X,
J
NOVEMBER 9, 1929
AE
Rey
9 Qs
ILLUSTRATED, BY:
DONALD RE RILEY v7
HUGH
FINAL INSTALLMENT
Austin Boas was at the station to
see Mem off. For his fling he filled
her drawing-room with flowers—poor
things that dropped and died and were
flung from the platform by the porter.
Long after their spell had been for-
gotten, the sad gaze of Boas as he
cried good-bye haunted her.
She had murmured to him, “When
I make another picture or two I may
decide to be sensible, and then—if you
are still—"
“I shall be waiting,” said Boas. And
he gave up with a groan: “Marry me
anyway and have your career, too.
I'll put my money into your company.
Tb ick you to th limit.”
At Buffalo and at Cleveland she
paused to come before huge audiences
and prattle her little piece. When she
reached Chicago she found awaiting
her a long letter from the manager of
the moving picture house in Calverly.
He implored her to visit her old home
town and make an appearance at his
theatre. He promised that everybody
would be there.
This was success indeed! To ap-
pear in New York was triumph, but to
appear in her native village was al-
most a divine vengeance.
And so one morning they crossed
the Mississippi and into Calverly.
As they stepped diwn!from their car
both gasped and clutched.
The Reverend Doctor Steddon was a
few yards away from them, studying
the off-getting passengers.
“Let's see if he knows us,” snickered
Mrs. Steddon with a relapse to girlish-
ness. \
“Let's!” said Mem.
They knew him instantly, if course
He wore the same suit they had left
him in, and the only change they could
descry was a little more white in a
little less hair.
But he did not know them at all. It
amused them to pass him by and note
his casual glance at the smart hat
and the polite traveling suit if his
wife. He had expected a change.in
his daughter, but he was probably
praced for something loud and gaudy.
So her father passed her by. When
Mrs. Steddon turned and hailed him
in a voice that was gladder and more
‘tender than she knew, he whirled with
his heart bounding, and they heard his
hungry, feasting heart groaning.
“I thank Thee, O God! Now letest
Thou Thy servant depart in peace.”
But neither the Lord nor his family
granted that prayer. His wife had
‘turned time far back. Poor thing! She
had never known till year the rapture
of being fashionable; had never dared,
never understood how. to look her
pest.”
' Hiding under his high chin, Mem
begged his forgiveness for all the
heartaches she had caused him. She
wept on his white bow tie, twisting
a button on his coat and pouring out
her regret for dragging his wife away
from him and causing them to quarrel
over her. She said that it was a
crime for her to have taken her mother
on East and left him alone, but he
protested: :
“D’'you suppose I wanted my little
girl traveling in those wicked cities all
by herself?”
This gladdened Mem exquisitely. It
showed that, for all her wanton career,
she ‘was still in her father's eyes an
+ innocent child who must be protected
from the world. Of course, it was,
rather, the world that needed to be
protected from her. But she would
not disturb his sweet delusion.
The mayor had come down to give
Mem welcome, as soon as he could
push through the mob of Steddon chil-
dren that devoured Mem
mother.
~The manager of the Calverly Capitol,
with its capacity of two ‘hundred,
brushed the mayor aside and claimed
Mrs. Steddon and his prize. He had a
car waiting for her, and a room at the
hotel in case the parsonage was over-
and their
crowded. ’
‘Dr. Steddon grew Isaian a s he
stormed back:
“My daughter stays in her own
home!”
This brought Mem snuggling to his
elbow.
‘As their car moved off, with a sud-
den stab she remembered Elwood
Farnaably and the far-off girl that he
had loved too madly well in that moon-
lit embrasure. How little and pitiful
that Mem had been!
toyish unimportance in her very fall,
the debacle of a marionette wor'd, But
Elwood Farnaby was great b;
of his absence and his death. He was
a hero now with Romeo and Leander
and Abelard and the other geniuses
of passion whose shadows had grown
-gigantically long in the sunset of a
tragic punishment for their ardors.
There was a
virtue
,a laughing-stock,
A horrifying thought came to Mem:
If he had not died, she would have
become his wife and the mother of his
premature child. She would have been
material for ugly
whispers about the villabe. And she
would have been the ‘shabbiest of
wives even here. She would never
known fame or ease or wealth.
After lunch she found Dr. Bretherick
and had him drive her to the ceme-
tery. “And,” she said, “I want to give
you the installment I forgot, of the
conscience money. Please get it to
papa as soon as you can. And here's a
little extra.” 2
The doctor took the bills with a
curious smile. She seemed to feel his
sardonic perplexity as she mused aloud
a, well-thought path.
“If IT hadn’t been wa ‘fallen woman,’
I couldn't have saved papa’s church
from ruin. How do you explain it?
What's the right and wrong of it all?”
The old doctor shook his head:
“Im no longer fool enough, honey, to
try to explain anything that happens
to us here. According to one line of
thinking, your misstep was the divine
plan. According to another, good can
never come out of evil. Of course we
know it does, every day; and evil out
of good. So let’s be as human as we
can, and I guess that’s about as divine
as we'll ever get Down Here.”
He led her out to his woeful little
tin wagon and they went larruping
through the streets, out into the ceme-
tery.
Mem’s only rite of atonement was a
glance of remorseful agony cast to-
ward Elwood's resting place. It showed
her that ‘the founder of her fortunes
was honored only by a wooden head-
board already warped and sidelong.
“One last favor,” she numbled to
Doctor Bretherick. “Get wa decent
tombstone for the poor boy and let me
pay for it.”
“All right, honey,” said the doctor.
And the car jangled out of the gates
again into the secular road.
And that was that.
AtA. the supper table the younger
children beset her with questions
Glady's was particularly curious and
searching in her inquiries.
Then came the hour of the theater-
ging. Nobody had dared to ask Doctor
Seddon if he would accompany his
family. He had not made up his own
mind. He dared not.
The family tacitly assumed that his
conscience or his pride forbade him to
appear in the sink in iniquity he had
so often denounced.
The family bade him good-bye and
left him, but had hardly reached the
gate when he came pounding after. He
flung his arms about Mem’s shoulders
and cast off all his offices except that
of a father, chuckling:
“Where my daughter goes is good
enough for me!”
He made almost more of a sensation
in the theater than Mem. There was
applause and cheering and even a slow
and awkward rising to the feet until
the whole packed auditorium was erect
and clamorous.
Seats of honor were reserved for the
great star and the family that re-
flected her effulgence. As soon as they
were seated the young woman who
flailed the piano began to batter the
keys, and Mem's latest picture began
to flow down the screen.
She could feel at her elbow the rigid
arm of her father undergoing martyr-
dom. She felt it wince as her first
close-up began to glow, her huge eyes
pleading to him in a, glisten of super-
human tears. The arm relaxed as he
surrendered to the wonder of her
beauty. It tightened again when dan-
ger threatened her, and she could hear
his sigh of relief when she escaped one
peril, his pask as she encountered an-
other.
He was like a child playing with his
first top, hearing his first fairy story.
He was entranced. She heard him
laugh with a boyishness she had never
associated with him.
She heard him blow his nose with
a blast that might have shaken a wall
in Jericho.
A sneaking side glance showed her
that his eyes were dripping. And when
the applause broke out tat the finish
of the picture, she heard his great
hands making the loudest thwacks of
all. This was heartbreaking bliss for
her.
The family rode home in state, the
children and the mother loud in com-
ment, the father silent.
The old parson had to think it all
out. Once at home, he sent tHe chil-
dren to bed and held Mem and her
mother with his glittering eye for a
long while before he delivered his ser-
mon:
“My beloved wife and daughter, I
—ahem, ahum! ©L want to plead for
the forgiveness of you both. I have
been wrong headed and stiff necked
as so often, but now I am humbled be-
fore you in spite of wall my pride. It
has just come over me that when God
sand, ‘Let there be light” and there
was light, he hust have had in mind
this glorious instrument for portraying
the wonders of his handiwork. Our
dear Redeemer used the parable for
his divine lessons, and it has come to
me that if he should walk the earth
again today he would use the motion
pictures.
“You have builded better than you
knew, perhaps, my child—and now I
ask you to pardon me for being
ashamed of you when I should have
been proud. You were using the gifts
that Heaven sent you as Heaven
meant you to use them. Your art is
sacred and you can’t, you won't, sully
it in your life. God forgive me for my
unbelief and send you happiness and
goodness and a long, long usefulness
in the path you have elected.”
That night Mem knelt again by her
old bed and, on knees unaccustomed tc
prayer, implored strength to keep her
gift like a chalice, a grail of holiness.
She woke with an early-morning re-
solve to be the purest woman and the
devoutest artist that ever lived.
The next day she left the town wih
all its blessings, no longer a scapegoat,
sin?l?aden, limping into the
ness, but a missionary God-sped into
the farthest lands of the earth.
wilder-
the station to wring her hand and waft |
her salutation.
The conductor called, “All aboard!”
and hasty farewells were taken
clench of hand and awkward Kiss.
Mem ran to the rear platform and
waved and waved a lengthening sig-
in
.nals if love to her dwindling family.
She noted the absence of her’ sister
GlGadys and wondered at it as she
went to her drawing-room. There she
found the girl ensconced
triuph, smiling like a pretty witch.
“What on earth are you doing here?”
Mem cried.
“Going to Los Angeles with you. J
may never be great like you, but I'm
going to have a mighty good time try-
ing.” ¥
There were many questions to ex-
change and Mem soon learned that her
sister had flung off the chains that
one or two ardent lovers had tried
to fasten about her.
And when, with a last faltering re-
proach she asked her sister if she were
wise to toss aside the devotion of a
good man, Gladys laughed.
“Let love wait! The men have kept
us waiting for thousands of years,
till they were ready. Now let them
wait for us!”
There was no gainsaying this. It
had been Mem’s own feeling when she
left Los Angeles and her lovers there.
Let love wait, then, till she had made
the best of herself. And then let love
not demand that she bow her head
and shrivel in his shadow: but let
him blcom his best alongside
She wondered who that fellow of her
destiny would be—Tom Houiby, maybe
—-Austin Boas,
in fairy
or still another per-
haps; others, perhaps, incladiang
him! or them! In any case he (or
they) had better behave and play fair!
As for being a mothar, let that wait,
too. She was going to, mother the
multitudes and tell them stories to
soothe them!
There was far more in this dream
than vanity, far more than selfishness.
‘The hope of the world ia; therein, for
the world can never
or
alivance farther
than its women.
She had a soul to sell
all her own, and sho
market.
and it was
was going to
‘The dawn was hers
Munkind was her
love.
for conduest.
lover and her be-
That one-man possion called
love could tarry until at least the late
iorenoon.
(THE ENO,
George Malkemes
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
Shavertown, Pa.
Automobile Licenses
Affidavits Prepared
Rents Collected
Real Estate
Prompt and Courteous
Service
MONK BUILDING
East Dallas M. E.
9:15 a. m.—Morning services.
7:30 p. m.—Epworth League.
10:30 a. m.—Sunday school.
It seemed. that all Calverly was at |
TO GIVE BENEFIT
© CARD PARTY
Unit No. 1, a group made up of
women vitaly interested in Welfare
women vitaly interested in welfare
work in this vicinity, wil hold a bene-
fit card party in the new high school
auditorium on Wednesday evening,
November 13, at 8 o'clock. Proceeds
from the affair wil be used to pur-
chase supplies, pay for doctors’ calls.
and pay hospital expenses for needv
cases that come to the attention of
the unit during the year. Tt is'a
worthy cause and should receive the
united support of residents of the
community. There are two other units
in Dallas and these in turn will hold
benefit card parties during the win-
ter months. Bridge, flinch, 500,
euchre, pinochle and hearts will be
played.
Hostesses are: Mrs. George Gert-
ner, Mrs. Fred Gordon, Mrs. G. K.
Swartz, Mrs. Harold Rood, Mrs. Har-
old Titman, Mrs. Arthur Turner, Mrs.
Karl Kuehn and Mrs. G. A. Baur.
Tickets are 50 cents.
-Noxen-
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Weinsheimer
and family were the guests of Mr. and
Mrs. R. 8S. Crosby on Friday.
The ladies of the Lutheran Church
have bene renovating and cleaning the
Lutheran hall this week.
The many. friends of Mrs. Harley
Newel tendered her wa surprise party
SE I,
2!
MAIN OFFICE
3
— ——r—
on Friday evening.
Mr. and Mrs. E. Y. B. Engelman and
son Edgar are visiting friends and
relatives in Western Pennsylvania
and Ohio. Mrs. Engelman is also
visiting her old home at Glerf’Camp-
bell, Pa.
A number of persons from Noxen
will attend the Luther League conVen-
Se RE BB ES BR CBIR BEI BEE5ERa
HIMMLER
THEATRE
TONIGHT
Shootin’ Irons
With
JACK LUDEN
"TUESDAY NIGHT
Man I Love
With
MARY BRIAN
THURSDAY NIGHT
Desert Rider
WITH
TIM McCOY
NEXT SATURDAY NIGHT
Vanishing Pioneer
With
(A Zane Grey Story)
JACK HOLT
SEB BEE BE BE EE BBB
Among them are: Rev. Levi Yeingst,
Martha Ely, Herbert Osborne, Thelma
Miller and Mr. and Mrs. R. S. Crosby.
KEEP YOUR WIFE ALWAYS
: YOUR
Buy Her Real
THOME MADE}
; CANDY :
f Cocoanut Bonbons, Ib.
Patties, all flavors, Ib... ....
Affinity Kisses, Ib...........
t Also Many Other Kinds
.65¢;
This candy is wade by C.:Di>
Graves, Trucksville, makers of
KO-ALINE brand home-made
Candies.
Special orders made up for p
ties, weddings, etc.
Make Your ‘purchases and leave,
orders with
THOM HIGGINS
Dallas
RT TY YY YY YY YY YY
The Scranton-Spring Brook Water Service Company 4
The water supply of the entire Wilkes-Barre district, comprising 52 separate civil
divisions, with an area approximately 90 square miles, is furnished by Seranton-Spring
Brook Water Service Company. The total population is estimated at 871,000, which is
served through 82,500 taps in the distribution system. ;
The water, obtained from virgin mountain springs and streams, from 15 separate
sources in forested watersheds, is impounded in 39 reservoirs, providing a total storage of
12 billion gallons, and distributed through 705 miles of distribution mains.
AB Water Served To Consumers Is Carefully Sterilized.
30 NORTH FRANKLIN STREET
WILKES-BARRE, PA.
il
Now You Can Buy the Best in Radio Equipment
and Pay No More For It Than For
Ordinary Radios
'Earl Monk Keeps
rue His Promise
to give the people of this community the best
service and product for the least .
possible money
Prices On the Famous
remer-Tully
Radio
ARE NOW SLASHED
$25 to $45
ON ALL MODELS
Be sure to come in the store now and hear this
really great instrument. It is superior in tome, |
distance-getting, cabinet desigsn and selec- ||
tivity to any other radio. : |
|
nk Hardware Company
Shavertown
“BE THERE ON A BREMER-TULLY .
*
1