Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1929-07-27
First Instalment

First Instalment
'Los Angeles" the sneering
preacher cried. as Jonah might have
whinnied, "Ninevehw and with
equal scorn. The Spanish mission
aries may have called it the City
Of angels; but the moving pictures
have changed its name TO Los
Diablosl For it is the central fac
toy Of Satan and his minions. the
enemy of our homes, the corrupter
o. our young men and women-the
school of crime. Unless il reforms
-anN 3oon!-Surely, in Gods good
timc, the ocean viii rise and swal-
low it~ =
though he was two thousand
mics or more away-the Reverend
Doctor Steddon was so convinced
BY lis own prophetic ire that he
would hardly have been surprised
to read in the Monday mornings
paper that a benevolent earthquake
had taken his hint and shrugged
the new Babylon off into the Pacific
ocean.
Put Doctor Steddon, if he could
have seen the realm he objurgated,
would have confessed that the devil
had a certain grace as a gardener
and that his minions were a hand
some, happy throng, AS it was,
Doctor Steddon had never seen Los
Angeles and had never seen a
moving picture. He knew that the
world was going TO wrack and ruin
as usual-and he laid the blame
on the nearest novelty-as usual.
His daughter had heard him lay
the blame in previous years on
other activities. She wished he
wouldn't.
But then she had not escaped
blame herself, and she was in a
mortal dread now Of vast Cloud
OF obloQuy lowering above her and
oEiaouS with lightning.
Her father and mother had named
her Remember-after one of the
Mar1rap5r girls-nearly three hun
drci wears after. Her father often
w,shtd that she had been liker to
those Puritan maidens. But that
WI, because he did not know how
Tx. she VAS to them, how much
the. lao, had terrified their parents
with their love of fnery and
romantic experiment.
For II is only the styles, and not
the souls, that change. There are
chronicles enough to prove that the
sam. quota OF the Remembers and
t., praiSegods Of Plymouth and the
other colonies suffered the rauc
bitter beatitudes and frantic be
indictments as Remember Steddon
and Elwood Farnaby endured when
their elbows touched in the choir
lott of this mid Western village.
Miss Steddon felt a Sudden trcmof
i. Farudby'; elbow; then it was
caHe from hers: she saw his thumb
na whiten as /, g. 0ed the hymn
back hard
umchow in ms words he
csau,ed sccwri TO stab h;m with I
sense OF gut He tci; Il L Ter
riblc thing Tor her tc stand before
that congregation aud cry aloud
words of ecstacy ever her redcmp-
ton from sin.
Their secret, ur.,,9vu and uncon-
f-sscd. was cons ed By the very
camor Of its publication, Md it
troubled Farnaby nightly 10 De
gaming all the advantage O, lie by
singing the truth.
When the choir was not singing
openly and aboyeboard, it was
usually busily whispering. Even
Elwood Farnaby had to lean over
tonight and whisper important news
to Remember. He was not per-
united to call at her house or 20
beau her home after the service.
Singing beside her in the house OF
God-that was different He told
her now what he had just learned,
that the factory where he was en-
ployed would close down the fol-
lowing week because OF hard times
Elwood was to have been promoted
to Superintendent soon.
To Remember Sheldon the news
that Elwood would nave no job in
week and would know no place to
look for one had more than a COM
mercial interest. It was the alarum
Of fate. =
She had loved Elwood since they
were children-had loved him all
the more for the squalor of his
home. He was the son of the
towns most eminent drunkard, old
~Falldown Farnaby."
Among the slipshod children of
his family Elwood alone had man
aged to acquire ambition. He had
htteriy supported his mother and
pack of brothers and sisters. He
had even been able to afford to go
to the war and win the guerdon of
q wound that made him glorious IN
Remember Steddon's eyes and a
little more lovable than ever.
Her father, however, had been
unable to tolerate the thought Of bis
daughters marrying the son of the
town sot. Doctor Steddon felt that
he was proving his love, his loving
wisdom toward his daughter. By
torblddlng her even 10 meet young
Farnaby outside the choir ieH. He
was sore that her low would wear
sstt. o
Hs did NOT know his aarsnssz.
Who svT dg' .
HwesS I'D szpssssd fhsa the bod
psvs SssiA shpcS hg. Hst he could
a tao,&nxSAasA "A iso& n aAAs<3v