New Britain herald., 1926-12-31
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 Ns@a@ Clifford L LMlbaErnes
@lo26 NEA SERVICE INC,
WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE To the home of Prof and Mollie | Elwcll in Camdenville, Ind. one
 night in October 1898. comes Mar | tha Dalton, q nurse. bearing a wo- man who had fainted on the train. Elwell is an artist. He has a son, | Jim, aged ,. Late that night the wo- man bears twin girls and dies with
 out revealing her name, The FL wells adopt the gir.s.
 The story then moves forward | IS years. The twins, now growing to beautiful womanhood have been named Margaret and Elizabeth and 1iclnamed Rusty and Betty. Jim Elwel cnlists in the World War He then discovers that .ne of the twins loves him and he loves her.
 Put in charge of a machine gun unit at the Battle of sedan, he is | shell-shocked and, through q mix up, is registered as John Powell, buddy of his. He is removed to an American hospital. where Iowels mother and fiuncoe see him and declare there is a mis- take.
 NOW BEGIN THE STORY CHAPTER XVIII The mistake. the supervisor went on, addressing the mother and sweetheart of John Powell, must have been made in France. 'I'll have our superintendent communi- cate with the war office immediately and we'll get this matter straight cnod out if possible. And now l think you had better go back to Newark and wait until we can get word from Washington"
 And so the two returned to their home in New Jersey. And the man who had been brought 10 the hospi- tai wearing the label of John w. Powell Jr., of Newark, was now left without any name. -. They call cd him the Unknown Soldier.
 In the meantime Prof and Mollie Elwell and the girls, out in Cam dcnville, Ind, were beginning 10 wonder why no word had yet reach ed them from Jim, since the arm isticc had been in effect now for nearly two months.
 Could it be, they began to ask one another, that Jim had suffered q relapse while convalescing from the flu and was unable to write? For the last letter they had received from him was the one telling of his illness and the probability of his having to remain in the hospital for another month.
 As a matter of fact, had the FL wells been a little less cheerful of hcart-had they considered the pos siblity of Jim's having gone back into action and been in at the fin ish of the war, and had they got hold of certain published casualty lists of the killed and wounded in that Battle of Sedan. the last of the war. their waiting would no longer have been a suspense. Ii would have been the cold belief of cir cumstantial evidence. They would have seen the name of Private James T. Elwell in the list of men killed at Sedan.
 And so the Elwells rested for a while in the happy, if bit anxious state of blissful ignorance regarding his accepted fate.
 But hope deferred maketh the heart sick" It also stirs people into action sometimes. It did in the FL well case, for when Christmas came and passed without any word from Jim, Prof Elwell wrote a letter of inquiry to the war office at Wash ington.
 Ten days later the little family got it's answer IL read
 James T. Elwell, Company-of the --th Regiment, Second Division of the American Army in France, was killed in a shell explosion on November at the Battle of Sedan.' Followed the usual stereotyped ex- pressions of condolcnce.
 Prof Elwell got the communica- ton and read it silently. Mollio looked on with blanched face.
 He came over to her and put his arms around her. our boys gone, Mollie We'll have to take it stand ing up, though, on account of the twins. Just lean on me. Mollie."
 "G-gone, Prof?" Mollie faltered. her lips trembling. You mean-'
 Hes dead, dear. He died like hero in the last battle of the war God! The irony of it! In the last battle of the war"
 "Oh, why. Why, dear Lord and Mollie laid her head on her hus- bands breast.
 And then it was that grief and despair rose up and stalked side by side throughout the House of FL well.
 Prof and Mollie did take the blow standing their hearts torn with angush, but, aside from Mollles first reaction, their tongues uncom- blaming. They accepted it as did thousands and thousands of other mothers and fathers of boys that died for their country.
 But the hearts of Rusty and Betty were of a less heroic and more emo tional fiber. All their roseatc dreams and plans for that wonderful day "when Jim comes home" crystallized . into the cold realities of lite's grim cxactitudos. Joy turned into the wormwood of an acrid bitterness as they saw their hope-bUilt castles m the air disintegrate and fall into ruins to the ground,
 Nor, as the weeks dragged their weary way along in that war sad dened household, did that elasticity of youth so frequently spoken of by writers of effervescert fiction make . itself particularly manifest In the i manners of these two girls. The smiles and laughter that had once the little home were seen and heard no more.
 They went on long, sad walks to- . rethpr One day they made d pill