getting something done, stands little
chance against them.
There's another side to the thing.
though. II John Williamson's jolly
little daughter Dorothy is ever swept
from her moorings by some storm Of
passion, as Beatrice was swept, into
an alien world, that experience will
be determinative for the rest Of her
life. And if ever you find John hud-
died under rug shuddering from the
exhaustion of alcoholic excesses, de-
feated, abdicating under the broadest
power of attorney his lawyers know
how to draw, you will be safe in
prophesying that this is the end of
John Williamson. But Joseph Greer
and his daughter are actuated by
livelier principle-kinetic, not static;
the river, not the reservoir. They
may come crashing down over the
falls-but they make their way.
Something about like this, though
not formulated in quite these terms,
was the conviction Henry Craven
found Jennie abiding in when he
talked with her about Joe for the first
time after the capitulation This was
not until the very end Of November.
He'd been seriously i'll with bronchitis
and glad to be-for three weeks. 1t
was not upon Joe, however. that their
conversation began.
She had greeted him with double
hnndshake and spontaneous revela-
ton of her pleasure In seeing him
about again, and her concern over his
illness. He flushed at her friendliness
and said as he took the armchair she
pulled up for him. Il ought to have
said my say before I let you shake
hands with me. Before I've finished
you may want to take 1t back" He
wouldn't be laughed out of this, either.
He took three envelops from his
pocket; one Of them, he told her, was
his resignation of his Office as treas
urer, and one his resignation as di.
rector. These he passed over to her.
The third he kept in his hand. about
the directorate, don't care" he said.
'Tll leave it with you, and If you want
to keep me on for while, to avoid
having only minority of the board
left, why, I'll be glad to serve When.
ever you want to make up new
board, you can just fill in the date
But the other resignation, as treas