White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-11-28


of time.
At thirty-fve Ed Cooke was undoubt-
eddy the community's outstanding fig
ure. AT thirty-five, this boy, whom
they had seen grow from tow-head-
ed youngster to bizarre, poetic-look-
ing fellow, was anything but what he
appeared to be. In spite of his shock
of Dlond-gray hair. his tendency to
loose clothing and flowing ties, his
rather rolling gait and easy air OF
nonchalance, he was self-made mil
lionaire. And the paradox was that
this up-and-coming fellow, whose wild
owed mother had kept a notion store,
and whose success was entirely a mat
ter of his own aggressiveness, was
at thirty-fve as much under the thumb
of his parent as he had been at fif-
teen.
The town looked on and rollicked
with laughter. Ed Cooke and his
mother now occupied fine six-room
suite in the small city's best hotel.
AS matter of fact, Ed Cooke was
a silent partner in the ownership OF
this hotel. AS matter of further
fact, Ed Cooke was the sometime 81
lent and the sometime articulate part
ner in pretty nearly every enterprise
in that up-andcoming oil community.
He had his finger in practically ev-
cry financial pie in the district, was
president Of two banks, on the board
Of directors of every local corporation
worthy of the name, owned real es-
tate that had grown in value from
cost price of thousands to a selling
price of hundreds Of thousands, was
the largest shareholder in the city's
newest skyscraper and owned out
right the two largest motion picture
theaters in the state.
He was a local figure. He was more
than that. New York capital reckoned
with the operations Of Ed Cooke.
And he was more than that. The larg-
est institute for the blind in the Mid
die West was the result Of his direct
endowment. At thirty-five he was an
| important philanthropist. Some said
| that his mother directed entirely this
aspect of his activities That was
true. But so did she direct pretty
nearly every other aspect.
When Ed Cooke came home to his
| mother, after day Of high finance
or big business, he was just any small
boy, and Mrs. Cooke, who at sixty
| looked like a large, lean, calculating
eagle, reigned with free, bold hand.
1t was, ED, I won't be kept wait
ing for dinner" ED, you're to take
mother, have directors meeting
"The directors meeting will keep. We
are going to the movies"
And to the movies they did go.
There certainly was no exaggera-
ton to the local Interpretation of Ed
and his mother. He was henpecked
son.
Mother, may 60 out to the coun-
try club this Sunday with some of the
boys for golf?"
"No. | promised the old ladies at
my deaf institution to bring you out
there"
Mother, how would you like to
take trip to Hawaii with me? need
a rest"
I'D hate it. Well 60 to Cedar
Springs for your rest"
And to Cedar Springs they would
go.
People said that Ed Cooke had new
er dared contemplate marriage. They
were forced to admit further, how
ever, that so far as anyone knew, the
hem Of romance had never brushed
by Eos way. That is, until he u's
once seen out with telephone girl
In one of his banks. A little, deniure,
browD.eyed girl named Betty Sim
mons.
At that, gossip ran high. A cham
bermaid in his hotel reported to an
other chambermaid that Ed kept a
journal under lock and key, and that
in this journal there was pasted a
picture Of Betty Simmons. That, too,
spread like wildfire through the town
and then died down again. Nothing
happened.
Ed had little system which he en-
ployed with his mother, psychology
cal device Let Ed so much as say to
his mother, II don't feel like going
downstairs in the big dining room to-
night. Let's have dinner in our
rooms" and sure as fate, Mrs. Cooke,
whose vitality at sixty was amazing,
would up and prepare for descent
into the dining room.
Through long years Ed had come to
learn this streak in his mother. Her
unconscious expression of her strong
self-will She loved him with a pas
sion that was ruthless. She tried to
kill the thing she loved. And for
years on end Ed, who was by nature
an executive, an aggressor, a success
person, lived under the blight Of her
thrived in spite of her; achieved,
where lesser man would have gone
down to his defeat.
With every inch Of the pressure of