The Coolidge examiner., 1932-07-29

TT WAS as if, crash skyscraper
had collapsed. Or tornado de-
- vastated a forest, or a segment
of heaven fallen, obliterating every
thing in chaos.
That was the way Frederick
Pennington felt the monday he
emerged from the Office of the most
eminent diagnostician in New
York city.
Crash. Crash. Crash.
OF course many men before him
must have emerged from that same
office with the same torment of emo
tionS.
But nonetheless, to Frederick Farm
ington, newly made president of his
corporation, director of three others
of equal Importance, vice president
of a bank and treasurer of a rail-
road, it seemed that never had
blow smitten a man so In the midst
of life!
In the midst of life, Pennington
had just been ordered out of it!
That is to say, out of the rush
ing turmoil of his day-by-days.
There was no longer any use try
ing to elude the symptoms. The emf
nent diagnostician had spared no
words. Farmington's left lung had
two growing sore spots with a
threat of one on the right. 1t was
a matter of getting out of town
one way or another, his doctor had
informed him with rather purpose
full brutality. By way of the Adj
rondack express to the pine for
ests, or by way of mahogany with
silver handles.
In the midst of life Pennington
had been ordered out of it.
Standing there on the steps Of
the doctors Office in the gray of
November, it seemed to Farming
ton, with depression champing down
upon him, that possibly of the two
ways-ostracism to the Adiron-
dacks or the way of mahogany with
silver handles - the latter was
preferable.
Life was so jammed and pulsat-
ing an affair when you were in the
midst of it as Pennington was !!
Life in the pine forests with the
soughing of wind at night and the
creaking of trees by day was all
right for two weeks summer va
cation of it. But ostracism to it
for what the doctor had termed an
indefinite period
1t was a matter Of weeks before
Pennington finally decided upon his
alternative. The flow of life was
too quick in him. Life too dear in
him. Banishment to the pine woods
If need be. But not death.
Pennington was not ready for
death.
There were worlds to conquer.
Earthly fields to dominate. At
forty.t three he had tasted too much
of the elixir of success to relinquish
the cup easily. Life. Life. The
battle Of Wall Street, the conflict
of master industrial minds. The
shrewd connivance with the picked
business men of the country.
T;fo T;fo Tifa Eorpoinotop v-ac
greedy for it. The life of the ex-
ecutive. The leader. The captain.
1t was good to live. And so Farm
ington surrendered to the prospect
of temporary exile = with
the bitterest pain he had ever
known in his life.
In the midst of life, to the ST.
lence of pine forests and the long
mOtionless days in log cabin.
At first there were friends and
the days were as clear as steel and
the fishing and hunting helped them
pass quickly enough, but the camp
was on the top of a mountain and
the motor roads left off 60 miles be-
fore you reached it and train con-
nections were bad and the winter
season in town set in with a bang,
and the friends fell away.
Those were the days when the
loneliness first began to settle upon
Pennington. The exile. Breathless.
deathless days with only a noun
tain guide, hired to live with him
for company, and the tasks of
books and a radio machine and a
magnificent mechanical piano.
Those were the days when the
loneliness began to settle. And the
beauty Of the forest to recede and
the sound of waterfall to beat into
his brain with monotony, and the
yearning for the tramp of mems
feet and the conflict of quick minds
and the excitement of the fray to
eat and gnaw at him.
The clear, thin, biting cold days
Of the forest. The pellucjd nights
with stars like silver Christmas
tree balls waiting to be plucked. A
waterfall leaping in glory and sud-
denly frozen there, a shy and star