Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1936-06-12

and her photographs; lie llad aIS'
arranged for press photographer
and camera men from the new
weekhes, for here wa a subjec'
suitable for the screen reviews
When Mrs. Holmes left the build.
ing, she faced a battery Of still ane
mioving-picture cameras, and a way
for her had to be cleared through
the curiosity-seekers.
Word quickly spread that an &C:
tual eyewitness of the Ethridg'
Staying had come forward with ar
increditable story and a mob fol:
lowed Mrs. Holmes to her hpte
1t swarmed into the-locby and up te
the elevator gates, reminding her Of
the crowds that had followed he1
in Paris, in Vienna. She woule
have liked to step out of her room
to some balcony, with her arms full
of roses, and throw kisses to the
street below.
In a surprisingly short time ex-
tras: were out and Mrs. Holme:
heard them being shouted. They
contained little but headlines and a
brief statement of facts, Blu she
rood hem avid1v and could scarcely
wait for the fuller accounts and for
the arrifal of the big Chicago dailies
the next morning. 1t fed her vanity
to realize that in many quarters
upon typewriter keys and telegraph
instruments fast-flying fingers were
pounding out her life story and
hat it was being cast into molten
metal for the world to read. Those
old photographs which had lain So
long in the dark were being repro
duced and new ones finished! Mary
Holmes, "the goose woman" had
set the presses Of the country a.
spinning; Maria di Nardi, the for
gotten darling Of grand opera, wa.
being reborn.
Sustained emotion, such as sht
had undergone today demanded re-
lief, and again she appealed to the
matron for some whiskey. But the
latter was firm. Mrs. Holmes wa.
too excited to eat any supper, nor
could she sleep when bedtime came.
Habit had become fixed, restraint
had only whetted keener her de-
sire for drink, and her outraged
system clamored fiercely for its ac-
customed anodyne. She paced the
floor until long after her compan-
ion had retired.
She wondered why Jerry did not
Communicate with her. He mus,
have heard those newsboys bawline
extra" by this time and-But OF
course he was mad at her for get
ting into print; he abhorred motor
iety. A shrinking violet, that wa
Jerry! Bah! He had offered t.
make her e if she'd let him.
Well, she had made herself over
She wished he c ould see her tonight
Mrs. Holmes rang for a bellboy
and asked him the earliest possible
moment he could secure for her tn
morning papers. The boy volun.
teered to go to the offices and fetcl
the first copies off the press; tina
would probably be about thre
o'clock. This gave the woman at
idea, and she inquired if by any
chance, he could at the same tim'
secure for her a little stimulant
preferably whiskey, although cir
would do. The boy assured he,
that he could. He did.
Mary Holmes found pictures Of
herself on the damp front pages
The stories that went with them
were all that she could have desired
She smiledh, to be sure, at Bogel'.
positive assertion hat he was on the
trail of "the man in the robe'' ano
that his arrest was merely a matter
of hours. Vogel wa a great grand
stander. He amused the reader. She
lowered the liquor in her bottle and
felt her tautened nerves relax, felt
a grateful ease and contentment
creep through her.
When the matron came to awak-
en- her charge in the morning she
found her lying across her bed with
her clothes on, and with an empty
flask beside her.
There was a perfectly good rea-
son why Gerald Holmes did not
communicate with his mother that
night; he was, for the time being,
out of communication with any
body. Even mhile the evening ex-
tras were in process of printing he
had been taken to Police h~eadquar-
tiers and there put through an ex-
animation sufficiently rigious to be
termed the third degree" At first