The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-03-14

Fri. asked her for some money, too,
in Il bigger lump than she usually
wanted, hundred and fifty dollars,
and Jennie wrote her the check, not
feeling at all sure whether she was
playing the. part of wise woman or
misguided fool.
After a week of this she revealed
her mystery. 81 wanted to see whether
I liked 1t or not before said any
thing, that's ALL" she told Jennie.
"Why, I'm going to school. You see,
when you told me ought to do some
thing-take lessons, you know, the
only thing / could think of that l
wanted TO go on taking lessons in was
swimming That sounds kind of silly,
know, but it's SO. There's a peach
of a swimming-teacher I'd heard or
at the gym out in Evanston, so went
to see him about it. But it seems that
the gym is part of Northwestern uni
versity. and except In summer ne
doesn't give lessons, only to students
in the university.
ANY sort of student would DO,
though; you don't have to study Latin
or mathematics, so / went around 10
the office to see what kind of. student
/ wanted to be. They've got special
school there, School of Speech, they
call it, and I thought that would De
pretty good for me. Everybody laughs
at the way / talk, anyhow. 80 l
planked down my hundred and nfty
and wrote a letter to the high schooi
at Pasadena to send word on that Ia
really graduated-and there l am. l
like the school even better than the
swimming. They teach you a lot OF
interesting things: acting and dancing,
and so on. Physical education, they
call it. Things that are some earthly
good to you! I'm going TO be good al
1t, too. Show 'em few things! You
watch ~
This, at first blush, seemed to Jen-
ME to solve all problems at stroke.
Meanwhile it had got into October,
and Joe kept postponing his return
from the Northwest. For weeks his
reports had been full of material for
enthusiasm. All the machinery for
processing the fax was installed and
in order. They had begun working the
retted straw. 1t was going through
without hitch. There were some
improvements In the direction of econ
omy and simplification which could
proftably be made, but they had
turned up no serious defects.
Williamson and the Corbetts had
begun showing symptoms of an enliv-
ened interest; took to dropping in at
the office to see the samples Joe was
sending down, In greater bulk from
week to week, for testing in the lab
oratory, and the finished products that
came out of it. They had equipped
the laboratory, by now, under the
charge of a new technical man, ss a
mill with spinning machinery and
looms; all the equivalents, on a re
duced scale, for commercial linen
manufacture-and the way the stuff
came through these searching tests
was well beyond the more conserva-
tive of their expectations-not far
short, indeed, of Joe's glowing
prophecies.
But this was only the beginning of
| 1t. Interest In the new process, ex-
element over the prospect 1t offered
of finding fortune in the worthless
straw of seed-fax, were spreading
over the Northwest country like a
prairie-fre. Groups of local capital
lists were coming almost daily to visit
the four mills. The organization Of
subsidiary companies was already get
ting beyond the talking stage Money
itself was beginning to talk. Capital
was being subscribed. BY the time
next years crop came in, three states
would be dotted with their four-thou-
sand-ton mills producing raw linen
under the Greer process.
To the financiers' startled reminder
that their original program had not
contemplated going as fast az this,
Joes replies were more confident and
urgent than ever. Now was the time
to strike. Everybody was ready; con-
fidence was running high everywhere
If they bestirred themselves, seized
the opportunity at the flood, they
could repay the whole investment in
the enterprise out Of the first years
profits and be on velvet thereafter.
Joe was Irresistible In this phrase
He had taken the bit in his teeth, but
it wasn't possible to say he was -un-
ming wild. The figures and the facts,
as well as the temper of the country,
were going along with him. The great
postwar boom was at its height dur
ing the summer and. autumn of 1919.
And then; one day, when expecta-
tion 7as looking its rosiest, letter
came into the office that produced a
panic. 1t was from firm of patent
LAWYERS, one of the best-established
and most formidable in the city, and
II served formal warning that Joe's
process in general and much of his
machinery in particular, infringed the
prior patents of a client. All manu-
facture and sale of linen under the
Greer process would henceforth be-
carried on at the peril Of the Greer
company. The rival process. 1t even
tually appeared, was one for the In
dustrial utilization of corn-stalks.
The financiers decided they wanted