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THE
MEYERSDALE COMMERCIAL,
The Redfield
Will
It Looked All All Right V When +
Made, but Did Not
Pan Out Well
0600000000 966600000000
By F. A. MITCHEL
PPPIPPIOPIVPIIPIIIVIIIVIIITIIVY
7
i
OLDS LLALLLLLLLLALALLLLS
When the late John Redfield’s will
was opened it was learned that all his
property—a goodly fortune—was left to
his daughter Anne, with the condition
that she marry the testator’s right
hand man of business, Theodore Grif-
fin. Griffin had been in charge of the
Redfield company for some time before
its founder's demise, and since he was
the only man who could squeeze a prof-
it out of it there was no necessity for
making any «their provision for its
Diowdgeident. Netiainge was said in the
will ds to a refusal of Gridfin to marry
Anne Rediield. Her father when she
was passing iute womanhood had told
her that it was his intention to give her
a good manager for the fortune he
would leave her, in the person of Grif-
fin. Anne was then too young to con-
sider the importance of the plan to
her, and her father was led to believe
that she would make no objection to it
when the time came to fulfill the con-
ditions. There was no doubt about
Griffin’s acceding to it.
This is why the will made no mention
of a refusal on the part of Griffin to
marry the heiress. If she refused to
marry him the stock of the Redfield
company, which would otherwise be
hers, would go te ‘Griffin. The residue
of the estate would in this case be di-
vided between several charitable insti.
tutions in which the testator had been
much interested during his life,
Mr, Redfield died four years after
mentioning the matter to his daughter.
When he did so she was fifteen. At
the time of his death she was nineteen.
She had told some of her schoolmates
that she was to marry Griffin and had
made no objection to doing so. At that
time it was a matter for the future,
and she considered it a matter of
course, as a boy may do who is brousht
up to understand that he is to enter a
certain profession,
But when Anne Redfield at nineteen -
found herself an orphan and called
upon to fulfill the conditions of her
father’s will she was a woman and
had a lover who had nothing whatever
to do with the condition except that if
she married him she would give up a
fortune.
David Corwin was the young man
who had stepped: in to prevent John
Redfield’s well conceived plan from
being smoothly worked out. David had
been attentive to Anne for some time
before her father’s death, but Mr. Red-
field was not observant, and quite
often parents who are watchful fail to
detect a love affair that is developing
right under their-noses. This one came
to a head during Mr. Redfield’s last ill-
ness.
When the will was read Anne was |
reminded of something the importance
of which she had not realized and
which, never having been mentioned to
her since she was fifteen years old.
she regarded as a dead letter. But
even now it did not occur to her that
Grifiin would force himself upon her.
she heing unwilling. She sent for him
and told him that she could not marry:
her father’s choice for her without vio-
lation to ber feelings. Griffin replied
that he had promised her father to do
his part in carrying out the plan; if
Anne would not do her part he saw no
way but that the property, other than
the business, must go to the charities
named in the will
Anne consulted a lawyer, who told
her that under the terms of the will
she must marry Griffin to inherit her
property. There was but one way out
of the dilemma, and that was for Grif-
fin to refuse to marry her. This would
make the will inoperative, and she
would inherit as heir at law, the same
as if there were no will, she being the
only child and there being no widow.
Anne did not understand the legal
distinctions in the case, but she did
understand that her inheriting her
property and marrying the man she
wanted depended on Griffin’s declining
to marry her. She sent for Griffin and
reported what the attorney had said.
“This plan,” replied Griffin, “was in-
augurated by your father. It received
my sanction, and he told me that you
had made no objection to it. I would
not be justified in thwarting it by put-
ting you in a position to render it in-
operative, I regret that the carrying
it out has become oxious to you,
but that fact would not excuse me if I
become a party to nullifying it.”
“But father could have had no object
in making such a will except to in-
sure, so far as he could, my happiness.
Four years ago he told me about this
plan, and I gave my consent to fit.
Had I refused that consent I am quite
sure he would not have made such a
will. I was then a child. Now I am
a woman. Father never intended that
I should marry a man I did not wish
to marry.”
“Your father doubtless knew that
your happiness largely depended upon
the possession of the fortune he had
been at suc oh pains to build up. He
was aware that a girl of your age is
not able to manage a large concern. |
His money is all invested in the busi-
ness, and every one knows that a busi-
hess without a manager will soon go to
f yo 'y 4 man who is not
> that no man is
) | Barar 1cas were paid ai
capable of managing it “who has not |
beer brougt.t up for the purpose. Your
father brought me up for that very pur.
pose. His object in providing in the
. will that you should marry me was to
insure to you tlie enjcyment of the
{ wealth he was leaving you. Had he
i left you free to marry whom you liked
you would doubtless have married some
young man utterly unfitted to manage
a fortune that was tied up in a very in-
tricate business. © The result would
have been what 1 have.said—ruin for
the business and poverty for you. He
brought you up with the understand-
ing that you were to marry the man-
ager of the business he left you.”
This sounded so plausible that for
the time being Griffin appeared in
Anne’s eyes a very noble man. It
seemed to her that she was the guilty
one in not carrying out her father’s
wishes, to which she had tacitly con-
sented. Nevertheless her whole being
rebelled against a marriage with Grif-
fin. Indeed, it was not to be thought
of. She would marry the man of her
choice even if she must relinquish a
fortune. She was quite sure he would
marry her even if she were poor as a
‘church mouse.
But Anne found on consultation with
others that they were not disposed to
take her view of Griffin's noble mo-
tives in not permitting her to enjoy
her inheritance with the man she loved
by refusing to marry her. Her lawyer
told her frankly that Griffin wanted
the half million of dollars he would get
with her. Corwin said that he wanted
her, fortune or no fortune, but some
way must be found to persuade or
force Griffin to refuse «to marry her,
thus enabling her to come into her
own. He consulted lawyers, who told
him that to comply with the statutes
Griffin must voluntarily refuse. He
could not be trapped or forced into a
refusal.
There was a time limit in the will
to Anne’s marriage with Griffin. By
the time she was twenty-one she must
marry him or lose her property. When
her father died she had just turned
nineteen. Therefore two years re
mained before she was compelled to
decide. It was decided between David
and Anne that David should go to
some unknown place. Anne had not
told Griffin that he had a rival, and it
was determined to still keep the matter
a secret. There was no difficulty in
doing this, for thus far it was known
only to Anne and David,
Theodore Griffin was one of ‘those
men who combine the social and busi-
ness world. His success lay in becom-
ing intimate with rich persons and
using them in a business way. He
used his club, his friends, even his
church, for profit. One evening at the
opera, scanning the occupants of the
boxes, he encountered a pair of binocu-
lars in the hands of a handsomely
dressed woman leveled upon him. The
glasses were dropped at once, but
: Grifiin wondered why the woman, who
was young and well favored, had been
gazing at him. Later, pointing to the
woman; he asked a friend who she
was and was informed that she was
Senora De Barancas, the widow of a
Brazilian coffee planter and worth mil-
lions.
“Would you like to know her?” asked
a gentleman sitting near Griffin.
“I certainiy would,” was the reply.
“I am a friend of hers, and if. you
‘will give me references I
pleased to present you. She has only
just arrived in the city and is un-
known.”
Griffin found a friend who vouched
will be |
GIRLS WHO DISAPPEAR.
Tragedy of the Thousands That Sink
Into Oblivion Yearly.
Police statistics of New York city
show that at least two girls disappear
from home every day in the year.
They vanish intc oblivion, Soon they
are forzotten, but the heartache of the
mother left behind is never stilled. It
will ache on through the remaining
days of her life.
And what becomes of the girls who
disappear?
That is a problem that we will not
attempt to solve. We only know that
they are swept away by the great
whirlpool of life,
The federal statistics furnished by
the bureau of vital statistics show that
50,000 persons disappear each year.
They vanish into oblivion. A greater
proportion of these are young girls.
The men who disappear turn up sooner
or later in most cases, but the girls, as
a rule, are forever lost. Having cut
away from their social ties, having
burned their bridges behind them,
these disappearing girls abandon usu-
ally all thought or hope of returning
and become isolated members of the
social colony of which they once were
members. They prefer to struggle on
as best they can,
Commercial Appeal.
THE BANK OF ENGLAND.
it 1s a Private Company, but Acts as
the Nation’s Banker.
The Bank of England is not, as most
people think, a government institution,
It is a private company, but reaps a
good profit by acting as the nation’s
banker. The remuneration paid to the
Bank of England for the management
of the national debt was fixed in 1906
ag a yearly sum of the rate of £325 per
million pounds and at the rate of £100
for every million pounds above this
amount.
Before any of the government money
that goes. into the Bank of England
can be spent a certain procedure has to
be followed. First of all an order sign.
ed by the king and countersigned by
two lords of the treasury has to be for.
warded to the comptroller and auditor
general of the exchequer and audit de:
partment. Then the comptroller hands
an order to the treasury authorizing
the Bank of England to debit fhe ex-
chequer account and credit the account
of the paymaster general, who makes
all payments on behalf of the various
departments.
Afterward the comptroller scrutinizes
money has been spent in accordance
with the wishes of parliament.—West-
minster Gazette, ;
Training Naval Gunners.
When England trains her gunners fou
the sea she sends them to Whale island
in Portsmouth harber,
island is given over to steel sheds which
are built like gun turrets on a battle-
ship. The great guns projecting from
these sheds are dummies, though they
are exact counterparts of those on a
battleship. The prospective officers and
men are made to go through the exer-
and “firing” these guns as rigidly as if
they were in a real battle at sea. The
heavy steel projectiles are hauled from
the magazine by hydraulic and electric
breech mechanism locks the projectile
and its powder charge in the gun, while
for him and was presented to Senora
Barancas.
appearance, in the reception she gave
him, which was, to say the least, cor-
dial. She lamented being in a great
city where there was so much to en- |
joy with no one to enjoy it with except
her business manager, the man who
‘had introduced Griffin, and Griffin told
her that it would give him great pleas-
ure to make her stay pleasant. She
told him that she had but a week in
the city, for she had the misfortune,
though a woman, to be burdened with
the management of. large interests.
Griffin devoted himself to the young
widow for a week, at the end of which
he prevailed upon her to remain an-
other week. One morning Anne Red-
field received a note from an attorney
suggesting that a compromise might
be effected in the matter of the condi-
tion in he father’s will requiring her
to marry Griffin. Anne referred the
to begin negotiations by offering Griffin
$10,000 to refuse to marry her.
But before a reply to the offer was
received David Corwin turned up and,
taking Anne in his arms, announced
that Grifiin had been married the eve.
ning before:
Corwin was in a position to give his
flancee a lot of information as to the
bride, for he had brought ber from Rio
de Janeiro himself, had arranged her
meeting with Grifin—indeed, had ar-
ranged a trap for that gentleman
which had been worked out very suc-
cessfully. Senora Barancas was a
hired adventuress, and David bad
agreed to remunerate her handsomely
out of Anne's fortune if she could by
marrying Griffin insure it to its right-
ful owner. The senora needed consid-
erable funds to pose as the widow of a
multimillionaire coffee planter, and Da-
vid had been obliged to borrow, the
necessary amount,
The wedding was sudden, for the se-
nora received a telegram (sent by Da-
vid) that her interests needed her pres-
ence on her plantation, and Griffin con-
i cluded to snap her up without delay.
David and Anne did not wait for the
courts to pronounce her an heiress be-
fore being married. But it was some
time before she received her inherit-
ance. Then all the expenses David
wad incarred in bri > out Senora
room began to i oy their fortune.
5
He found confirmation of
his belief that he had attracted her at-
tention, because she had admired his :
note to her attorney, who advised her’
i “Well, no.
1 the bride and
an intricate swivel mounting of steel
swings the gun inte the firing position
—Popular Science Monthly.
: Remarkable Luck.
i In Gold Hill, Nev.. in 1877, one of
! the mining bosses—Tole by name—had
trouble with some of the laborers in
i his mine. One night three of them at-
! tacked him in a barroom. Two of them
| pinned him down, while a third stood
over him with a revolver. The muzzle
almost touched his stomach. Once,
twice, thrice, a fourth and a fifth time
the weapon shapped. Tole closed his
eyes. Each moment he expected to be
his last. The disgusted ruffian threw
his disappointing weapon on the floor
with an oath and, joined by his aids.
left the place. Tole wiped the cold
sweat from his brow, mechanically
picked up the discarded weapon, went
to the door and fired off every charge.
remarking that it was just his luck.
How He Cleared Himself.
While passing along a busy street in
Dublin a lady was relieved of her hand
bag, and Sandy was arrested on suspi.
cion of having sndtched it Ile was
placed among a group of meu, aud’ the
lady. was asked to single out the cul
prit. She passed down the line till she
came to Sandy.
“Officer,” she said, “I think that is the
man, although I did not see his face.
but his clothes appear to be similar.”
“The lady's wrong, sir. I was wear-
ing a different suit. Can I go now, sir?"
said Sandy.
Very Formal.
“Are you on very friendly terms with
your neighbor in the apartments?”
She’s rather formal—al-
ways sends her card when she wishes
to borrow flour, and if she wants both
flour and sugar she sends two cards.”—
‘Washington Herald.
Stunning.
“Oh, Effie, your new gown and hat
are stunning!”
“Yes. Alfred hasn’t recovered yet
from the shock the bill gave him.”—
Exchange.
A Good Rule.
Do all the good you can to all the
people you can as long as ever you can
in every Plac e you can.
Qur deed: determine us a8 much as
| we determine our deeds.—George Eliot.
1 oY
RESET TI a
eng
It is one of life's tragedies.— Memphis |
all the accounts paid to see that the.
Here the entire
cise of range finding, loading, aiming {
cranes, just asin an actual ship. A real
A REALISTIC ANSWER.
The Sentry Didn't Have to Go Inte
Details With the Officer.
During one of Haig’s attacks on the
Hindenburg line a “Minnie” had come
over and knocked all the stuffing out of
a sentry. He staggered to his feet—ex-
cept for the tremendous shaking, prac.
tically unhurt—fighting for breath,
which he could not get back for some
minutes. While he was so standing a
voung officer, newly out, turned the
corner of the trench. There was a
heavy bombardment on. The unexpe-
rienced young officer, not knowing
what had happened and seeing the sen-
try rifleless (his rifle had been blown
many yards away),
limp, eyes half out of his head and
mouth (half full of dust) gaping open
like a loosened sack head, inquired.
“Well, what’s the matter with you?”
The man tried to answer, but had no
breath to do so, and, knocked silly as
he was by the shock, gaped helplessly
and idiotically at the officer, who said
again, this time more sharply, “What's
the matter with you?”
At that moment over came another
“Minnie.” falling sutiiciently near the
officer to xerve him eXactiy as the pro
vious one had served the sentry. Ax
half blinded. wholly smothered and
three-quarters stunned the officer stun
bled to his feet the sentry ran forward
to help him up. Then. standing the
regulation two paces away, the sentry
came smartly to attention and, cere
moniously saluting, said, “Beg pardon,
sir; I couldn’t answer before, but that’s
what was the matter with me.”—Lon-
don Chronicle,
OUR LAGGING WORLD.
Its Motion Is Slowing, and the Day is
Growing Longer.
Qur earth appears’ to be slowing
down its spin. Two British astrono-
mers who have finished a long study
of the matter report that it now takes
almost exactly three seconds longer for
the world to turn, over once than it
took 100 years ago, and a century
hence still another three seconds will
have been added to the day.
At this rate Shakespeare had nearly
ten seconds less in his twenty-four
hours than has a modern dramatist
William the Conqueror was handicap-
ped a half minute in keeping up with
his descendants. Julius Caesar was a
whole minute to the bad, while even
if he had lived to old age his life wonld
still have been some twenty of our
days short of what his biographers
would have claimed for him.
Abraham and the early Pharaohs
would have been still more pressed for
time. - The earliest men, say in the
year 100,000 B. C., would have had no
use for “How to Live on Twenty-four
Hours a Day,” for they had only twen-
ty-three hours to do their living in and
weredreally only ‘seventy-six years old
when" they thought they had reached
fourstore.—Edwin Tenney Brewster iu
St. Nicholas.
“Flying” Americans.
Wilbur and Orville Wright began
their experiments with the aeroplane
fcurteen years before the great con-
warfare. The first fight of these fa
mous ULrothers over tlie barren sand
dunes at Kitty Hawk, N. C., lasted but
twelve vicouds. It was another Amer
ican, Glenn H. Curtiss, who made the
He was then working on aeroplanes
a biplane equipped with floats. Giving
this up for one with a true boat body.
straigchtway came success. That was
in 1911, and the first great stride to-
ward giving the American navy its
fleet of fighting boats that fly followed
five years later, when congress set
aside $3,250,000 for naval aircraft
alone.—F, E., Evans in St. Nicholas.
Oddly Expressed.
In one of his letters William Brook-
field tells how as school inspector he
had to give an examination on physical
science. “What was I to do? I knew
nothing about hydrogen or oxygen or
any other ‘gen.’ So I set them a paper
which I called ‘applied science.’ One
of my questions was, ‘What would you
do to cure a cold in the head? A
young lady answered, ‘I should put my
feet into hot water till you were in a
profuse perspiration.’ ”
Poor Richard.
“In December of the year 1732,” says
Bigelow’s ‘“Life of Franklin,” “Frank.
lin commenced the publication of what
he styled ‘Poor Richard's Almanac,
price fivepence. It attained an aston-
ishing popularity and at once. Three
its appearance.
twenty-five years was 10.000 a year.”
How It Ended.
Bacon—I understand that your wife
had a quarrel with my wife over the.
telephone,
Egbert—I believe so.
“How did it end?”
“Like all women’s quarrels—in talk.”
-—Yonkers Statesman,
Ma Didn't Understand.
The young lady was looking over a
book of views.
“Oh, see the Pitti palace!”
“Miranda.” said the mother severely.
“J told you to stop talking baby talk.
If a thing is pretty call it pretty.”—
Kansas City Journal
Altruistic Work.
Some millionaires could easily. con-
duct experiments and tell us whether
or not there is any money in the chick-
en besiness.—Kansas City Journal,
—QOvid.
- EE
knees bent, body [|
flict awakened Americans to the won- |
derful part that aircra.t was to play in |g
first successful flight in a flying boat. .
for the navy and experimented with |g
CONDENSED REPORT OF CONDITION
The Second National Bank
:MEYERSDALE, PA.
JUNE TWENTIETH, NINETEEN SEVENTEEN
RESOURCES
Loans and Investments
TE $ 592,905.60
U. S. Bonds and Premium ..... ebiis ea Cima 70,179.37
Real Estate, Furniture & Fixtures ......... nt. 64,075.20
Cash and due from Banks ......... sheaiea.e 125,338.50
Total Resources $ 852,498.67
LIABILITIES
Capital Stock Paid in
EEA sR cries... 8 65,000.00
Surplus Fund and Profits Sahib Cael 65,621.83
Cireglation' ..... 0. oa wo i 64,400.00
Deposits . sien mi seh, Sy na UT . 657,476 84
Total Liaoilities
$ 852,498.67
Growth as Shown ia Following Statements
Made to Comptroller of Currency.
JULY 15, 1908 - - - $262,014.92
ONE QUARTER MILLION
JUNE 20, 1917 - . - $852,498.67
OVER THREE QUARTER MILLION
NET GAIN BETWEEN ABOVE STATEMENTS
$590,483.75
—OVER ONE-HALF MILLION—
editions were sold within the month of |
The average sale for |
111 habits gather by unseem degrees. '
BUGS & BUGS
We have a supply of the following:
Paris Green London Purple
White Helebore
Blue Vitriol
Conkey’s Lice Liquid and Powder.
Arsenate Lead
COLUMBIA RECORDS
For July Now on Sale:
F. B. THOMAS
LEADING DRUGGIST
MEYERSDALE,
3
.
%
.
0
i
=
ct
.
.
PEN Na
J. T. Yoder
JOHNSTOWN
Sells the Champion Cream Saver
THE NEW DE LAVAL —
SE the same good judgment in selecting a cream sepamator
that you would in making any other investment. Before
you buy a separator, there are certain things that you
ought to know about it.
Will it skim clean under all conditions?
Will it deliver cream of uniform thickness?
Does it run easily and require little or no attention? :
Is it simple, so that it will not continually be getting out of
order?
Is it easy to clean?
Is it built to last?
Most important of all,
What do people who
are using it say?
The man who is using a machine is the man
who can tell you the truth about it. We'll be
glad to give you the names of a number of De
Laval users right around this town—some of
them men who formerly used separators of other
mak See these men and ask them why they
what they think s8 De Laval.
It wili be y
The NEW
the older
the
greater y 8
speed-indic Rn orion in
proper speed, and the fmproved ane iin
system.
We'll be glad to let you try out a NEW
Laval on your own farm defers buying.
A AA PN NPP
Awful Thought. F{ DR 8 A L E—Letterheads, em-
ought to be made to eat | Veiopes, calling ecards, business suuge
| statements, involses, fvitations, Ls
| nounceaments, full lines of o 4
| Get our prices em your printing. ht
| Comumarcial, Meyersdale, Pa.
“And you
“But don’t you try to make it y
self, dear. Spare me that.”—8t Louis
enon