The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-08-31

| LAST MIN
Publshed by Special Advancement with The
Chicago tribune New York Il Syndicate. Inc.
Copyright: 1884: By MATT TAYLOR
IN TWO PARTs-PART ONE
AT THE WEDDING EVERY
ONE SAID JEANS AND JERRY'S
MARRIAGE DIDN'T HAVE A
CHANCE IN A HUNDRED; THEY
DIDN'T KNOW HOW FATE HAD
CHANGED THE ODDS JUST THE
WEEK BEFORE.
It was inconceivable that their ro-
nance would last and equally incon-
ceivable that 1t should not have start
ed. They were too much alike to pass
each other by. They were such q
matched pair-two impetuous, head
strong youngsters, completely spoiled,
life long strangers to any idea Of sac
rifice, marked and set apart by the gods
to play the game recklessly and event.
ually destroy each other.
People said and thought these things
with absolute conviction when It first
started. They said the wedding was q
piece Of splendid pageantry, well staged
and lovely to watch. But they had a
feeling that Disaster sat up in the
choir loft, smiling to himself as the
organ breathed its most tender notes
and the soprano sang of undying love.
The marriage had MI chance in q
hundred. There wasn't a doubt Of it.
But no one knew how the odds changed
Just before the wedding, OF the reason.
His mother began the spelling Of Ger
aid Prentice, and his everlasting good
luck finished off the Job. There was
excuse enough for his mother, for he
was her youngest and he arrived after
q lapse of ten years. She was helpless
before his cherubic charms, and her
vassalage lasted until her death sixteen
years later.
A kindly fate gave him rare good
looks-not merely classic perfection Of
Of features, but genuine distinction Of
build and bearing. There was added
good health, a tolerably good mind, and
such an agreeable personality that he
made and held friendships readily. His
AAoIi1lCIo, AO2tu1IatcAy' ASP1 AAaA AAcC VI
snobbery.
The family was on the way up when
he appeared. His brother Harry had
been born in an ugly box Of a house
set in the sandlots across the tracks.
Jerry romped through babyhood on the
shady lawns surrounding the home
in Rosewood. Harry "a a local high
school boy, Jerry enjoyed st. Elbert's
and Princeton. The war, to Jerry, was
a game you played with other ten
year-olds between clipped hedges in
Rosewood. It "a a glorious game, and
he was unable to understand why Harry
was so grimly determined to be out Of
his uniform the day of his discharge
There were three jobs Jerry might
have had in the halcyon days Of 1928.
He settled on with q conservative
brokerage house. Perhaps he had In
mind when he made the connections
he did in school and college. But more
likely it happened, as things always
happened to Jerry, exactly right. He
made money and spent it. In 1882 he
was as broke as the next one, but his
money had brought him some good
times, and not merely daily headaches
dlySI t1lC AldIhCU . C4O0Cs 4AAVA4, ~ ~
favored one, he went to live with his
Aunt Margaret Baily. Her sons death
had left her alone, and she took Jerry
the only nephew Observation-Disclosures
her wing. He was living here when he
met Jean Vance.
Aunt Margaret was his mothers old
est sister. She could easily have been
his grandmother. Jerry had known
her as a proud, stalwart soul-the auto
crat of the family, a leader of the pre-
ceding generation.
But her vigor and her strength left
her when Mervin Baily died. She had
leaned on her son during his life. She
would have crumbled without the men,
ory Of him afterward. She was no
longer proud. She mellowed the way
old people should. Jerry found her q
pathetic figure of collapsed grandeur,
lonely and eager for some n to listen
while she recited the praises Of the In
credible scapegrace who had been her
son.
Jerry knew of Mervin Baily's ques-
tionable m He knew OF the
scandals that lowered like unwhole-
some spirits whenever his name was
mentioned. It was all family history
For instance, there was the divorce that
followed the visit OF a Mrs. Chance to
Rosewood one summer. Yet Jerry
would nod agreement when Aunt Mar
garet said, as she did so often, He
was a wonderful son, Jerry. He never
did a mean or dishonest thing in his
life"
II was too young to know him well"
Jerry would answer. HE must have
been mighty fine, all right"
It wasn't that he was trying to hang
on to this home with Aunt Margaret,
or the membership in the country club
which she. kept up for him, OF the use
Of Mervin's roadster, which she never
sold. There was q reasonable amount
Of honesty in Jerry. He would have