Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28

able figure it was to hover for the res
! OF his life.
He looked mature beyond his years
: under certain Examinations his vel
low hair became a dignified white
and his bulk added to the impression
of authority that he gave. During his
first five years off the farm there was
never a time when he wasn't schem-
! ing TO get into business for himself.
For 4 temperament like Henry Nc
ComaS. insistent on running at pace
OF its own, independence was an utter
necessity. He must make his own
rules. Willy-nilly. even though he Join
the ranks of those many abiect fail
ures who have also tried. Just one
week after he had achieved his eman-
cipation from other peoples HE
rarchies he was moved to expound his
point TO Theodore Drinkwater. his
partner--this because Drinkwater had
wondered aloud if he intended never
to come downtown before II.
Il doubt it," said McComas.
Later in the week one of their first
clients invited them to lunch at a cele-
brated club: the clubs least member
was a rajah of the swelling, expanding
empire.
Look around. Ted" whispered Nc
prize fighter, and there's one who
looks like a ham actor. That's a
plumber there behind you. There's a
couple of coWboyS---do you see?
There's a chronic invalid and a conf
denCe man, a Notwithstanding one
on the right BY golly, where are all
the big business men we came to see?"
The route back to their office took
them by a small restaurant where
clerks lunChed.
Take a look at them, Ted, and
you'll find the men who know the
rules-and think and act and look like
just what they are"
Il suppose if they put on pink mus
taches and came to work at in the
afternoon. they'd get to be great
men," scoffed Drinkwater.
Posing is exactly what 1 don't
mean. Just accept yourself. We're
brought up on fairy stories about the
new leaf, but who goes on believing
them, except those who have to be-
lave and have to hope. or else go
crazy? / think America will be a
happier country when the individual
begins to look his personal limitations
in the face. Anything that's in your
character at q is usually there to
stay"
TN any case, what was in Henry Nc
Comas' was there to stay. Henry
MCComaS wouldn't dine with a client
in a bad restaurant for a proposition
of three figures, wouldn't hurry his
luncheon for proposition of four,
wouldn't go without it for a PROPOSE
ton of five. And, in spite of these
peculiarities, the exporting firm in
which he owned 40 per cent of the
stock began to pepper South America
with locomotives, dynamos, hydraulic
engines, cranes and other appurte-
nances of civilization. In 1918, when
Henry McComas was "a. he owned
house on Ninety-second street and
calculated that his income for the
next year would come to 10000. And
because of a sudden and unexpected
demand from Europe which was not
for pink lemonade, it came to twice
that. The buying agent for the Brit
ish government arrived, followed by
the buying agents for the French,
Belgian, Russian and Serbian govern
mentS, and share of the commodi-
ties required were assembled under
the stewardship of Drinkwater and
McComas. There was a chance that
they would be rich men. Then this
eventuality began to turn on the wom-
an Henry McComas had married.
Stella McComas was the daughter
of small hay and grain dealer of
upper New York. Her father was un-
lucky and always on the verge of
failure, so she grew up in the shadow
of worry. Later. while Henry Nc.
Comas got his start in New York, she
earned her living by teaching physical
culture in the public schools of Utica
In consequence, she, brought to her
marriage a belief in certain stringent
rules for the care of the body and an
exaggerated fear of adversely.
For the first years she was so alb
sorbed in her babies that she accepted
Henry as something outside the scope