Cameron County press. (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, October 16, 1902, Page 6, Image 6
6 A MYSTERY. Wh?r we take an observation of wfrat t going on around We often think that wonders never ceas". for instance, there ate people who appar ently are crowned To live a life of luxury and ease. It their accounts were balanced less thai, nothing would remain. And prison fare they probably would chew, And yet they set the fashions and we follow in their train. We don't see how they "do it—but they do. Their homes are simply palaces of elegance and art; Their costly entertainments are a dream; They lead In gay society ar.d are consid ered smart, And pass lor greater Hons than they seem. While better folks are fasting they are feastfng night und day. And pleasure Is the object they pursue; At d yet if force to settle what they owe they couldn't pay. We don't see how they do it—but they do. There are the politicians who an easy way have found Of living without doing ar.y work. Arrayed in gaudy garments they are n wag goring around As lazy and as saucy as a Turk. Although they are the enemies of every thing that's right, Although we know they rule ar.d rob us, too, They make themselves, ouo bosses and we cheer them with delight. We don't see how they do it—but they do. There are the stock promoters, who are working night ar.d day, Tr. laying gold on other people's shelves. They kindly take your money and invest it in a way To realize a fortune—for themselves. Their sch« mes are most magi.illeent—the profits are so great, They only grant their favors to a few. A million dollar company from nothing they create. We don't see how they do it—but they do. There are the busy merchants who are al ways—so they say— A selling things at less than what they cost. They all have bargain counters where they givci the. goods, away To crow ds of crazy shoppers they exhaust. Although they're losing money on each ar ticle they sell. According to their advertisements true. They never look discouraged and are al ways very well. We don't see how they do it—but tlvey do. There are the foolish people who compel themselves to bear A burden growing heavier each day, In keeping up appearances for those who never care They throw their peace and comfort all away. Their awful strain ar.d worry Is, in spite of all their guile, Quite evident to everybody's view. And yet with all their troubles they In public wear a .smile. We don't see how they do it—but they do. —H. C. Dodge, in Chicago Dally Sur.. . A Knave of Conscience By FRANCIS LYNDE. V J ICoiiyritfta 11)00, by i'rancia Lyuile.) CHAPTER XIX.—CONTINUED. Griffin strolled listlessly with the crowd, and presently found himself in front of the new playhouse. It was early, but the "first-nighters" \ were already thronging the vesti- \ bule. He stood aside to look on, ] honestly wishing lie could rid him self of the Rayou bank mystery long enough togo in and enjoy himself with the pleasurers. Now it chanced that in stepping i back out of the sidewalk throng be got in the way of the carriage con tingent, and a moment later a voice at his elbow said: "Excuse me; will you let the ladies I alight?" Griffin gave place, and saw a young man with a clean-cut, eager face hand two young women from the carriage. They were followed by an elderly gentleman with eye-glasses; and on the sidewalk the group fell into pairs. Griffin could not well help hearing the colloquy. "I think the others will be here in a few minutes, doctor. Shall we wait and go in with them?" Thus spoke the young man with tbe clean-cut face; and at the older man's negative lie spoke again. "Just as you please. If you will take Miss liaymer and let me take Miss Farnham, that will divide us equally. The seats are all near to gether, but I couldn't get them all in the same row." Griffin stared hard at tbe speak er s companion as tlie parti carre moved away. "So that is Miss Charlotte Farn ham. and my last chance," he mused, turning back toward tbe hotel. "There is one grain of comfort in it for me; if her face doesn't belie her, she will tell me the truth. By Jove! but tlint young lawyer, or whatever he is, has an eye for good looks. I've never seen her equal in all my ups and downs, and that's saying a goi/d deal." So be went bis way to the St. James and presently to bed, without so much as suspecting that he had actually touched elbows with the man whose identity he was vainly trying to establish. CHAPTER XX. It was tbe early morning of a flaw less northern summer's day, and the lake sparkled like a sheet of ham mered silver under the windows of tbe Farnham sitting-room. The shades had been drawn when Griffin entered, but he had taken the lib erty to run them tip before Miss Farnham came in. And since lie was finding it necessary to read much be tween the lines of her guarded an swers to bis questions, he did not regret the precaution. "You say he admitted bis guilt to you, Miss Farnham, before the boat reached St. Louis?" "Yes." "May I ask how he earne to do that?" "I—must I answer that?" tthe fil tered. "I need hardly say there is no "must' about it. I am an ofT.ce r of the law, and I am anxious to find the man.l am sure you will tell me everything which might help me, and I don't ask to l<now more." She considered it for a moment, and then took counsel of frankness. "lie admitted it because 1 asked him." Griffin smiled, and then explained the smile. "l'ardon me," he said. "I was thinking that no one but. a woman would ever have thought of doing such a tiling as that. 1 fancy you surprised the admission out of him." "No. I do not think I did. He ad mitted the fact very willingly, though lie would not admit that it was wrong." "Ah; that helps more than you might imagine. They have all been looking for a seasoned criminal, you know." "He wasn't that," she said, with an air of conviction. "Apart from this one great wrong whu?li lie had (lone, he seemed to be a gentleman. It may seem incredible to you, but lie fairly insisted upon my writing to Mr. Galbraith." Griffin smiled again and nodded re assuringly. What she was telling him fitted in admirably with the only tenable theory lie had formed; that the robber was no criminal; that he was only a monomaniac on the social side. "And when he did that he doubt less asssured you that he would con sider himself bound in honor not to take advantage of your frankness?" "lie did just that. llow did you know?" she asked. "I merely inferred it. And his parole was to expire at St. Louis?" "It was—it did." Griffin ro.se and found his hat. "J am greatly obliged to you, Miss Farnham. 1 know y< u haven't found it easy to speak of this to a stran ger." While the identity of the man is still a mystery, you have helped more than you know. Good morning." Griffin left the house, but instead of taking the street, lie turned aside to stroll aimlessly along the lake shore, giving a new theory time to grow a little more definite. As has been said, his trade of man-catclier had come to be a passion with him, and he had genius where others la bored only with talent. When the new theory had taken shape, it slipped into musing speech. "She can't account for his little vagary, but I can. He simply fell in love with her at first sight, and be cause lie was in love with her he made her do that which she knew to be right, at whatever cost to himself. That being the case, he is as sure to turn up here sooner or later as the sun is sure to rise to-morrow morn ing. Better than that, he may be here now. I*ll camp down and study my environment for awhile. It's a pretty place, and I'll call it my va cation." In a week's time Mr. Thomas Grif fin had learned more about Wahaska than the ordinary summer visitor would have learned in a year's resi dence. lie knew Jasper Grierson and his ambitions, and Jasper Grierson's daughter and hers. He knew all about the social teapot tempest, and could identify the adherents of each of the factions. He knew that An drew Galbraith was a guest at the summer hotel on the point, and vis soon able to draw liis own conclu sions touching the growing intimacy between Grierson and the New Or leans banker. The drawing of these conclusions cost the detective a trip to the pine-land region in the north ern part of the state, and the in formation he sought and obtained had no bearing upon the bank rob bery. Jasper (irierson held the re version of some worthless pine land which he was trying to sell Andrew Galbraith: that was all. Hut in another field Griffin sent his arrows of investigation nearer the target, and that without knowing it. lie came to Know all about the Ray mers, the iron works company, and the reorganization of the same with one Kenneth Griswold for a partner. Probing a bit deeper into this, more to account for the oddity of a man like Griswold interesting himself in a business affair than for any other reason, the detective unearthed a thing which the prime movers in it were not bruiting abroad. Jasper Grierson had all but succeeded in smashing young Raymer's enter prise; would have smashed it but for Griswold's intervention. That was fact the first. And fact the second was this: That Jasper Grierson re pulsed was not Jasper Grierson de feated. Having failed to smash Ray liicr, he was now trying to obliterate both liaymer and the nc.v partner. To this end he was fashioning two weapons. The railway and all other work controlled by Grierson and those to whom he dictated wns withdrawn from the reorganized iron works company. That was the weapon legal; the other was more deadly. In the height of the Raymer-Griswohl prosperity a depu tation of workingmen had waited upon the partners with demands which could not be met. And the alternative was a strike. CHAPTER XXI. 1 As liaymer had foretold Griswold's I initial visit to Ihe Grierson mansion ion the lake's edge was but the be j ginning of an acquaintance which [soon ripened into intimacy with the | daughter of the house. For one | thing, Griswold was always sure of j his welcome at Mereside; and, for | another, he wan beginning to find | the atmosphere of Margery's sitting j room the one environment where the remaking of the book could goon, land that Mar»er.v herself was the CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16. 1902 one person with whom he could dis cuss it with helpful freedom. Do what he might he could not bring himself to the point of tak ing Charlotte into his confidence in the matter of the book. Though it was wholly undefined in his own mind, the barrier was the one which had been builded on the voyage up the river. The more he saw of Char lotte, and the more his love for her grew and throve, the less possible it became to look forward to a day when he might hope to tell her all with a fair probability of winning her approval of the thing he had done. But with Margery no such difficul ty existed, ller sympathy was al ways quick and intuitive, and she seemed to have the prift of saying in stinctively the tiling he craved moat; the thing he might have suggested if she were not always beforehand with him. He was not so besotted as to believe that he had discovered in her that other half of the artist's always incomplete circle; fhe one person in the world who can fully understand him. On the contrary, in his so berer moments he thought he knew her for what she was. But these dis illusions grew less frequent as visits to Mereside became more frequent, and in time they began to disappear altogether. For Mistress Margery was wise in her generation, knowing many things well and the heart of a man better than anj\ But about the book, which was to settle once for all the vexed ques tion of the rights of man, tliey did not always agree. As first conceived, the story was merely a vehicle load ed to overflowing with the socialistic protests of its author. But in the rewriting a new plot had been sub stituted; suggested, nay, even out lined, by Mistress Margery herself; and on the keel thus laid the ven ture built itself into something more like a novel and less Hke a preach ment.. Griswold saw the growth of it under his hand; saw the far-reach ing possibilities of it; saw also that it was departing, despite his most strenuous efforts, from the course which he had pricked out on the chart of the former endeavor. I"n other words, the new book bade fair to grow into something which the publishers might accept and the pub lie might buy anil read, but of the rights of man there was coming to be less and less as the work pro gressed. Hemp- first of all an enthusiast, Griswold dug deeply for the cause of "YOU HAVE HELPED MORE THAN YOU KNOW." all this, and thought he found it in liis new relation as an employer of labor. At first he had told himself that he would be a silent partner in the iron works, leaving all the activi ties to the practical llaymer; but he soon found this blankly impossible. And with personal interest and the shifting point of view came a change, gradual and almost insensible, in his attitude toward mankind in general and toward the workers in particu lar. Ko it came about that while he was writing a book, designed to over turn the existing social order, he was drifting slowly but surely into the ranks of the oppressors. The first open confession of this change of creed came when the threat of a slrike rose storm-cloud like on the iron works horizon. Ilay lner was for temporizing with the men, and for yielding something if need be; but this Griswold fought stoutly, growing more stubborn as the threatening cloud increased in si/e. If the men could not see for themselves what was for their best interests, they must be made to see. But in reality it was Margery who was responsible for the major changes in the book. Caring nothing at all for the ethical question in volved, she eared a great deal for the success of the author, and she was shrewd enough to arrive quickly at a double conclusion; that Gris wold was well able to write a suc cessful book; and that, left to him self, lie would assuredly spoil it with his theories. So she labored faith fully to keep him in a broader road and not without a goodly measure of success. "But, Margery,"—(they were well past the "Mr." and "Mil*" by this time) —"I can't do that," he said one morning when they had been re working the plot through one of the cozy sitting-room talks. "Don't you see it begs the entire question of labor and capital?" "1 see that you can't help doing it unless you are deliberately false to j your art," retorted the literary ora cle. "You have put these people on the stage, giving them certain characters, and they must goon and do the things that are consistent." "Not if the consistent things are going to make the entire picture out of drawing." She laughed. "How impossible a man can be," she rejoined, sweetly. "How many times must we go h|clt to the original question. You must choose between saying it all aril hav ing nobody read it and saying a lit tle and having everybody read it. I'm not saying anything against your theory—it's lovely. But unless you make it a good story, first, last and all the time, you will never get b hearing." "Then 1 may as well give it up," Griswold confessed, "if I may not preach a little I have no excuse for saying anything at all." "Oh, you may preach a little. But in this particular instance you must make Bathbone stern and inflexible, cruel, if need be. You needn't be afraid of its effect upon the girl. She will condone anything he may have to do —it's a way girls have." He looked at her narrowly and then the lilin of abstraction came between. "I wonder.if you really mean that? Are women so ready to condone?" Her laugh was mocking. "You make me blush for you," she said. "Isn't an author supposed to know more about us than we know about ourselves?" "I don't know about the supposi tion. But the man who knows tlio heart of one woman—" She stopped him with a little ges ture of impatience. "Tell me what it is you don't know and I'll turn traitor and betray my sex." At that his gaze went beyond her again and he said: "I wonder if you would?" "Try me and see." He hesitated a moment, and then plunged into the depths of it. "Then tell me this: If Ratlibone should goon and do all the hard things you say his character calls for—things which Priscilla believes to be wrong—would she put her con science aside and stand with him?" Miss Crierson's reply was brief and very much to the point. "A woman in love has no con science. The man she loves has to furnish enough of that commodity for two." Griswold wincod. "What a merci less little cynic you are," he de clared. "It is true, and when you are say ing true things where is the use of taking the roundabout way. I don't say the woman wouldn't be hurt. She would be, and the hurt might turn up afterward in a way to make the man sorry. But that has noth ing to do with the fact that a wom an's conscience can't hold its own against her love." Griswold shook his head in depre cation. "I don't like to believe that. I'd like to believe that a man may goon making a good woman's con science the touchstone by which his own conceptions of right and wrong may be corrected." Margery laughed lightly. -And so you may, if you don't first go about to make the woman love you. But you can't eat your cake and have it too." Griswold folded his manuscript and put it back in the envelope. Then he said what was in his mind. "These are generalities, Margery. Would you be that loyal to the man you loved?" Miss Grierson's shrug was barely perceptible. "I like that," she said. "That is certainly personal enough." And then: "You mustn't endow me with a conscience." "Why?" "Because I think it was denied me in the general distribution of things good but unhappy. I am afraid the question I ask oftenest is whether I want the thing hard enough to try to get it." "As if anyone would believe that of you!" said Griswold, at parting. But afterward, when he came to think of it, the thin edge of belief found a crevice and would not be denied its entrance therein. [To Be Continued.] He .Meant Well. I was laid up in the cabin of a North Carolina mountaineer with a sprained ankle, and, though he would willingly have provided me with fhe best, the fare consisted of pones, fried squirrel and corn coffee every meal. On the fifth day I must have let slip some sign that things were growing monotonous, for lie looked over at me and said: "Stranger, T reckoned to make a change in this yere fodder, but it didn't come about." "Oh, the fodder is all right," I re plied. "But I don't skassly think it is, and I was gwine to make a change. Sorry to say I couldn't do it, but the dratted woodchuck got clean away!" Phil adelphia Press. A SlrniiKt' Iloliliy, The principal hobby of the ex-queen regent of Spain is collecting of playing cards. She possesses a large number of curious packs, many of which have no little historical interest. One set, made of ivory, is believed to have be longed to Prince Eugene, who fought with the great Duke of Marlborough, and to have accompanied him in all his campaigns. Queen Christina also owns some exceedingly rare cards of Egyp tian, Arabian, French and Spanish manufacture. —N. Y. Sun. Wi.Mi* Precaution. "It is always advisable to know what business a man is in when he proposes marriage to you," said the blond. "Why so?" asked the brunette. "A man once gave me an engage ment ring and, of course, I was a little curious to know what it had cost. "Naturally." "Well, 1 went to a jeweler's to in quire what was the value, and I found the man who gave me the token be hind the counter." —Yonkerg States man. GAMBLERS MUST GO. Secretary Shaw Makes War on "Sporty" Treasury Clerks. lowa Mnn, for the* of (lie Serv ice, llu« Instituted Some Aotu ble Mural ltcloi-iiiN in lii* Ut'DUflnirul, fSoeclal Washington Letter ] r*Tr~>Hl liK is a black sheep hi every flock. There is nil Arnold or ail lscariot for every age and tj lion. There Is a dead fly for every uiut ment. All along the shores of the great ocean ol life, driven far upon the beaches of the coasts, are the wrecks and remnants of those whose em barkation seemed to lie under the be nignant rays of the very star of hope. They seemed to take the tide ut the flood, being led onto fortune, lint, nhis, they knew not the shal lows, shoals and quicksands of life. Each life needs a separate and ac curate chart, because eaeli is set in a. different current. •lust is a lit'.le leaven leaveneth the whole lump, so one pervert or misdirected entity malodors a whole class or caste. The embezzling, ab sconding Sunday school superintend ent taints an honorable hundred thousand zealous workers for ino ralily und,religion. In like manner the thousands who serve the govern ment in the executive departments of the national capital sometimes have their reputation injured by per verts in their midst; albeit the num ber of those who walk not in the straight and narrow way is small It is so in all ages, and climes. Even the brilliant Cassius was an office holder reputed "to have an itching palm." During President Jackson's incumbency some govern ment eierks failed to pay their board bills, and gave their class a bad name. In those days it was easy for any citizen to see the president, so one landlady called and informed the president that an employe of the patent office owed her for two months' board. The president told the lady togo and get the young man's note for 30 days. That was easy. When she-brought it back to the white house, the president took it and wrote his name on the back of it. Handing it back to his caller, he said: "Put that note in bank, and if the young man don't pay it 1 will." It was paid by the young man, of course; and the news of it went all over the city, so that thereafter gov ernment clerks became accustomed to paying all of their debts. During recent years government clerks have been given a bad name locally, because a sufficient number of them have been indulging in gam bling to give cause for general sus picion. This condition of affairs was emphasized recently when the dis bursing officer of the census office was found short in his accounts, in the sum of upwards of $S,000; anil when lliis criminal lapse was fol lowed by the discovery of a short age of a similar amount in the ac counts of the disbursing officer of an executive department. Inasmuch as the paying officials of all of the de partments have to get their cash from the treasury department, that department naturally made inquiry into preceding conditions which led up to these defalcations. It was dis covered that in both cases the iklu eiary officials had been betting on the races, ami that their gambling propensities had ultimately caused them ' 5 reach into the government coffers and take the moneys intrust ed to their honor. Although the laws against gam bling are rigidly enforced in the 1 - ft ■ 112 -J - J Xfij* - >♦ t :A fci, # : a s-1$ ' a v '''' j! SECRETARY SHAW. District of Columbia, to the extent of the ability of the responsible of ficials, there are games and game.-i Quito a number of clubs are protect ed by their charters, and gambling 1 for hig'.i stakes is indulged in. There tire see ret games in various parts of the city, but across the river, up the river and down the river there are places within easy access by email boats, but too remote to war- i rant constant surveillance by the I state officials of Maryland and Sir- | g'inia. Of coirrse there are "open" poker games, and an occasional "sweat board" inside the city limits, known only to a select few. It is well un- j dcrstood that the Chinamen have! very quiet games of 100 anil fan j tan !r. the alleys and attics tlie | colorc-d folks have their crap games. But it is along the river shores that ; the great games are to be found. (in the Virginia shore, between the Aqueduct bridge and Cabin John's bridge, is "Jack Ileatli's place," close to the water's edge, against a steep clitV .accessible only by boat. one of the Georgetown wharves a little steam tu|f receives passengers for j 112 the round trip, the price being 19 I cents. Every half hour the trip 19 I made to Heath's place. The tug be j longs to the proprietor of the gam | bling resort, uud it alone brings him J a constant revenue. As soon as a | load Is aboard the tug strikes right out into the stream, darts untie'* j Aqueduct bridge, up the middle of ; the stream, puffing along in the shadow of the spires and minarels of Georgetown university. The tug bears its burden of anxious human beings up to the wharf of the club house. Scrambling ashore, nil bent on win ning, >r of recouping for past losses, jihe modest, quiet-looking house i.i | found to l>e a Babel of voices. "For ; ty-eight, C:!, 0, 15, 20—Keno," is the 1 tii'sl distinct utterance. The front door <.pens into the bar, and that A PIKER'S GAME. shows n great head for the gambler in chief. He not only takes in money for drinks, but he starts his victims to the games with their heads not a bit too clear. Hack of the bar is the poker room. On the second floor we thirl roulette and craps, the cheap 1 gambling hell showing forth in all 1 its glory. Keno and hazard, are in u I room to themselves. There is a "piker's game," with ; chips at ten cents each, the man- I ngeuient being willing to take ear | tickets at five cents each. The floor is covered with sawdust and sputum, the air reeking with the fumes of cheap tobacco, consumed in cheap pipes or cheaper cigarettes. In these rooms the pale-faced department I clerks touch elbows with collarless, I coatless, evil-visaged people from whose presence they would shy even on street cars. The games are car ried .iri from Saturday night until Moiul.iy morning. Those who have stayed about the place during that entire period, whether winners or losers, and usually losers, must re turn to their duties; and they are both physically and mentally unfit for any kind of work. It was with some knowledge of these conditions that the secretary of the treasury determined to strictly en force the rules and regulations against gamblers. More than two months ng > Secretary Shaw gave this matter his personal consideration. He deter mined that the great treasury depart ment, w herein great responsibility de volves upon every clerk, is no place for poker players and those inclined to general gambling. The clerks would not believe that the quiet, grave-look ing man would have time or take time to look after them. But "sporty boys" were surprised one day to find that the salaries of three poker-playing clerks had been reduced, and that they had been sent to less responsible positions. One clerk had his salary reduced from $1,801) per annum to SI,OOO. His wife and children will have a better living now than they had when he was draw ing more money, for he took nearly all of it to the gaming hells. Hut for their dependent families the clerks might have been discharged. The examples thus made have been productive of good, for they have caused others who have been reck lessly inclined to become more home loving in their habits. Nevertheless, one clerk in the treasury continued to play the races for high stakes, and was also known as an expert in picking winners. He invented an alleged "sys tem" whereby the races could be sue* cessfnlly played by those who were un informed concerning the merits of the horses. "This system was advertised by circulars, the allegation being that "the inventor holds a prominent posi tion in the treasury department." The "sporty" clerk was drawing :t good salary, but hi- great "system'" went so much wrong that he was obliged togo into debt, and he bor rowed money from John J. Kleiner, a private banker here. When he failed to pay this indebtedness, Mr. Kleiner sent his bill to the department, inclos ing the tellt ale circular. And the clerk with the system was removed. In pass ing. it may be of interest to many read ers to know that Mr. Kleiner was for ten years a member of congress from Indiana, and that he was the foremost champion of the opening of the great Sioux reservation in Dakota territory. This dismissal has had an effect which will be lasting, because through out- the great department there is now a feeling that the man at the helm knows how to deal with minute details of the department, ns well as with the great problems which require state craft. Secretary Shaw is a kindly-disposed, Chris t inn gentleman, a religious man, n temperance man, a church goer, and a worshiper of the living Ood. Albeit lie has been severe with those who de serve severity, he is gentle with those who deserve kindness. During the very period when 1 e was disciplining the wrong-doers, lie took tlie'time to hear the personal sorrows of a lady clerk, and he tempered for her justice with mercy. He endoavors to be jus tice iucarunte. SJOt.'XH D. FRf,