Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1931-06-05
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'THESTORY OF
A THWARTED
SUICIDE
******i
BY FANNIE HURST

TO THE druggist, what happened
one motionless July evening, on
i one Of those streets of lower
New York that after dark,
whether merited or not, take on a sin
lister gloom, while by no means routine
was nonetheless not without frequent
precedent In the many years of his
shopkeeping.
He knew the ear-marks so well.
The strangely lit eyes, the smeared
pallOr, the elaborate manner of asking
for rat poison. In the case Of the girl
with the strawberry-colored hair and
the pitiful lower lip with a tiny mole
that looked like a court plaster beau
ty spot, 1t was much the same as
usual, except that she was so young.
Not over sixteen. If the druggist was
any Judge. and he fattered himself
that he was.
The thing to do In these cases was
not to interfere; to interfere was to
invite desperate and frightened recoil.
There was little shelf In the store
for just such emergency. Neat little
phials of barley water duly labeled
poison" In this wise, chances were
the subject would have time to re-
cover from the mental alteration and
in all probability not repeat the at.
teEpt at self-destruction.
That had been the druggists expert
ence where he had been in a position
to follow up the case. but usually they
just drifted out of sight after the fias-
co he thrust on them, and 1t was left
to his intuition, which he trusted, to
gauge the results.
On one or two occasions the would
be seIf-annihilators had returned to
thank him for the deception. But
more usually, at least according to the
druggists conviction, they just drifted
sheepishly out of sight.
In any event, 1t behooved him to
regard the matter that way. 1t as
snaged his unease of mind.
The sixteen-year-Old girl with the
strawberry hair had not returned, but
in the odd times his mind flashed back
to her after the event. the druggist
had leaned upon his conviction that
failure to succeed that once had
jerked her to her senses.
The druggists life was too involved
In the multitudinous affairs of his
little business to let these matters
ohscss him. The exacting hours of
his shop weighed heavily. 1t was at
the period when his son was attend
ing Pharmaceutical college and the
assistant he had was all too made
Quate.
The druggist had been fourteen
years In his small old-fashioned shop
which the antiquated air Of a pharmacy
still pervaded instead of the modern
electrified atmosphere Of the newer
type of drug store. He took pride
in that. and further prided himself III
the fact that when his only son had
finished training. he, too, would carry
on in the spirit Of the chemist. rather
than TINT of the new tangled depart
ment store regime which had over
taken the corner druggist.
And even down there on the remote
by-strect. tidings of this small shop
spread among physicians to whom the
perfectly-filled prescription meant
much. Motor cars that seldom, II
ever. frequented that part of town
swooped now with frequency into the
druggists street His shop became a
Trademark Of quality.
t'uriously and az: inst the modern
tendency of the modern youth. the son
had returned to fit himself with en-.
thusiasm and vnlOr for the cause Of
medicine. In the old shop.
Eight years after his graduation
from the state college. he was prac
! tically carrying alone the increasing
responsibilities Of the drug store,
| Meanwhile of course the nelghbOrhood
had changed becoming In way even
| more remote and even more sinister
in its implication.
Various the opportunities that had
! come and the offers from doctors to
| help finance the removal Of the shop
/ IL Il more likely part of town. but the
old druggist half bed-rldden now. was
1nerulous when approached on the
subject, and for one reason or another
his son, twenty-nine past, of steady
saliber, and his fathers passionate
pride. did not urge 1t.
After all, the store was the old gen
| tleman's life and work. 1t was he
whO had created 1t out Of pennies;
nurtured 1t. tended 1t In infancy and
seen It flourish with the years. The
world might well be said to have
beuten pathway to the door of the
| little shop. 1t was because Of his In
! .egrity that doctors with national and
International reputStlOns recommend
ed II to their patients, and once gained,
4 customer remained.
No. this was scarcely the time to
cross bedridden old man In his de-
sire for the sterilization Of his life
work.
Not that II was a strenuous or tor
.nented old age into which he had en-
tered The little rooms above the
7hop where he had dwelt the twenty
eight years following the death Of his
wife were snug to him as the proven
bal bug Ia It's rug. Peace and pride
ruIed here: the peace OF honest
achievement and high pride In bon
cho~o idenlq wore the ideals OF the
IN, n,,F - II, o.. GOOD aside